The Seal of the Unity of the Three - The Golden Elixir

Notes 17
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true Nature (the “numinous trunk”). Maintaining himself in the state
of non-doing, he contemplates the arising of all entities and phenomena
from Emptiness and their return to it, and nurtures the Pearl
spontaneously generated in him by the One Breath prior to Heaven.
This attitude and nothing else constitutes the way of superior
virtue and the realized state according to the Cantong qi. As we are
reminded with another sentence drawn from the Daode jing (see the
note to verse 9), no pursuit is necessary: the Dao is invisible,
inaudible, and imperceptible, but is “nearby and easy to seek.”
4. And innerly illuminate your body. In later times, neizhao (“to illuminate
within”) became the name of an inner alchemical practice, as seen,
for instance, in the expression huiguang neizhao, “circulating the light to
illuminate within.” From the perspective of the Cantong qi, however, this
term does not refer to a practice, or at least not to a practice in the
ordinary sense: neizhao describes the state of the realized person, whose
inner being is constantly illuminated.
5. “Shut the openings.” Compare 58:1–2, which refers to the “three
luminaries” as the “three treasures” (sanbao), saying: “Ears, eyes, and
mouth are the three treasures: shut them, and let nothing pass through.”
7. As the three luminaries sink into the ground. The term luchen (“sinking
into the ground”) derives from this passage of the Zhuangzi: “[The saint]
has buried himself among the people, hidden himself among the
fields. . . . Perhaps he finds himself at odds with the age and in his heart
disdains to go along with it. This is called ‘sinking into the
ground’” (25.895; see Watson, 285–86).
9. “Watching, you do not see it.” This verse is quoted from Daode jing,
14, where it refers to the Dao: “Watching, you do not see it: it is called
invisible. Listening, you do not hear it: it is called inaudible. Grasping,
you do not get it: it is called imperceptible.”
22. The principles of alchemy
Sections 22–25 concern the way of inferior virtue. This portion of the
Cantong qi begins with a description of the principles of alchemy.
Alchemy seeks the principle that gives birth to, and is hidden
within, the manifest cosmos. Among the emblems of the Book of
Changes, this principle is represented by the solid Yang line contained
within Kan (Water), which originally belongs to Qian . Alchemi-
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