Water and Fire, Inner Natures and Feelings

Taken from the book : The Secret of Everlasting Life by Richard Bertschinger

This final chapter describes the kernel of the alchemy. The cycling five comprise only ‘gold, wood, water, fire and earth’. Take ‘silver, mercury, lead, sand and earth’ and you have joined Yin and Yang, and he Golden Elixir is made! The alchemy is as concise and uncomplicated as this.

The practise of this art of the cycling five
Is comparatively concise and uncomplicated;
The raising of water soon intimidates fire,
Extinguishing its shining light.

The sun and moon eclipse one another
At regular intervals of the month,
As the water fills up Kan, encroaching on the Yang,
So the fire fades away in Li, darkening the day;
Yin and Yang drink and devour each other,
In natural affection on the path.
Through their reputation you settle their feelings,
Through their characters their natures are fully expressed;
And as gold reverts to its original inner nature,
So it may be declared a ‘restored Elixir’.

This chapter points to the inner cultivation which takes place through natural law – it does not happen through the sedulous pursuit of perfection. This all depends upon the rule of the cycling five elements, not upon empty intellectualization.

As water, (Kan) douses fire (Li), so the moon eclipses the sun; this indicates a natural means of control, inherent in their very natures. The inner cultivation of an Elixir uses this natural means of control, whereby fire and water intrinsically possess the ability to overcome each other’s deficiencies.

Once Yin and Yang are identified by name within the body, their ‘characters’ are made clear and their ‘natures’ fully expressed. Owing to their interpenetration, the ‘gold reverts to its original inner nature’ – in the nebulosity surrounding the origin of all matter, in the ‘palace of True Oneness\, at the source of the one single energy of the prenatal inner world, whereupon it truly may be declared a restored Elixir.

In human terms, this depicts the restraining of the inner fire (or desire) of the body and the attainment of spiritual immortality as a reparation for one’s worldly life. This is the everlasting life in which, very importantly, one’s worldly and material existence is also enshrined as gold.

Master Shangyang comments : Gold (metal) and water have the same ‘reputation’ and the text mentions their ‘feelings’; wood and fire have the same ‘character’ and the text mentions their ‘natures’. ‘Feelings’ may be said to dwell in the north-west, whilst ‘natures’ command the south-east. The south is named the ‘self’ and the north is names the ‘other’. The ‘feelings’ of the gold and water are outwardly naturally expressed to subjugate wood and fire; the ‘natures’ of the wood and fire inwardly return to coalesce as a Golden Elixir. This is what is meant by ‘gold reverting to its original inner nature, so it may be declared a “restores Elixir”’. These two lines give the very essence of the Can Tong Qi.

Yugan comments : The Book of Change says : Heaven is one, the earth is two. Heaven is three, the earth four. Heaven is five, the earth six. Heaven is seven, the earth eight. Heaven is nine, the earth ten. These are the ‘generated’ and ‘completed’ numbers of the cycling five elements as they interact together. There is a saying : Of all the numbers in heaven and earth, there are no more than five and they contain no more than five.

Generally speaking five is the number of the soil (earth), and it is positioned centrally. It joins to the north with the one of water and so six is complete (5+1); it joins to the south with the two of fire and so seven is complete (5+2). It joins to the east with the three of wood and so eight is complete (5+3); it joins to the west with four of metal and so nine is complete (5+4). Nine is the very last number. The numbers of the world progress towards nine and then halt. In terms of the nine umbers, as five dwells in the middle of one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight and nine, it truly is the number of the mean.

The numbers originally had no ten. In order for the earth to ‘complete the number ten’ it must mean the one of the north, the two of the south, the three of the east and the four of the west all gathering in the central region, at the hub, to make the number ten (1+2+3+4=10).

Therefore if you take the central region of the five (soil) and distribute it among the four directions, the numbers six, seven, eight and nine are complete – and so then through relying on the soil (5), water (1), fire (2), wood (3) and meal (4) all become complete. If you take the one, two, three and four of the four directions and return them to the central region to complete the ten, then water, fire wood and meal all ‘return to their source, and travel back to their original nature (fanben huanyuan); they join together at the central soil. A mystery indeed!

The book Awakening to Reality, says : The two materials’ whole cause lies in them as children begetting their mother. The cycling five’s total meaning is contained in them entering the middle realm.

The poem entitled ‘The Jewelled Brooch of the Muddied Source’ says : Once the four posts are identified, then turn them on their heads! The cycling five arise as one, so return them to their one source! Both these illustrate the same meaning.

As for the interacting numbers of the cycling five elements, although a three-foot child could chant them through and understand them, how many of those who are truly searching for their meaning can understand their positioning? And if they do not understand their positioning, how can they gain an understanding of their true function? Indeed the true Path is essentially recondite and hidden, and the workings of heaven truly profound! If you apprehend them, they are so simple and easy. If you pass them by, they are so complicated and difficult!

He continues : As Yin and Yang intersect, they reach the point of mutual consumption. This is the way with all the myriad created things in the world.

Wei Boyang (Xu Congshi) partook of the intricate fashion in which the sun and moon eat into each other, in order to illustrate the mysterious Elixial method. He also brings up the idea of the mutual subjugation of water and fire so that, through the joining together of them, he makes it possible for us to consider the whole process in detail. Despite the fact that ordinarily the sun and moon eat into each other only at the ‘interval of the new moon’ the inner cultivation of the Golden Elixir is a way for each of us to rob from heaven and earth and to steal this process of creation!

Can you ever allow yourself to be neglectful in your search for the so-called ‘interval of the new moon’?