Wu Zhen Pian (悟真篇)

序

Preface.

嗟夫！人身難得，光陰易遷，罔測修短，安逃業報？不自及早省悟，惟只甘分待終，若臨歧一念有差，立墮三塗惡趣，則動經塵劫，無有出期。當此之時，雖悔何及？故老釋以性命學開方便之門，教人修種，以逃生死。釋氏以空寂為宗，若頓悟圓通，則直超彼岸；如有習漏未盡，則尚徇於有生。老氏以煉養為真，若得其樞要，則立躋聖位；如其未明本性，則猶滯於幻形。

Alas! A human body is hard to obtain, time flows away easily, the length of life cannot be foretold, and how can one escape the retribution of karma? If one does not awaken early on one's own, and is content simply to wait for the end in one's allotted station, then should a single thought go wrong at the fork of the road at death, one falls at once into the three evil paths and passes through dust-like kalpas with no date for emerging. By then, even if one regrets it, how could it be in time? Therefore Laozi and Shakya opened a gate of expedient means through the study of nature and life, teaching people to cultivate and plant, so as to escape birth and death. The Buddhists take emptiness and stillness as their tenet; if one can attain sudden awakening and complete penetration, one leaps straight to the other shore; but if the habits of outflow are not yet exhausted, one is still entangled in the realm of birth. The Daoists take refining and nourishing as the truth; if one obtains its pivot, one rises at once to the sage's rank; but if one has not yet understood one's nature, one is still stuck in an illusory form.

其次，《周易》有窮理盡性至命之辭，魯語有毋意必固我之說，此又仲尼極臻乎性命之奧也。然其言之常略，而不至於詳者，何也？蓋欲序正人倫，施仁義禮樂有為之教。故於無為之道，未嘗顯言。但以命術寓諸《易》象，以性法混諸微言耳。至於《莊子》推窮物累逍遙之性，《孟子》善養浩然之氣，皆切幾之矣。

Next, the Book of Changes has the words "exhaust principle, fully realize nature, and arrive at the decree (life)", and the Analects has the saying "no conjecturing, no insisting, no obstinacy, no egotism"; these are again the utmost reach of Confucius into the depths of nature and life. Yet his words are often brief and do not go to full detail. Why? Because he wished to set human relations in order and carry out the conditioned teaching of benevolence, righteousness, ritual, and music, and so he did not openly speak of the Way of non-action (not deliberate action, which does not mean doing nothing at all) (Laozi uses the word Dao to refer to the origin and mode of operation of all things, which itself cannot be named). He only lodged the art of life in the images of the Changes and mixed the method of nature into subtle words. As for the Zhuangzi, which investigates the burdens of things to the end and speaks of the nature of free wandering, and Mencius, who was good at nourishing his flood-like qi (the flowing stuff that constitutes and pervades all things), they come very close.

迨夫漢魏伯陽引《易》道陰陽交姤之體，作《參同契》以明大丹之作用，唐忠國師於語錄首敘老莊言，以顯至道之本末，如此豈非教雖分三，道乃歸一。奈何後世黃緇之流，各自專門，互相非是，致使三家旨要迷沒邪歧，不能混而同歸矣！且今人以道門尚於修命，而不知修命之法，理出兩端，有易遇而難成者，有難遇而易成者。如煉五芽之氣，服七耀之光，注想按摩，納清吐濁，唸經持咒，噀水叱符，叩齒集神，休妻絕粒，存神閉息，運眉間之思，補腦還精，習房中之術，以致服鍊金石草木之類，皆易遇難成者。已上諸法，於修身之道，率皆滅裂，故施功雖多，而求效莫驗。若勤心苦志，日夕修持，止可避病，免其非橫。一旦不行，則前功漸棄。此乃遷延歲月，必難成功。慾望一得永得，還嬰返老，變化飛昇，不亦難乎？深可痛傷！蓋近世修行之徒，妄有執著，不悟妙法之真，卻怨神仙謾語。殊不知成道者，皆因鍊金丹而得。恐洩天機，遂託名數事而名。其中惟閉息一法，如能忘機息慮，即與二乘坐禪相同。若勤而行之，可以入定出神。奈何精神屬陰，宅舍難固，不免常用遷徒之法。既未得金汞返還之道，又豈能回骨換陽，白日而昇天哉？

When it came to Wei Boyang of the Han dynasty, who drew on the substance of yin and yang intermingling in the Way of the Changes and composed the Cantong qi to illuminate the working of the great elixir, and National Teacher Zhong of the Tang, who at the head of his recorded sayings set out the words of Laozi and Zhuangzi to show the root and branch of the supreme Way: is this not a case where the teaching is divided into three schools but the Way returns to one place? Unfortunately, in later ages the yellow-capped Daoists and the black-robed Buddhists each specialized in their own and attacked one another, so that the essential purport of the three schools was lost on crooked byways and could not be blended and brought back together! Moreover, people today think the Daoist gate only esteems cultivating life, yet they do not know that the methods of cultivating life divide in principle into two kinds: those easy to come across but hard to accomplish, and those hard to come across but easy to accomplish. Refining the qi of the five sprouts, taking the light of the seven luminaries, visualization and massage, drawing in the clear and expelling the turbid, chanting scriptures and holding mantras, spraying water and chanting at talismans, clicking the teeth to gather the spirit, leaving one's wife and giving up grain, holding the spirit and stopping the breath, turning the thoughts between the brows, replenishing the brain and returning the essence, practicing the arts of the bedchamber, even taking and refining minerals, herbs, and woods: all of these are easy to come across and hard to accomplish. These methods are, in the main, broken and incomplete as ways of cultivating the body, and so though the effort is great, seeking results brings no confirmation. If one works with diligent heart and bitter will, practicing day and night, one can only avoid illness and escape unjust disasters. Once one stops practicing, the earlier work is gradually thrown away. This is merely dragging out the years, and it is bound to be hard to succeed. To wish to obtain it once and keep it forever, to return to infancy from old age, to transform and rise to heaven in broad daylight, is that not also very difficult? It is deeply to be lamented! Practitioners of recent times cling wildly to their views and do not awaken to the true place of the wondrous method, but instead complain that the immortals speak empty words. They do not know that all who have accomplished the Way obtained it through refining the golden elixir. Fearing to leak heaven's secrets, they borrowed many names to speak of it. Among them there is only the method of stopping the breath; if one can forget scheming and still the thoughts, it is the same as the seated meditation of the two vehicles. If one practices it diligently, one can enter samadhi and send the spirit out. But the spirit belongs to yin and its dwelling is hard to make firm, so one cannot avoid constantly resorting to the method of moving house (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Since one has not yet obtained the way of returning gold and mercury, how could one replace the bones and change into yang, and ascend to heaven in broad daylight?

夫鍊金液還丹者，則難遇易成，須要洞曉陰陽，深達造化，方能追二氣於黃道，會三性於元宮，攢簇五行，和合四象，龍吟虎嘯，夫唱婦隨，玉鼎湯煎，金爐火熾，始得玄珠成象，太乙歸真。都來片餉工夫，永保無窮逸樂。至若防危慮險，慎於運用抽添，養正持盈，要在守雌抱一。自然返陽生之氣，剝陰殺之形。節氣既周，脫胎神化，名題仙籍，位號真人，此乃大丈夫功成名遂之時也。今之學者，有取鉛汞為二氣，指臟腑為五行，分心腎為坎離，以肝肺為龍虎，用神氣為子母，執津液為鉛汞，不識沉浮，寧分主客，何異認他財為己物，呼別姓為親兒，又豈知金木相剋之幽微，陰陽互用之奧妙？是皆日月失道，鉛汞異爐，欲結還丹，不亦難乎？僕幼親善道，涉躐三教經書，以至刑法書算、醫卜戰陣、天文地理、吉凶死生之術，靡不留心詳究。惟金丹一法，閱盡群經及諸家歌詩論契，皆雲日魂月魄，庚虎甲龍，水銀丹砂，白金黑錫，離坎男女，能成金液還丹。終不言真鉛、真汞是何物也。又不說火候法度，溫養指歸。加以後世迷徒恣其臆說，將先聖典教妄行箋註，乖訛萬狀。不惟紊亂仙經，抑亦惑誤後學。

As for those who refine the liquid gold and reverted elixir, it is hard to meet but easy to accomplish. One must thoroughly understand yin and yang and deeply penetrate creation and transformation, and only then can one chase the two qi to the yellow path, gather the three natures at the original palace, cluster the five phases and harmonize the four images; the dragon chants and the tiger roars, the husband sings and the wife follows, in the jade cauldron the broth is simmering and in the golden furnace the fire is blazing. (The names used in this work, such as lead, mercury, dragon and tiger, cauldron and furnace, and the infant and the maiden, are all names that inner-alchemy writers borrow from the drugs and vessels of outer alchemy to refer to the essence, qi, and spirit within the body and the parts where they are refined and nourished; they do not literally refer to minerals or drugs.) Only then does the dark pearl take form and the Great Unity return to the true. It all takes only a moment, and one possesses boundless ease forever. As for guarding against danger and anticipating peril, prudence lies in the use of withdrawing and adding; nourishing the right and holding the full depends on keeping to the female and embracing the One. Naturally (ziran, "so of itself, naturally so", not "Nature" as the natural world) the qi of returning yang is restored, and the form of yin killing is stripped away. When the seasonal periods have been fully run through, one sheds the womb and transforms in spirit, one's name is inscribed in the register of immortals, and one's rank is called a true person; this is the time when a great man's work is accomplished and his name made. Among today's learners, some take lead and mercury to be the two qi, point to the viscera as the five phases, divide the heart and kidneys into kan and li, take the liver and lungs as dragon and tiger, use spirit and qi as mother and child, and hold saliva to be lead and mercury; not recognizing what sinks and what floats, how could they distinguish guest from host? How is this different from taking another's property as one's own, or calling a child of another surname one's own son? And how could they know the subtlety of metal and wood restraining each other, or the mystery of yin and yang being used by each other? All this is because the sun and moon have lost their road and lead and mercury are not in the same furnace; to wish to form the reverted elixir like this, is it not also very difficult? From youth I drew near to the good path and read widely in the scriptures of the three teachings, as well as legal writings, arithmetic, medicine, divination, military formations, astronomy, geography, and the arts of fortune and misfortune, life and death; there was none I did not study in detail. Only on the single method of the golden elixir, I read all the scriptures and the songs, poems, treatises, and tallies of the various schools, and they all speak of the sun's hun and the moon's po, the geng tiger and the jia dragon, quicksilver and cinnabar, white gold and black tin, the li and kan male and female, as able to accomplish the liquid gold and reverted elixir, but from start to finish they never say what true lead and true mercury actually are, nor do they speak of the measure of the fire phases or the destination of warm nourishment. Moreover, deluded followers of later ages indulge their own guesses and annotate the canons of the former sages at will, with errors of ten thousand kinds, not only throwing the immortal scriptures into confusion but also deluding and misleading later learners.

僕以至人未遇，口訣難逢，遂至寢食不安，精神憔悴。雖詢求遍於海嶽，諸益盡於賢愚，皆莫能通曉真宗，開照心腑。後至熙寧己酉歲，因隨龍圖陸公入成都，以夙志不回，初誠愈恪，遂感真人，授金丹藥物火候之訣。其言甚簡，其要不繁，可謂指流知源，語一悟百，霧開日瑩，塵盡鑑明，校之仙經，若合符契。因謂世之學仙者，十有八九；而達其真要者，未聞一二。

Because I had not yet met a perfected person and the oral instructions were hard to come by, I reached the point where I could neither sleep nor eat in peace, and my spirit grew haggard. Though I inquired all across the seas and mountains and sought instruction from the wise and the foolish alike, none could make me understand the true lineage or illuminate my heart. Later, in the year jiyou of the Xining era, because I followed the Longtu academician Lord Lu into Chengdu, my long-held aspiration did not turn back and my original sincerity grew more reverent; thereupon I received from a perfected person the transmission of the oral instructions on the drugs and fire phases of the golden elixir. His words were brief and the essentials not many; one might say that pointing at the stream, one knows the source, and hearing one, one awakens to a hundred. The mist lifted and the sun was bright; the dust was gone and the mirror was clear; when I compared it against the immortal scriptures, it matched like two halves of a tally. It made me lament that of those in the world who study immortality, eight or nine out of ten are many, but I have never heard of even one or two who penetrate the true essentials.

僕既遇真詮，安敢隱默，罄所得，成律詩九九八十一首，號曰《悟真篇》。內七言四韻一十六首，以表二八之數；絕句六十四首，按《周易》諸卦；五言一首，以象太一之奇；續添西江月一十二首，以同歲律。其如鼎器尊卑、藥物斤兩、火候進退、主客後先、存亡有無、吉凶悔吝，悉備其中矣。及乎篇集既成之後，又覺其中惟談養命固形之術，而於本源真覺之性有所未究，遂玩佛書及《傳燈錄》，至於祖師有擊竹而悟者，乃形於歌頌、詩曲、雜言三十二首，今附之卷末，庶幾達本明性之道，盡於此矣。

Having met the true explanation, how dared I hide it in silence? I wrote down all I had obtained and made regulated poems, nine times nine, eighty-one in all, and called them Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Perfection). Among them, the sixteen poems of seven characters and four rhymes are meant to represent the number two eights; the sixty-four quatrains follow the hexagrams of the Book of Changes; the one poem of five characters is meant to resemble the odd number of the Great Unity; and the twelve poems to the Xijiang yue tune, added afterward, are meant to match the pitches of the year. As for the honor and lowliness of the cauldron and vessels, the weights of the drugs, the advance and retreat of the fire phases, the order of host and guest, presence and absence, fortune and misfortune, regret and humiliation, all are fully set down within. After the collection was complete, I again felt that it spoke only of the arts of nourishing life and fixing the form, and had not examined the nature of the original true awareness, so I savored the Buddhist books and the Chuandeng lu, down to those patriarchs who awakened at the sound of a striking bamboo, and gave form to thirty-two pieces in hymns, poems, songs, and miscellaneous verses; they are now appended at the end of the volume, in the hope that the way of reaching the root and clarifying nature is all here.

所期同志覽之，則見末而悟本，舍妄以從真。

What I hope is that fellow seekers, on seeing it, will perceive the root from the branch tip, and abandon the false to follow the true.

七言四韻一十六首

Sixteen poems of seven characters and four rhymes.

（以表二八一斤之數）

(Used to represent the number two eights making one jin.)

不求大道出迷途，縱負賢才豈丈夫。百歲光陰石火爍，一生身世水泡浮。

If one does not seek the Great Way to come out of delusion, then even if one has worthy talents, how can one count as a real man? A hundred years of time are like a spark from flint, and a lifetime is like a bubble floating on water,

只貪名利求榮顯，不覺形容暗悴枯。試問堆金等山嶽，無常買得不來無。

only craving fame and profit and seeking glory, not noticing that the face is quietly withering and wasting. Try asking: if heaped-up gold equaled a mountain, could it buy off impermanence so that it would not come?

人生雖有百年期，夭壽窮通莫預知。昨日街頭猶走馬，今朝棺內己眠屍。

Though a human life has a limit of a hundred years, early death or long life, hardship or success, cannot be foreseen. Yesterday a horse was still trotting in the street; this morning a corpse is already lying in a coffin (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant),

妻財拋下非君有，罪業將行難自欺。大藥不求爭得遇，遇之不煉是愚痴。

the wife and wealth you leave behind were never yours, and your sins will follow you, impossible to deceive yourself about. If you do not seek the great medicine, how can you meet it; if you meet it and do not refine it, that is simply foolishness.

學仙須是學天仙，惟有金舟最的端。二物會時情性合，五行全處虎龍蟠。

One who studies immortality must study heavenly immortality, and only the golden elixir is truly the real thing (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). When the two things meet, their natures and feelings accord, and where the five phases are complete the tiger and dragon coil around each other,

本因戌己為媒娉，遂使夫妻鎮合歡。只候功成朝玉闕，九霞光裡駕祥鎣。

originally with wu and ji acting as matchmaker (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant), so that husband and wife are joined in lasting joy. One only waits until the work is complete to have an audience at the Jade Gate, riding an auspicious luan phoenix amid the light of nine rosy clouds (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant).

三五一都三個字，古今明者實然稀。東三南二同成五，北一西方四共之。

Three, five, and one are just three characters, yet few in all of past and present truly understand them. Three in the east and two in the south together make five, and the one in the north joins the four in the west to make it,

戌己自居生數五，三家相見結嬰兒。嬰兒是一含真炁，十月胎圓入聖基。

Wu and ji by themselves occupy the generative number five; when the three families meet, they form an infant. The infant is the One, containing true qi (a variant form of the character for qi, used by inner-alchemy writers to mark a level that is not breathing through the mouth and nose); in ten months the womb is complete, and one enters the foundation of sages.

草木陰陽亦兩齊，若還缺一不芳菲。初開綠葉陽先倡，次發紅花陰後隨。

The yin and yang of plants and trees are also complete on both sides; if one side is missing, they do not bloom fragrantly. At first green leaves open, with yang leading the way; afterward red flowers emerge, with yin following behind,

常道只斯為日用，真源返覆有誰知。報言學道諸君子，不識陰陽莫亂為。

the common way takes this only as daily use, but who knows the returning and turning of the true source? I tell you, gentlemen who study the Way: if you do not recognize yin and yang, do not act at random.

陽裡陰精質不剛，獨修一物轉贏尪。勞形按引皆非道，服氣餐霞總是狂。

The yin essence within yang is not firm in substance, and cultivating one thing alone only leaves one frailer and weaker. Wearying the body with guiding and stretching exercises is not the Way, and taking in qi and dining on rosy clouds is all folly,

舉世漫求鉛汞伏，何時得見虎龍降。勸君窮取生身處，返本還源是藥王。

The whole world seeks in vain to subdue lead and mercury; when will anyone see the tiger and dragon descend? I urge you to investigate fully the place from which they are obtained and born; returning to the root and the source is the king of medicines.

人人本有長生藥，自是迷徒枉擺拋。甘露降時天地合，黃芽生處坎離交。

Everyone originally has the medicine of long life, but deluded followers simply throw it away. When sweet dew descends, heaven and earth join; where the yellow sprout grows, kan and li intermingle,

井蛙應謂無龍窟，籬鵲爭知有鳳巢。丹熟自然金滿屋，何須尋草學燒茅。

The frog in the well can only say there is no dragon's cave; how could the magpie by the fence know there is a phoenix nest? When the elixir is ripe, a house full of yellow gold comes naturally; why go searching for herbs and learn to burn thatch?

休煉三黃及四神，若尋眾草便非真。陰陽得類歸交感，二八相當自合親。

Do not refine the three yellows and the four spirits; if you go looking among the various herbs, it is not the true thing. When yin and yang find their own kind they return to mutual response, two eights match, and naturally they join as kin,

潭底日紅陰怪滅。山頭月白藥苗新。時人要識真鉛汞，不是凡砂及水銀。

At the bottom of the pool the sun is red, and the yin monsters are wiped out; on the mountaintop the moon is white, and the medicine sprouts are fresh. People of the day wish to know true lead and mercury: they are not common cinnabar and quicksilver.

此法真中妙更真，都緣我獨異於人。自知顛倒由離坎，誰識浮沉定主賓。

In this method, within the true there is further a wondrous true, all because I alone differ from others. I know for myself that the inversion is due to li and kan; who recognizes floating and sinking, and fixes host and guest?

金鼎欲留朱里汞，玉池先下水中銀。神功運火非終旦，現出深潭月一輪。

The golden cauldron wishes to hold the mercury within the cinnabar, and the jade pool first puts down the silver within the water. The spiritual work of moving the fire does not even take a whole night, and a wheel of moon appears in the deep pool.

要知產藥川源處，月在西南是本鄉。鉛遇癸生須急採，金逢望遠不堪嘗。

If you want to know the source where the medicine is produced, the moon in the southwest is its native place. Lead meeting gui must be gathered urgently; gold meeting the full moon cannot be tasted,

送歸土釜牢封固，次入流珠廝配當。藥重二斤須二八，調停火候托陰陽。

Send it back to the earthen cauldron and seal it firmly, then add the flowing pearl to match it. The medicine weighs two jin and must be two eights; adjust the fire phases by relying on yin and yang.

虎躍龍騰風浪粗，中央正位產玄珠。果生枝上終期熟，子在胞中豈有殊。

The tiger leaps and the dragon soars, wind and waves are rough, and in the central correct position the dark pearl is produced. The fruit growing on the branch will ripen in the end; how is a child in the womb any different?

南北宗源翻卦象，晨昏火候合天樞。須知大隱居廛市，何必深山守靜孤。

The sources of south and north overturn the hexagram images, and the fire phases of dawn and dusk accord with the celestial pivot. Know that the great recluse lives in the marketplace; why go deep into the mountains to guard a lonely stillness?

不識玄中顛倒顛，爭知火裡好栽蓮。牽將白虎歸家養，產個明珠似月圓。

If one does not recognize the inversion within the inversion in the mystery, how can one know that lotuses are well planted in fire? Lead the white tiger home and raise it, and it produces a bright pearl round as the moon,

謾守藥爐看火候，但安神息任天然。群陰剝盡丹成熟，跳出樊籠壽萬年。

Merely sitting by the medicine furnace watching the fire phases, one only settles the spirit and breath and lets nature take its course. When the many yin are stripped away, the elixir ripens; one leaps out of the cage and lives ten thousand years.

黃芽白雪不難尋，達者須憑德行深。四象五行全藉土，三元八卦豈離壬。

The yellow sprout and white snow are not hard to find, and one who penetrates must rely on depth of de (the portion that the Way gives and obtains in people and things, not "virtue" in the sense of moral preaching). The four images and five phases all depend on earth, and the three origins and eight trigrams how could they leave ren,

煉成靈寶大難識，消盡陰魔鬼莫侵。欲向人間留秘訣，未逢一個是知音。

The numinous treasure, once refined, is the hardest to recognize; when the yin demons are wiped out, even ghosts cannot encroach. I wish to leave the secret instruction in the human world, but I have not yet met a single person who understands.

好把真鉛著意尋，莫教容易度光陰。但將地魄擒朱汞，自有天魂制水金。

Be sure to seek true lead with intent, and do not let time pass by easily. Use only the earthly po to seize the cinnabar mercury, and naturally the heavenly hun will restrain the water and metal,

可謂道高龍虎伏，堪言德重鬼神欽。已知壽永齊天地，煩惱無由更上心。

One may say that when the Way is high, the dragon and tiger are subdued, and when de is weighty, ghosts and spirits show respect. Once you know your life span equals heaven and earth, worry has no way to climb into your heart again.

不識真鉛正祖宗，萬般作用枉施功。休妻謾遣陰陽隔，絕粒徒教腸胃空。

If you do not recognize the true ancestor of true lead, all manner of practices are wasted effort. Leaving one's wife merely cuts off yin and yang, and giving up grain merely empties the intestines and stomach,

草木陰陽皆滓質，雲霞日月屬檬隴。更饒吐納並存想，總與金丹事不同。

The yin and yang of grasses and trees are all dregs in substance, and rosy clouds and sun and moon belong to the hazy and dim (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Even if you add breathing exercises and visualization, they are in the end different from the matter of the golden elixir.

萬卷丹經語總同，金舟只此是根宗。依他坤位生成體，種在乾家交感官。

Ten thousand volumes of elixir scriptures all say the same words, and the golden elixir is just this, the root and lineage (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Following the substance generated in the kun position, plant it in the palace of qian where they mingle,

莫怪天機都洩漏，只緣學者盡愚蒙。若能了得詩中意，立見三清太上翁。

Do not blame heaven's secrets for being fully leaked; it is only because learners are all benighted and ignorant. If you can understand the meaning in these poems, at once you will see the Elder of the Three Pure Ones.

七言絕句六十四首

Sixty-four quatrains of seven characters.

（以象卦數）

(Used to represent the number of hexagrams.)

道自虛元生一氣，便從一氣產陰陽。陰陽再合成三體，三體重生萬物昌。

The Way gives rise to one qi out of emptiness and nothingness (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant), and from the one qi produces yin and yang. Yin and yang again combine into three bodies, and from the three bodies are born the flourishing ten thousand things.

萬物芸芸各返根；返根覆命即長存。知常返本人難會，妄作招兇眾所聞。

The ten thousand things in great number each return to their root; returning to the root and recovering one's decree, one can endure long. To know the constant and return to the origin is hard for people to grasp, and to act rashly and invite misfortune is something everyone has heard.

但將死戶為生戶，莫執生門號死門。若會殺機明反覆，始知害裡卻生恩。

Take the door of death only as the door of life, and do not obstinately call the gate of life the gate of death. If one can grasp the mechanism of killing and understand its turning back, one then knows that from harm kindness can be born.

禍福由來互倚伏，還如影響相隨逐。若能轉此生殺機，反掌之間災變福。

Misfortune and fortune have always leaned on and hidden within each other, like shadow and echo following and chasing. If one can turn this mechanism of life and killing, in the turn of a palm disaster becomes fortune.

妥得谷神長不死，須憑玄牝立根基。真精既返黃金屋，一顆明珠永不離。

If you wish to obtain the valley spirit that lasts long and does not die (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant), you must establish the root through the mysterious female. Once the true essence has returned to the house of yellow gold, a single bright pearl never leaves.

玄牝之門世罕知，休將口鼻妄施為。饒他吐納經千載，怎得金馬搦兔兒。

The gate of the mysterious female is known to few in the world, so do not act at random with the mouth and nose. Let him breathe in and out for a thousand years; how could he make the golden crow seize the hare (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant).

異名同出少人知，兩者玄玄是要機。保命全形明損益，紫金丹藥最靈奇。

"Different in name but the same in origin" is known to few, and the two mysteries are the essential mechanism. To preserve life and keep the form whole, and to understand loss and gain, the purple-gold elixir is the most potent and wondrous.

不識陰陽及主賓，知他那個是疏親。房中空閉尾閭穴，誤殺閻浮多少人。

If one does not recognize yin and yang and host and guest, how can one know which is distant and which is close? Shutting the tailbone gate in the bedroom to no purpose has wrongly killed how many people in the world of Jambudvipa.

先且觀天明五賊，次須察地以安民。民安國富方求戰，戰罷方能見聖人。

First observe heaven and understand the five thieves, and next one must examine earth in order to settle the people. Only when the people are at peace and the state rich does one seek battle, and only after the battle is finished can one meet the sage.

用將須分左右軍，饒他為主我為賓。勸君臨陣休輕敵，恐喪吾家無價珍。

In employing a general you must distinguish left army from right army, letting him be host and me be guest. I urge you, in the face of the enemy do not make light of him, lest you lose the priceless treasure of my house.

三才相盜食其時，此是神仙道德機。萬化既安諸慮息，百骸俱理證無為。

The mutual plundering among the three powers must fit their time; this is the pivot of the Way and de of the immortals. When the ten thousand transformations are settled and all anxieties cease, the hundred bones are all governed and non-action is realized.

陰符寶字逾三百，道德靈文滿五千。今古上仙無限數，盡從此處達真詮。

The precious words of the Yinfu exceed three hundred, and the numinous text of the Daode jing fills five thousand. Immortals of past and present are countless, and all penetrated the true explanation from here.

契論經歌講至真，不將火候著於文。要知口訣通玄處，須共神仙仔細論。

The tallies, treatises, scriptures, and songs speak of the utmost truth, yet do not write the fire phases into the text. If you wish to know where the oral instruction penetrates the mystery, you must discuss it carefully with an immortal.

饒君聰慧過顏閔，不遇師傳莫強猜。只為丹經無口訣，教君何處結靈胎。

Even if your wits surpassed Yan Hui and Min Sun, do not guess forcibly without meeting a teacher's transmission. Just because the elixir scriptures have no oral instruction, where would you go to form the spiritual embryo?

夢渴西華到九天，真人授我指玄篇。其中簡要無多語，只是教人鍊汞鉛。

In a dream I paid my respects to the Lord of the West Flower in the ninth heaven, and a perfected person gave me the Zhixuan pian. Its essentials had not many words, only teaching one to refine mercury and lead.

用鉛不得用凡鉛，用了真鉛也棄捐。此是用鉛真妙訣，用鉛不用是誠言。

In using lead one must not use common lead, and even when using true lead one must also discard it. This is the true wondrous secret of using lead: to use lead yet not use it is the honest word.

竹破須將竹補宜，抱雞當用卵為之。萬般非類徒勞力，爭似真鉛含聖機。

A broken bamboo should be mended with bamboo to be fitting, and chicks should be hatched with eggs. All things not of the same kind are vain effort; how can they compare to true lead, which holds the sacred mechanism?

末煉還丹莫隱山，山中前後盡非鉛。此般至寶家家有，自是時人識不全。

Before you have refined the reverted elixir, do not go live in seclusion in the mountains, for in the mountains, front and back, there is no lead at all. This supreme treasure is in every household, but people of the day do not recognize it completely.

虛心實腹義俱深，只為虛心要識心。不若煉鉛先實腹，且教守取滿堂金。

"Empty the mind and fill the belly" has very deep meaning, only because to empty the mind one must know the mind. It is better to refine lead and first fill the belly, and let one hold on to a hall full of gold.

日居離位反為女，坎配蟾宮卻是男。不會此中顛倒意，休將管見事高談。

The sun dwells in the li position yet is female, and kan paired with the toad palace is male. If you do not grasp the meaning of this inversion, do not talk loftily with a narrow view.

震龍汞出自離鄉，兌虎金生在坎方。二物總因兒產母，五行全要入中央。

The mercury of the dragon of zhen comes out of the land of li, and the metal of the tiger of dui is born in the direction of kan. These two things are produced by the child bearing the mother, and the five phases must all enter the center.

離坎若還無戌己，雖含四象不成丹。只緣彼此懷真土，遂使金丹有返還。

If li and kan have no wu and ji (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant), even though they hold the four images they cannot form the elixir. Only because each holds true earth does the golden elixir have its return.

火生於木本藏鋒，不會鑽研莫強攻。禍發必因斯害己，要須制伏覓金公。

Fire is born from wood and by nature hides its sharp edge; if you do not know how to study it, do not attack it by force. Disaster will surely come and harm yourself, and you must subdue it and seek Lord Gold.

金公本是東家子，送在西鄰寄體生。認得喚來歸舍養，配將奼女結親情。

Lord Gold is originally the son of the eastern house, sent to the western neighbor to be born in lodging. Having recognized him, call him back and raise him at home, and match him with the maiden to form a bond of kinship.

奼女遊行各有方，前行須短後須長。歸來卻入黃婆舍，嫁個金公作老郎。

The maiden wanders and travels, each with her own direction; going forward she must be short, going backward she must be long. On returning she enters the house of Old Lady Yellow, and marries Lord Gold as her old husband.

取將坎位中心實，點化離宮腹內陰。從此變成乾健體，潛藏飛躍總由心。

Take the solid at the center of kan, and transform the yin within the belly of the li palace. From then on it turns into the body of qian's strength, lying hidden or leaping up all by the will of the heart.

先把乾坤為鼎器，次搏鳥兔藥來烹。既驅二物歸黃道，爭得金舟不解生。

First take qian and kun as the cauldron and vessel, then gather the medicine of the bird and the hare and cook it (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Having driven the two things back to the yellow path, how could the golden elixir fail to be born (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant).

安爐立鼎法乾坤，鍛鍊精華制魄魂；聚散氤氳成變化，敢將玄妙等閒論。

Set up the furnace and establish the cauldron, taking qian and kun as the model; temper the essence and subdue po and hun; gathering and dispersing in swirling mist brings about transformation, so how dare one discuss this mystery as a trifle?

咽津納氣是人行，有藥方能造化生。鼎內若無真種子，猶將水火煮空鐺。

Swallowing saliva and drawing in qi are practiced by everybody; only with the medicine can creation and transformation take place. If there is no true seed in the cauldron, it is like boiling an empty pot with water and fire.

縱識硃砂及黑鉛，不知火侯也如閒。大都全藉修持力，毫髮差遲不作丹。

Even if one recognizes cinnabar and black lead, not knowing the fire phases is as good as idling (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Altogether it depends on the strength of one's practice, and a hair's breadth of error means the elixir cannot be made.

黑中有白為丹母，雄裡藏雌是聖胎。太乙在爐宜慎守，三田聚寶應三臺。

White within black is the mother of the elixir, and the female hidden within the male is the sacred embryo. The Great Unity within the furnace should be carefully guarded, and the gathering of treasure in the three fields corresponds to the three terraces.

恍惚之中尋有象，冥杳之內覓真精。有無由此交相入，未見如何想得成。

Within the indistinct and hazy one seeks the image, and within the dark and obscure one seeks the true essence. Being and non-being enter into each other from this; before you have seen it, how can you accomplish it by empty thought?

長男乍飲西方酒，少女初開北地花。若使青娥相見後，一時關鎖在黃家。

The eldest son has just drunk the wine of the west, and the youngest daughter has just opened the flowers of the north. If, after the fair maiden and the lad meet, they were at once locked up together in the Yellow house,

華嶽山頭雄虎嘯，扶桑海底牝龍吟，黃婆自解相媒合，遣作夫妻共一心。

On the peak of Mount Hua the male tiger roars, and at the bottom of the Fusang sea the female dragon chants; Old Lady Yellow knows by herself how to play matchmaker, and sends them to be husband and wife sharing one heart.

西山白虎正猖狂，東海青龍不可當。兩手捉來令死鬥，化成一片紫金霜。

The white tiger of the western hills is raging, and the blue dragon of the eastern sea cannot be withstood. Seize them with both hands and let them fight to the death, and they transform into a patch of purple-gold frost.

赤龍黑虎各西東，四象交加戌己中。復垢自茲能運用，金丹誰道不成功。

The red dragon and black tiger stand in the west and east, and the four images mingle within wu and ji (the source text has a variant character for wu here). From this fu and gou can be put to use (the source text has a variant character for gou here), and who says the golden elixir will not succeed?

月才天際半輪明，早有龍吟虎嘯聲。便好用功修二八，一時辰內管丹成。

Just as the moon shows a half-wheel of light at the edge of the sky, there is already the sound of the dragon chanting and the tiger roaring. Then one may apply effort to the two eights, and within a single double-hour the elixir is guaranteed to form.

赫赫金丹一日成，古仙垂語實堪聽。若言九載三年者，總是推延款日程。

The resplendent golden elixir is completed in a single day, and the words left by the ancient immortals are truly worth heeding. If one says it takes nine years or three, that is always postponing and slackening the schedule.

敲竹喚龜吞玉芝，鼓琴招鳳飲刀圭。近來透體金光現，不與凡人話此規。

Knock on bamboo to call the tortoise to swallow the jade fungus, strike the zither to summon the phoenix to drink the dao-gui. Lately golden light has appeared through the body, and I do not discuss this rule with ordinary people.

偃月爐中玉蕊生，硃砂鼎內水銀平。只因火力調和後，種得黃芽漸長成。

In the crescent-moon furnace the jade bud is born, and in the cinnabar cauldron the mercury is level. Only after the fire is harmonized is the yellow sprout planted and gradually grown.

休泥丹灶費工夫，煉藥須尋偃月爐。自有天然真火侯，何須柴炭及吹噓。

Do not cling to the elixir stove and waste effort; to refine the medicine one must seek the crescent-moon furnace. There is a natural true fire phase of its own (the source text has a variant character for "phase" here); why use firewood and charcoal to blow and puff?

前弦之後後弦前，藥味平平氣象全。來得歸來爐內煅，煅成溫養似烹鮮。

After the first quarter and before the last quarter, the medicine is mild in flavor and the signs are complete. Gather it and bring it back to forge in the furnace (the source text has a variant character for "gather" here), and once forged, warm nourishment is like cooking a small fish.

兔雞之月及其時，刑德臨門藥象之。到此金丹宜沐浴，若還加火必傾危。

When the months of the hare and the rooster arrive at their time, punishment and virtue come to the door, and the medicine takes its image from them. At this point the golden elixir should be bathed, and if one still adds fire it will surely be overturned in danger.

歐冶親傳鑄劍方，莫邪金水配柔剛。煉成便會知人意，萬里誅妖一電光。

Ou Ye personally transmitted the formula for casting swords, and Moye matched hardness and softness with gold and water. When refined, it comes to know human intention, and killing demons across ten thousand miles takes only a flash of lightning.

調和鉛汞要成丹，大小無傷兩國全。若問真鉛何處是，蟾光終日照西川。

Harmonize lead and mercury to form the elixir, so that neither large nor small is harmed and both states are preserved. If you ask where true lead is, the toad's light shines all day on Xichuan.

八月十五玩蟾輝，正是金精壯盛時，若到一陽來起復，便堪進火莫延遲。

On the fifteenth of the eighth month, enjoying the toad's radiance, is exactly the time when the metal essence is vigorous; when one yang rises in fu, one may advance the fire, and must not delay.

一陽才動作丹時，鉛鼎溫溫照幌帷。受氣之初容易識，抽添運火卻防危。

When one yang has just stirred and it is the time to make the elixir, the lead cauldron is warm and shines on the curtains. At the start of receiving qi it is still easy to recognize, but in withdrawing, adding, and moving the fire one must guard against peril.

日月三旬一遇逢，以時易日法神功。守城野戰知兇吉，增得靈砂滿鼎紅。

Sun and moon meet once in thirty days, and by exchanging the hour for the day one takes the model of spiritual work. Defending the city or fighting in the field, one knows fortune and misfortune, and the numinous cinnabar in the cauldron grows ever fuller and redder.

玄珠有象逐陽生，陽極陰消漸剝形。十月霜飛丹始熟，此時神鬼亦須驚。

The dark pearl has an image and follows the rise of yang; when yang reaches its extreme, yin is dispelled and its form is gradually stripped away. When frost flies in the tenth month, the elixir is at last ripe, and at that time even gods and ghosts must be startled.

瑤池飲罷月澄輝，跨個金龍訪紫微。從此眾仙相識後，海田陵谷任遷移。

After drinking at the Jade Pool, in the clear radiance of the moonlight, one rides a golden dragon to visit Ziwei. From then on, once all the immortals know one another, let seas turn to fields and hills turn to valleys, however they shift.

休施巧偽為功力，認取他家不死方。壺內旋添延命酒，鼎中收取返魂漿。

Do not practice cleverness and falsehood and take them for effort; recognize the deathless formula of the other house. Add to the flask the wine that prolongs life, and in the cauldron gather the liquid that calls back the soul.

雪山一味好醐醍，傾入東陽造化爐。若過崑崙西北去，張騫始得見麻姑。

One flavor of ghee from the Snow Mountains is excellent; pour it into the furnace of creation in Dongyang. If you pass Kunlun and go northwest, only then will Zhang Qian get to see Magu.

坎電烹轟金水方，火發崑崙陰與陽。二物若還和合了，自然丹熟遍身香。

Kan lightning cooks and thunders in the region of gold and water, fire arises at Kunlun and divides yin from yang. When the two things are harmonized, naturally the elixir ripens and the whole body gives off fragrance.

要知煉養還丹法，自向家園下種栽。不假吹噓並著力，自然果熟結靈胎。

If you wish to know the method of refining and nourishing the reverted elixir, plant and cultivate it yourself in your own garden. Without borrowing blowing or strain, the fruit ripens naturally and forms a numinous embryo.

未煉還丹須急煉，煉了還須知止足。若也持盈未已心，不免一朝遭困辱。

If the reverted elixir has not yet been refined, hurry to refine it; once refined, one must still know where to stop and be content. If, holding the full, one has no mind to stop, then one day one will not escape trouble and disgrace.

否泰才經萬物盈，屯蒙受封秉生成。此中得意須忘象，若究群爻謾役情。

Pi and tai have just passed, and the ten thousand things become full; zhun and meng are invested, holding to birth and completion. Here, having gained the meaning, one must forget the image; if one goes chasing the many lines, it is only a futile labor of feeling.

卦中設法本儀形，得象忘言意自明。舉世迷人惟泥象，卻行卦氣望飛昇。

The method set up within the hexagrams is originally just a form; having got the image, forget the words, and the meaning becomes clear of itself. The whole world of deluded people clings only to the images, and goes about practicing hexagram qi hoping to fly up to heaven.

天地盈虛自有時，審能消息始知機。由來庚甲申明令，殺盡三尸道可期。

Heaven and earth wax and wane, each in its own time; only if one can truly understand waning and waxing does one know the mechanism. From of old Geng and Jia proclaim the orders, and only when the three corpse-worms are all killed can the Way be hoped for.

四象會時玄體就，五行全處紫光明。脫胎入口通神聖，無限神龍盡失驚。

When the four images meet, the dark body is accomplished, and where the five phases are complete the purple gold shines. Shedding the womb and taking it into the mouth, one communicates with the sacred, and countless divine dragons are all startled.

藥逢氣類方成象，道在虛無合自然。一粒靈丹吞入腹，始知我命不由天。

When the medicine meets its kind of qi, it can take form; the Way lies in emptiness and accords with nature. Once a grain of numinous elixir is swallowed into the belly, one finally knows that my life is not up to Heaven.

大道修之有易難，也知由我亦由天。若非積行施陰德，動有群魔作障緣。

In cultivating the Great Way there is ease and difficulty, and one also knows it depends on me and also on Heaven. If one does not accumulate good deeds and hidden virtue, a host of demons will readily set up obstacles and hindrances.

了了心猿方寸機，三千功行與天齊。自然有鼎烹龍虎，何必擔家戀子妻。

To understand the monkey of the mind is the mechanism of the square inch, and three thousand works and deeds equal Heaven. There will naturally be a cauldron cooking the dragon and tiger; why shoulder a household or cling to wife and children?

始於有作人難見，及至無為眾始知。但識無為為要妙，誰知有作是根基。

It begins in doing, which people can hardly see, and only when it reaches non-doing do the many know it. They only recognize that non-doing is the essential wonder, and who knows that doing is the foundation?

修行混俗且和光，圓即圓分方即方。晦顯逆從人莫測，教人怎得見行藏。

Practice amid the world, and soften your light; be round when you should be round and square when you should be square. Hidden or manifest, going against or going with, people cannot fathom it, so how could they see where you walk or hide?

五言四韻一首

One poem of five characters and four rhymes.

（以象太乙之奇）

(Used to represent the odd number of the Great Unity.)

女子著青衣，郎君披素練。見之不可用，用之不可見。

The woman wears green clothes, and the gentleman is draped in plain silk. Looking at it, you cannot use it; when using it, you cannot see it,

恍惚裡相逢，杳冥中有變。一霎火焰飛，真人自出現。

Meeting within the indistinct, change takes place within the dim. In an instant a flame flies up, and the true person appears of himself.

西江月十二首

Twelve poems to the tune Xijiang yue.

（西江月，西者，金之方。江者，水之體。月者，藥之用。一十二首以週歲律）

(Xijiang yue: "west" is the direction of metal, "river" is the substance of water, and "moon" is the use of the medicine. The twelve poems are made to match the pitches of the annual cycle.)

內藥還同外藥，內通外亦須通。丹頭和合類相同，溫養兩般作用。

The inner medicine is the same as the outer medicine; once the inner is penetrated, the outer too must be penetrated. The elixir head is harmonized and the kind is the same, but warm nourishment is a different working in each.

內有天然真火，爐中赫赫長紅。外爐增減要勤功，妙絕無過真種。

Within there is the natural true fire, glowing red continually in the furnace. The outer furnace needs diligent work in adding and reducing, and nothing is more wondrous than the true seed.

此藥至神至聖，憂君分薄難消。調和鉛汞不終朝，早睹玄珠形兆。

This medicine is utterly spiritual and sacred, and I fear your fortune is thin and you will have trouble enjoying it. Harmonizing lead and mercury need not take a whole morning, and the sign of the dark pearl is already seen.

志士若能修煉，何妨在市居朝。工夫容易藥非遙，說破令人失笑。

If a person of aspiration can cultivate and refine it, what harm in dwelling in the marketplace or at court? The work is easy and the medicine is not far; once spoken plainly, it makes people laugh.

白虎首經至寶，華池神水真金。故知上善利源深，不比尋常藥品。

The first menses of the white tiger is the supreme treasure, and the divine water of the flower pool is true gold. Thus one knows the profit of the highest good runs deep, and is unlike ordinary drugs.

若要修成九轉，先須煉己持心。依時採取定浮沉，進火須防危甚。

If you want to complete the nine turnings, you must first refine yourself and hold your mind. Gather at the proper time and settle what floats and what sinks; in advancing the fire, guard against extreme danger.

七返硃砂返本，九還金液還真。休將寅子數坤申，但看五行成準。

The seven-times-returned cinnabar returns to the root, and the nine-times-returned liquid gold returns to the true. Do not use yin and zi to count kun and shen; only look at the five phases becoming the standard.

本是水銀一味，周流歷遍諸辰。陰陽數足自通神，出入不離玄牝。

It is originally the single flavor of quicksilver, circulating through all the hours. When the numbers of yin and yang are complete, it naturally penetrates the spirit, coming and going without leaving the mysterious female.

牛女情緣道合，龜蛇類秉天然。蟾烏遇朔合蟬娟，二氣相資運轉。

The destined bond of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl accords with the Way, and the kinds of tortoise and snake hold to nature. The toad and the crow meet at the new moon and form the beautiful moon (the source text has a variant character for "beautiful" here), and the two qi aid each other and turn.

總是乾坤妙用，誰人達此真詮。陰陽否隔即成愆，怎得天長地遠。

All is the wondrous use of qian and kun; who penetrates this true explanation? When yin and yang are blocked and separated, they turn into faults; how then can there be long heaven and distant earth?

若要真鉛留汞，親中不離家臣。木金間隔會無因，須用媒人勾引。

If you want true lead to hold the mercury, in intimacy it does not leave ruler and minister (the source text has a character here that probably should be "ruler"). Wood and metal are separated, with no cause for meeting, and one needs a go-between to draw them together.

木性愛金順義，金情戀木慈仁。相吞相咽卻相親，始覺男兒有孕。

Wood by nature loves metal and is obedient to righteousness; metal in feeling longs for wood and is kind and benevolent. They swallow each other and yet grow close, and only then does the boy feel himself with child.

二八誰家奼女，龍三何處郎君。自稱木液與金精，遇土方成三姓。

Whose maiden is the two eights, and from where is the gentleman called the dragon three? They call themselves wood liquid and metal essence, and meeting earth they become three surnames.

更假丁公鍛鍊，夫妻始結歡情。河車不敢暫留停，運入崑崙峰頂。

Again they borrow Lord Ding's forging, and the couple at last forms a bond of joy. The river cart does not dare to stay even a moment, and carries it up to the summit of Kunlun.

天地才經否泰，朝昏好識屯蒙。輻來湊轂永朝宗，妙在抽添運用。

Heaven and earth have just passed through pi and tai, and morning and dusk are the moment to recognize zhun and meng. Spokes come together at the hub, and forever the court is attended; the wonder lies in withdrawing, adding, and applying.

得一萬般事畢，休分南北西東。損之又損慎前功，命寶不宜輕弄。

Obtaining the One, ten thousand matters are done, and there is no need to separate south, north, west, or east. Diminish and diminish again, be careful of the earlier effort, and do not treat the treasure of life lightly.

冬至一陽來復，三旬增一陽爻。月中復卦朔晨超，望罷乾終兆。

At the winter solstice, one yang returns, and in thirty days one yang line is added. In the moon the fu hexagram rises from the dawn of the new moon, and after the full moon qian is finished, the sign is complete.

日又別為寒暑，陽生復起中宵。午後罷一陰朝，煉藥須知昏曉。

The day too is separately divided into cold and heat, and yang arises again from the middle of the night. After noon, once the one yin has come to an end, it is morning; in refining the medicine one must know dusk from dawn.

不辨五行四象，那分砂汞鉛銀。修丹火侯未曾聞，早便稱呼大隱。

If one does not distinguish the five phases and four images, how can one tell cinnabar, mercury, lead, and silver? Not yet having even heard of the fire phases for cultivating the elixir (the source text has a variant character for "phase" here), they already call themselves great recluses.

靡肯自思己錯，更將錯路教人。誤他永劫在迷津，似恁欺心怎忍。

Unwilling to think themselves wrong, they even teach others the wrong road. They mislead others into the ford of delusion for endless kalpas; how can one bear such self-deception?

雄裡內含雌質，真陰卻抱陽精。兩般和合藥方成，點化魂靈魄聖。

Within the male there is the substance of the female, and true yin embraces the yang essence. When the two are harmonized, the medicine is complete, transforming the spirit soul and the sacred po.

信道金丹一粒，蛇吞立變龍形。雞餐乃亦化鸞鵬，飛入真陽聖境。

Believe in this Way: a single grain of golden elixir, swallowed by a snake, at once turns it into a dragon's form. Eaten by a chicken, it can also turn into a luan or a peng bird, flying into the sacred realm of true yang.

德行修逾八百，陰功積滿三千。均齊物我與親冤，始合神仙本願。

When one's virtuous conduct is cultivated beyond eight hundred and hidden merit is accumulated to three thousand, regarding self and other, kin and enemy as equal, one accords with the original vow of the immortals.

虎兄刀兵不害，無常火宅難牽。寶符降後去朝天，穩駕鸞輿鳳輦。

Tigers, rhinoceroses, blades, and weapons cannot harm one (the source text has a variant character for "rhinoceros" here), and the burning house of impermanence cannot entangle one. After the precious talisman descends, one goes to court in heaven, steadily riding a luan carriage and phoenix palanquin.

又一首

One more poem.

（以象閏月）

(Used to represent the intercalary month.)

丹是色身至寶，煉成變化無窮。更能性上究真宗，決了無生妙用。

The elixir is the supreme treasure of the physical body, and once refined it transforms without end. If one further pursues the true lineage within nature, one settles the wondrous use of non-birth.

不待他生後世，現前獲佛神通。自從龍女著斯功，爾後誰能繼踵。

Without waiting for another life or a later world, one attains the Buddha's spiritual powers right now. Ever since the dragon girl took up this work, who after her has been able to follow in her footsteps?

絕句五首

Five quatrains.

（以象五行）

(Used to represent the five phases.)

饒君了悟真如性，未免拋身卻人身。何以更兼修大藥，頓超無漏作真人。

Even if you have awakened to the nature of true suchness, you still cannot avoid casting off this body and entering another human body. Why not also cultivate the great medicine at the same time, and leap at once beyond outflows to become a true person?

投胎奪舍及移居，舊住名為因果徒。若會降龍並伏虎，真金起屋幾時枯。

Entering a womb, seizing a house, and moving one's dwelling, the former abode is called disciples of cause and effect. If one can subdue the dragon and conquer the tiger, a house built of true gold will run dry when?

鑑形閉息思神法，初學艱難後坦途。倏忽縱能遊萬國，奈何屋破卻移居。

The methods of gazing at one's form, stopping the breath, and contemplating spirits are hard for beginners but later a smooth road. In an instant one may wander through ten thousand countries, but unfortunately when the house is ruined one must move out.

釋氏教人修極樂，只緣極樂是金方。大都色相惟茲實，餘二非真謾度量。

The Buddhists teach people to cultivate Utmost Bliss, only because Utmost Bliss is the direction of metal. Of all forms and marks, only here is real; the other two are not true, so do not measure them in vain.

俗語常言合至道，宜向其中細尋討。能於日用顛倒求，大地塵沙盡成寶。

Common sayings and everyday words accord with the supreme Way, and one should search through them carefully. If one can seek by inverting them in daily use, all the dust and sand of the great earth turn into treasure.

讀《周易參同契》

On reading the Zhouyi cantong qi.

大丹妙用法乾坤，乾坤運兮五行分；五行順兮常道有生有滅，五行逆兮丹體常靈常存。一自虛無質兆，兩儀因一開根，四象不離二體，八卦互為子孫。萬象生乎變動，吉凶悔吝茲分。百姓日用不知，聖人能究本源。顧易道妙盡乾坤之理，遂托象於斯文。否泰交，則陰陽或升或降；屯蒙作，則動靜在朝在昏。坎離為男女水火，震兌乃龍虎魄魂。守中則黃裳元吉，遇亢則無位無尊。既未慎萬物之終始，復姤昭二氣之歸奔。月虧盈，應精神之衰旺；日出沒，合榮衛之寒溫。本立言以明象，既得象以忘言。猶設象以指意，悟真意則象捐。達者惟簡惟易，迷者愈惑愈繁。故之修真之士，讀《參同契》者不在乎泥象執文。

The wondrous use of the great elixir takes qian and kun as its model; qian and kun operate, and the five phases divide. When the five phases flow with the grain, the common way has birth and extinction; when the five phases go against the grain, the elixir body is ever numinous and ever lasting. From emptiness and nothingness a substance and sign appear; the two modes open their root from the One; the four images do not leave the two bodies, and the eight trigrams are one another's descendants. The myriad images are born from movement and change, and from them fortune, misfortune, regret, and humiliation are divided. The common people use it daily without knowing it, while the sage can trace it to its source. Seeing that the wonder of the Way of the Changes lies entirely in the principle of qian and kun, he therefore lodged the images in this text. When pi and tai intermingle, yin and yang either rise or fall; when zhun and meng arise, movement and stillness occur in morning or dusk. Kan and li are the water and fire of male and female, and zhen and dui are the dragon and tiger, po and hun. Keeping to the center, the yellow lower garment brings supreme good fortune; meeting excess, one has no position and no honor. Jiji and weiji are careful about the end and beginning of all things, and fu and gou show the returning rush of the two qi. The waxing and waning of the moon corresponds to the flourishing and decline of essence and spirit; the rising and setting of the sun accords with the cold and warmth of nutritive and defensive qi. The words were originally set up to make the images clear, and having gained the image one forgets the words. Likewise, the images were set up to point to the meaning, and once the true meaning is awakened to, the images are cast away. The accomplished seek only brevity and ease, while the deluded grow more confused and more complicated. Therefore those who cultivate perfection, in reading the Cantong qi, do not care to cling to images or hold fast to the text (in the source text a phrase here is miswritten and should read "therefore know").

贈白龍洞劉道人歌

Song presented to the Daoist Liu of White Dragon Cave.

玉走金飛兩曜忙，始聞花發又秋霜。徒誇籛壽千來歲，也似雲中一電光。一電光，何太速，百年都來三萬日，其間寒暑互煎熬，不覺童顏暗中失。縱有兒孫滿眼前，卻成恩愛轉牽纏。及乎精竭身枯朽，誰解教君暫駐延。暫駐延，既無計，不免將身歸逝水。但看古往聖賢人，幾個解留身在世？身在世，也有方，只為時人沒度量。競向山中尋草木，伏鉛製汞點丹陽。點丹陽，事迥別，須向坎中求赤血。捉來離位制陰精，配合調和有時節。時節正，用媒人，金公奼女結親姻，金公偏好騎白虎，奼女常駕赤龍身，虎來靜坐秋山裡，龍向潭中奮身起。兩獸相逢戰一場，波浪奔騰如鼎沸。黃婆丁老助威靈，撼動乾坤走神鬼。須臾戰罷雲雨收，種個玄珠在泥底，從此根芽漸長成，隨時灌溉抱真精。十月脫胎吞入口，不覺凡身已有靈。此個事，世間稀，不是等閒人得知。夙世若無仙骨分，容易如何得遇之。得遇之，宜便煉，都緣光景急如箭。要取魚時須結罾，莫只臨川空嘆羨。聞君知藥已多年，何不收心鍊汞鉛。莫教燭被風吹滅，六道輪迴莫怨天。近來世上人多詐，盡著布衣稱道者。問他金木是何般，噤口不言如害啞。卻雲伏氣與休糧，別有門庭道路長。君不見，破迷歌裡說，太一含真法最良，莫怪言辭多狂劣，只教時人難鑑別，惟君心與我心同，方敢傾懷向君說。

Jade runs and gold flies, the two luminaries hurry on; one has just heard of flowers opening when autumn frost arrives. To boast that Peng Zu lived to a thousand years is also like a flash of lightning in the clouds. A flash of lightning, how very swift: a hundred years altogether are only thirty thousand days, and in between cold and heat burn at each other, so that one does not notice the youthful face quietly lost. Even with sons and grandsons filling one's eyes, love and affection only become a snare. By the time the essence is exhausted and the body withered and rotten, who knows how to teach you to hold it back for a while? Having no plan to hold it back for a while, one cannot avoid returning the body to the flowing water. Look at the sages and worthies of ancient times: how many knew how to keep the body in the world? The body staying in the world also has a method, only the people of the day have no measure. They compete to search for herbs and trees in the mountains, subduing lead and restraining mercury to transform the cinnabar yang. To transform the cinnabar yang, the matter is utterly different; one must seek the red blood within kan. Seize it, subdue the yin essence at the li position, and harmonize and match them, which has its time. When the time is right, use a matchmaker; Lord Gold and the maiden form a marriage, Lord Gold prefers to ride the white tiger, and the maiden always drives the red dragon's body. The tiger comes to sit quietly in the autumn hills, and the dragon rises from the pool with all its might. When the two beasts meet in a battle, the waves surge like a boiling cauldron. Old Lady Yellow and Old Ding lend their power, shaking heaven and earth and startling the spirits and ghosts into flight. In a moment the battle ends and the clouds and rain recede, and a dark pearl is planted at the bottom of the mud. From then on the roots and sprouts gradually grow, and one irrigates them in season, holding the true essence. Swallow it into the mouth when the womb is shed in the tenth month, and without noticing, the ordinary body already has spirit. This matter is rare in the world, and not something an idle person can learn of. If you have no portion of immortal bones from past lives, how could you easily meet it? When you meet it, you should refine it at once, all because the light and shadow rush past like an arrow. When you want to catch fish, you must tie a net; do not merely stand at the river sighing in vain. I hear you have known the medicine for many years; why not gather your mind and refine mercury and lead? Do not let the candle be blown out by the wind, and do not blame heaven for the six paths of rebirth. Nowadays there are many frauds in the world, who all wear cloth garments and call themselves Daoists. Ask them what thing metal and wood are, and they clamp their mouths shut as if struck dumb. Instead they speak of swallowing qi and giving up grain, another gate with a long road. Do you not see what is said in the Pomi ge: the method of the Great Unity holding the true is the best. Do not blame the words for being very wild and crude; they only make it hard for people of the day to tell. Only because your heart and mine are the same do I dare pour out my whole heart to you.

吾家本住石橋北，山鎮水關森古木，橋下澗水徹崑崙，山下飲泉香馥郁。吾居山內實堪誇，遍地均栽不榭花。山北穴中藏猛虎，出窟哮吼生風霞。山南潭底藏蛟龍，騰雲降雨山濛濛。二獸相逢鬥一場，元珠隱伏是禎祥。景堪羨，吾暗喜，自斟自酌熏熏醉。醉彈一曲無絃琴，琴裡聲聲教仔細。可煞醉後沒人知，昏昏默默恰如痴。仰觀造化工夫妙，日還西出月東歸。天是地，地是天，反覆陰陽合自然。識得五行顛倒處，指日升霞歸洞天。黃金屋，白玉掾，玉女金童日侍前。南辰北斗分明布，森羅萬象現無邊。無晝夜，要綿綿，聚散抽添火候全。若問金丹端的處，尋師指破水中鉛。木生火，金生水，水火須分前後隊。要辨浮沉識主賓，鉛銀砂汞方交會。有剛柔，莫逸意，知足常足歸本位。萬神齊賀太平年，恁時國富民歡喜。此個事，好推理，同道之人知此義。後來一輩學修真，只說存養並行氣。在眼前，甚容易，得服之人妙難比。先且去病更延年，用火烹煎變陽體。學道人，去思己，休問旁門小法制。只知目下哄得人，不覺自身暗憔悴。勸後學，須猛鷙，莫徒拋家住他地。妙道不離自家身，豈在千山並萬水。莫因循，自貪鄙，火急尋師覓元旨。在生若不學修行，未知來生甚胎裡。既有心，要終始，人生大事惟生死，皇天若負道心人，令我三途為下鬼。

My home was originally north of the stone bridge, where mountains guard the water pass and ancient trees stand dense. Under the bridge the stream runs straight through to Kunlun, and the spring I drink at the foot of the mountain is rich with fragrance. Living in the mountains is truly something to boast of, for flowers that never fade are planted all over the ground (in the source text the character for "fade" is a variant form). In a cave to the north of the mountain a fierce tiger hides, and when it comes out of its lair and roars, wind and rosy clouds arise. At the bottom of the pool south of the mountain a flood-dragon hides, and when it rises into the clouds and sends down rain, the mountain colors are misty. When the two beasts meet and fight a battle, the hidden dark pearl is an auspicious sign. The scenery is enviable and I secretly rejoice; I pour and drink by myself, tipsily drunk. In my drunkenness I play a stringless zither, and each note in the zither bids one look closely. It is a pity that after drinking nobody knows, and I sit dim and silent as if foolish. Looking up, I see how wondrous the work of creation is: the sun still rises from the west and the moon returns from the east. Heaven is earth and earth is heaven; yin and yang, turned back, accord with nature. When you recognize where the five phases are inverted, you will ascend in rosy clouds on a chosen day and return to the cave-heaven. A house of yellow gold, rafters of white jade (in the source text the character for "rafter" is a variant form), jade maidens and golden youths attending before me every day. The Southern Dipper and Northern Dipper are plainly laid out, and all the myriad images appear without limit. There is no day or night, one only needs it to be continuous; gathering and dispersing, adding and withdrawing, the fire phases are complete. If you ask where the golden elixir truly lies, seek a teacher to point out the lead in the water. Wood gives birth to fire, and metal gives birth to water; water and fire must be divided into front and rear columns. To tell floating from sinking and to recognize host and guest, lead, silver, cinnabar, and mercury must then be joined. There is hardness and softness, do not let your mind run loose; know contentment and be ever content, and return to your original place. The ten thousand spirits all celebrate a year of great peace, and then the state will be rich and the people glad. This matter is easy to reason out, and companions in the Way know its meaning. Later generations of students of perfection say only nourishing and moving qi. Right before your eyes it is very easy, but for the one who takes it the wonder is hard to match. First cure illness and extend life, then cook with fire and boil it into a yang body. Students of the Way, remove your own thoughts and worries; do not ask about the minor methods of side doors. They only know how to fool people in front of them, without noticing their own bodies quietly wasting. I urge later students to be fierce and resolute, and not to throw away their homes and dwell in other places. The wondrous Way does not leave one's own body; how could it lie in a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers? Do not procrastinate and be greedy and mean; seek a teacher in great haste for the original purport. If in this life one does not study cultivation, one does not know in what womb one will be in the next. Since you have the aspiration, you must have a beginning and an end; the great matter of a human life is only life and death. If august Heaven fails the person with the heart for the Way, let me be made a ghost in the three evil paths.

悟真性宗

Awakening to the Lineage of True Nature.

絕句四首

Four quatrains.

如來妙體遍河沙，萬象森羅無礙遮。會的圓通真法眼，始知三界是吾家。

The wondrous body of the Tathagata pervades the sands of the Ganges, and the myriad images in their array have no obstruction. When one grasps the perfectly penetrating true Dharma eye, one finally knows that the three realms are my home.

視之不可見其形，及至呼之又卻應。莫道此聲如谷響，若還無谷有何聲？

Looking at it, you cannot see its form, yet when you call it, it answers. Do not say that the sound is like an echo in a valley; if there were no valley, what sound would there be?

一物含聞見覺知，蓋諸塵境顯其機。靈常一物尚非有，四者憑何作所依。

One thing holds hearing, seeing, awareness, and knowing, covering the dust realms and showing its function. Even this one thing, the constantly numinous, is not truly existent; on what could the four then rely?

不移一步到西天，端坐諸方在眼前。項後有光猶是幻，雲生足下未為仙。

Without moving a step one reaches the Western Heaven, and sitting upright all directions are before one's eyes. A halo behind the neck is still an illusion, and clouds rising under the feet do not yet make an immortal.

佛性非同異，千燈共一光。增之寧解益，減著且無傷。

Buddha nature is neither the same nor different, as a thousand lamps share one light. Adding to it, how could it know any benefit; subtracting from it, it suffers no loss.

取捨俱無過，焚漂總不妨。見聞知覺法，無一可猜量。

Taking or discarding, neither is at fault, and burning or drifting away poses no obstruction. In the dharma of seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, not one thing can be guessed at or measured.

求生本自無生，畏滅何曾暫滅。眼見不如耳見，口說爭似鼻說。

Seeking birth, one is originally without birth; fearing extinction, when has one ever been extinguished even briefly? Seeing with the eye is not as good as seeing with the ear, and speaking with the mouth cannot compare with speaking with the nose.

三界惟心頌

Verse on the Three Realms Being Only Mind.

三界惟心妙理，萬物非此非彼。無一物非我心，無一物是我己。

That the three realms are only mind is the wondrous principle; the myriad things are neither this nor that. There is not one thing that is not my mind, and not one thing that is my self.

見物便見心頌

Verse on Seeing Things Is Seeing the Mind.

見物便見心，無物心不現。十方通塞中，真心無不遍。

Seeing things is seeing the mind, and without things the mind does not appear. Within the obstruction and openness of the ten directions, the true mind is everywhere pervasive,

若生知識解，卻成顛倒見。睹境能無心，始見菩提面。

If knowledge and views arise, it becomes an inverted view. When facing a scene one can be without mind, one then sees the face of bodhi.

齊物頌

Verse on Equalizing Things.

我不異人，人心自異。人有親疏，我無彼此。

I and others are not different; it is people's minds that produce difference. People have near and far, but I have no this and that.

水陸飛行，等觀一體。貴踐尊卑，手足同己。

Creatures of water, land, and air I regard equally as one body. High and low, honored and humble (in the source text the character for "humble" is a variant form), are like hands and feet, the same as myself.

我尚非我，何嘗有你。彼此俱無，眾泡歸水。

I am not even myself; how could there be you? When both this and that are absent, the many bubbles return to the water.

即心是佛頌

Verse on the Mind Itself Is Buddha.

佛即心兮心即佛，心佛從來皆妄物。若知無佛復無心，始是真如法身佛。法身佛，沒模樣，一顆圓光含萬象。無體之體即真體，無相之相即實相。非色非空非不空，不動不靜不來往。無異無同無有無，難取難捨難聽望。內外圓明到處通，一佛國在一沙中。一粒沙含大千界，一個身心萬個同。知之須會無心法，不染不滯為淨業。善惡千般無所為，即是南無及迦葉。

Buddha is mind, and mind is Buddha; mind and Buddha have always both been false things. If you know there is no Buddha and no mind, that is the Buddha of the Dharma body of true suchness. The Dharma body Buddha has no shape; a single round light holds the myriad images. The body of no body is the true body, and the form of no form is the real form. Not form, not emptiness, not non-emptiness; neither moving nor still, neither coming nor going. Neither different nor same, neither existent nor nonexistent, hard to take, hard to discard, hard to hear or look for. Inside and outside perfectly bright and everywhere penetrating, a Buddha land lies in a single grain of sand. A grain of sand contains the great thousand world, and one body and mind is the same as ten thousand. To know it, one must grasp the Dharma of no-mind; not stained and not stuck is pure karma. In a thousand kinds of good and evil nothing is done, and this is Namo and Kashyapa.

堪笑我心，如頑如鄙。兀兀騰騰，任物安委。不解修行，亦不造罪。不曾利人，亦不私己。不持戒律，不徇忌諱。不知禮樂，不行仁義。人間所能，百無一會。飢來吃飯，渴來飲水。困則打睡，覺則行履。熱則單衣，寒則蓋被。無思無慮，何憂何喜。不悔不謀，無念無意。凡生榮辱，逆旅而已。林木棲鳥，亦可為比。來且不禁，去亦不止。不避不求，無贊無毀。不厭醜惡，不羨善美。不趨靜室，不遠鬧市。不說人非，不誇己是。不厚尊崇，不薄賤稚。親愛冤讎，大小內外。哀樂得喪，欽侮險易。心無兩視，坦然一揆。不為福先，不為禍始。感而後應，迫則復起。不畏鋒刃，焉怕虎兒。隨物稱呼，豈拘名字。眼不就色，聲不入耳。凡有所相，皆屬妄偽。男女形聲，悉非定體。體相無心，不染不滯。自在逍遙，物莫能累。妙覺光圓，映徹表裡。包裹六極，無有遐邇。光兮非光，如月在水。取捨既難，復何比擬。了此妙用，迥然超彼。或問所宗，此而已矣。

How laughable, my mind: like a dullard, like a bumpkin. Ever muddled and drifting, I leave things to settle themselves in peace. I do not know how to cultivate practice, nor do I commit sins. I have never benefited others, nor do I favor myself in private. I keep no precepts and give way to no taboos. I know nothing of ritual and music, and practice neither benevolence nor righteousness. Of what people in the world can do, I cannot do one in a hundred. When hungry I eat, when thirsty I drink. When sleepy I doze, when awake I walk. When hot I wear a single layer, when cold I pull up the quilt. No thought, no worry; what is there to grieve or rejoice at? No regret, no scheming, no idea, no intent. All the glory and disgrace of a life are no more than an inn on the road. Birds roosting in the forest trees may be compared to it. I do not forbid what comes, nor stop what goes. I neither avoid nor seek, neither praise nor blame. I do not loathe the ugly and bad, nor envy the good and beautiful. I do not rush to a quiet room, nor stay far from the busy market. I do not speak of others' faults, nor boast of my own rightness. I do not treat the honored with special warmth, nor the lowly and young with coldness. Dear ones and enemies, great and small, inner and outer, sorrow and joy, gain and loss, respect and insult, danger and ease: my mind has no two views of them, and is level with a single measure. I am not the first to claim good fortune, nor the first to begin misfortune. I respond only after being moved, and rise again when pressed. I do not fear blades, nor tigers and rhinoceroses (the base text has a wrong character where "rhinoceros" is meant). I am called whatever things call me, and why cling to names? The eye does not settle on forms, nor does sound enter the ear. Whatever has marks all belongs to the false. The shapes and voices of man and woman are none of them a fixed body. The body and its marks have no mind, and are not stained or stuck. Free and unbound, roaming at ease, things cannot burden it. Wondrous awareness is bright and round, shining through outside and inside. It wraps the six ends of the universe, with no far or near. Light, but not light, like the moon in water. Taking and leaving are both hard, so what can it be compared to? Understand this wondrous function and you stand far beyond others. If someone asks what school it follows, it is just this.

蘊諦根塵空色，都無一法堪言。顛倒之見已盡，寂靜之體攸然。

The skandhas, the truths, the faculties, the dusts, emptiness and form: not one dharma among them is worth speaking of. When upside-down views are exhausted, the body of stillness is at ease.

終日行，不曾行。終日坐，何曾坐。修善不成功德，作惡原無罪過。時人若未明心，莫執此言亂作。死後須見閻王，難免鑊湯碓磨。

All day walking, yet never walked. All day sitting, yet when did one ever sit? Cultivating good brings no merit, and doing evil was never a sin to begin with. If people of the day have not yet clarified their minds, they should not cling to these words and act wildly. After death one must meet King Yama, and cannot escape the boiling cauldron and the pestle and mill.

見了真空空不空，圓明何處不圓通。根塵心法都無物，妙用方知與物同。

Having seen true emptiness, the emptiness is not empty, and where is round brightness not round and unobstructed? The faculties, dusts, mind and dharmas have no thing in them, and only then do you know the wondrous function is the same as things.

萬物縱橫在目前，隨他動靜任他權。圓明定慧終無染，似水出蓮蓮自乾。

The myriad things cross and recross before the eyes; let them move or rest as they will and hold their sway. Round brightness, concentration and wisdom are in the end unstained, like water coming off a lotus, the lotus drying of itself.

一輪明月當虛空，萬國清光無障礙。收之不聚撥不開，前之不進後不退。

One wheel of bright moon hangs in the void, and its clear light over ten thousand lands meets no obstruction. Gather it and it does not gather, push it and it does not open, go forward and it does not advance, go back and it does not retreat,

彼非遠兮此非進，表非外兮裡非內。同中有異異中同，問你傀儡會不會。

that is not far and this is not near, the outside is not outside and the inside is not inside. In sameness there is difference, and in difference sameness; I ask you, puppet, do you understand?

貧子衣中珠，本自圓明好。不會自尋求，卻數他人寶。數他寶，終無益，只是教君空費力。爭如認得自家珍，價值黃金千萬億。此寶珠，光最大，遍照三千大千界。從來不解少分毫，剛被浮雲為障礙。自從認得此摩尼，泡體空花誰更愛。佛珠還與我珠同，我性即歸佛性海。珠非珠，海非海，坦然心量包法界。任你囂塵滿眼前，定慧圓明常自在。不是空，不是色，內外皎然無壅塞。六通神明妙無窮，自利利他寧解極。見即了，萬事畢，絕學無為度終日。泊兮如未兆嬰兒，動止隨緣無固必。不斷妄，不修真，真妄之心總屬塵。從來萬法皆無相，無相之中有法身。法身即是天真佛，亦非人兮亦非物。浩然充塞天地間，只是希夷並恍惚。垢不染，光自明，無法不從心裡生。心若不生法自滅，即知罪福本無形。無佛修，無法說，丈夫智見自然別。出言便作獅子鳴，不似野子論生滅。

The pearl in the poor man's robe was always round and bright of itself. Not knowing how to seek it in himself, he goes counting other people's treasures. Counting their treasures is of no use in the end, and only makes you waste your strength. How much better to know your own jewel, worth tens of millions of ten thousand times gold. This precious pearl has the greatest light, shining everywhere on the three thousand great thousand worlds. It has never lacked a hair's breadth, only drifting clouds made an obstruction. Ever since I recognized this mani pearl, who would again love the bubble-body or the flower in the air? The Buddha's pearl is the same as my pearl, and my nature returns to the sea of Buddha-nature. The pearl is not a pearl, and the sea is not a sea; the open mind's measure contains the Dharma realm. Let the noisy dust fill your eyes: with concentration and wisdom round and bright, you are always at ease. It is not emptiness, not form, and inside and outside are clear and without blockage. The six supernormal powers and spirit-light are wondrous without end, and benefiting oneself and others has no limit. See it and you are done, all affairs finished, passing your days in the learning that is beyond learning and in non-action. Calm, like an infant before it gives any sign, moving and resting with conditions, with no fixed insistence. Do not cut off delusion, do not cultivate truth; the minds of truth and delusion all belong to the dust. From of old the myriad dharmas have had no marks, and within the markless is the Dharma body. The Dharma body is the Buddha of natural truth; it is neither a person nor a thing. Vast and filling the space between heaven and earth, it is only the invisible, the inaudible, and the dim. Dirt does not stain it, its light is bright of itself, and there is no dharma that does not arise from the mind. If the mind does not arise, the dharmas vanish of themselves, and then you know sin and merit have no form at root. There is no Buddha to cultivate, no dharma to preach, and a great man's insight is naturally different. When he speaks it is the roar of a lion, not like the jackal debating birth and death (the base text has a wrong character where "jackal" is meant).

禪定指迷歌

Song on Meditation Pointing Out the Way for the Lost.

如來禪性如水，體靜風波自止。興居湛然常清，不獨坐時方是。今人靜坐取證，不道全在見性。性與見裡若明，見向性中自定。定成慧用無窮，是名諸佛神通。幾欲究其體用，但見十方虛空。空中了無一物，亦無希夷恍惚。希恍既不可尋，尋之卻成乖失。只此乖失兩字，不可執為憑據。本心尚且虛空，豈有得失能豫。但將萬法遣除，遣令淨盡無餘。豁然圓明自現，便與諸佛無殊。色身為我桎梏，且憑和光混俗。舉動一切無心，爭甚是非榮辱。生身只是寄居，逆旅主號毗盧。毗盧不來不去，乃知生滅無餘。或問毗盧何似，只為有相不是。眼前業業塵塵，塵業非同非異。見此塵塵業業，個個釋迦迦葉。異則萬籟皆鳴，同則一風都攝。若要認得摩尼，莫道得法方知。有病用他藥療，病差藥更何施。心迷即假法照，心悟法更不要。又如昏鏡得磨，痕垢自然滅了。本為諸法皆妄，故令離盡諸相。諸相離了何如，是名至真無上。若要莊嚴佛土，平等行慈救苦。菩提本願雖深，切莫相中有取。此為福慧雙圓，當來授記居先。斷常纖塵有染，卻與諸佛無緣。翻念凡夫迷執，盡被塵愛染習。只為貪著情多，常生胎卵化溼。學道須教猛烈，無情心剛似鐵。直饒兒女妻妾，又與他人何別。常守一顆圓光，不見可欲思量。萬法一時無著，說甚地獄天堂。然後我命在我，空中無升無墮。出沒諸佛土中，不離菩提本坐。觀音三十二應，我亦當從中證。化現不可思議，盡出逍遙之性。我是無心禪客，凡事不會揀擇。昔時一個黑牛，今日渾身是白。有時自歌自笑，旁人道我神少。爭知被褐之形，內懷無價之寶。更若見我談空，恰似渾淪吞棗。此法惟佛能知，凡愚豈解相表。兼有修禪上人，只學鬥口合唇。誇我問答敏急，卻原不識主人。蓋是尋枝摘葉，不解窮究本根。得根枝葉自茂，無根枝葉難存。更逞己握靈珠，轉於人我難除。

The meditation nature of the Tathagata is like water: when the body is still, wind and waves stop of themselves. In daily life be clear and calm and always pure, not only while sitting. People today sit in stillness to gain proof, not knowing that it all lies in seeing one's nature. If seeing and nature are clear to you, seeing will settle of itself within nature. When concentration is complete, the use of wisdom is boundless, and this is what is called the spiritual power of all the Buddhas. Time and again I wished to trace its substance and function, and saw only the void of the ten directions. In the void there is not a single thing, and no invisible, inaudible, or dim either. Since the dim cannot be sought, seeking it brings error. Just these two words, error and loss, must not be clung to as grounds of proof. The original mind is itself empty, so how can there be gain or loss to be involved in (the base text has a variant character for "involved in")? Only send away the myriad dharmas, send them off until they are pure with nothing left. Suddenly round brightness appears of itself, and you are no different from the Buddhas. The form-body is my shackle, so for now rely on softening the light and mixing with the common. Let every movement be without mind, and why contend over right and wrong, glory and disgrace? This born body is only a lodging, and the master of the inn is called Vairocana. Vairocana neither comes nor goes, and only then do you know that birth and death have no remainder. Someone asks what Vairocana is like, but just because it has a mark, it is not. Before your eyes are karmas and dusts, and dust and karma are neither the same nor different. See these dusts and karmas, and each one is a Shakyamuni, a Kashyapa. If different, the ten thousand pipes all sound; if the same, one gust of wind gathers them all. If you want to recognize the mani pearl, do not say you must first gain the Dharma to know. When you are ill, use another's medicine to cure it; once the illness is cured, what use is the medicine? When the mind is lost, borrow the Dharma to light it; once the mind is awake, the Dharma is no longer needed. It is also like a darkened mirror being polished, with the marks and dirt vanishing of themselves. Because all dharmas are at root false, people are taught to leave all marks behind. After leaving all marks, what then? This is called the utmost truth, unsurpassed. If you wish to adorn Buddha-lands, practice compassion equally and relieve suffering. Though the bodhi vow is deep, never grasp at anything within marks. This is merit and wisdom both complete, and in future you will be the first to receive the prediction. Cutting off or holding to permanence, with the slightest dust of stain, you will have no bond with the Buddhas. Think again of ordinary people's deluded clinging, all stained by love of dust and habit. Only because their greed and attachment are many, they are ever born by womb, egg, transformation and moisture. In learning the Way you must be fierce, with a heart without feeling hard as iron. Even children, wives and concubines are no different from other people. Always keep one round light, and do not look for what is desirable to dwell on. When the myriad dharmas are all without attachment at once, why speak of hell or heaven? Then my life is in my own hands, and in the void there is no rising or falling. I go in and out among the Buddha lands, never leaving the original seat of bodhi. Avalokiteshvara's thirty-two responsive forms, I too should realize among them. Their transformations are inconceivable, all issuing from a nature free and unbound. I am a mindless Chan traveler, and in all things I do not pick and choose. In former times it was a black ox; today the whole body is white. Sometimes I sing and laugh to myself, and others say I am short of spirit. How could they know the body in coarse cloth holds a priceless treasure within? And if you see me talk of emptiness, it is just like swallowing a date whole. This Dharma only a Buddha can know, and how could ordinary fools understand its inside and outside? There are also Chan monks who study only to spar with their lips and tongues. They boast that my questions and answers are swift, never realizing they do not know the master. All this is looking for branches and picking leaves, not understanding that one must trace to the root. Gain the root and the branches and leaves flourish of themselves; without the root, branches and leaves can hardly survive. And yet they show off, claiming to hold the numinous pearl, so that self and others become still harder to remove.

與我靈源妙覺，遠隔千里之殊。此輩可傷可笑，空說積年學道。心高不肯問人，枉使一生虛老。乃是愚迷鈍根，邪見業重為因。若向此生不悟，後世爭免沉淪。

From my numinous source and wondrous awakening they are separated by a thousand li. Such people are pitiful and laughable, vainly claiming years of studying the Way. Their minds are too high to ask others, and a whole life is wasted in growing old for nothing. These are the stupid and the dull-rooted, with false views and heavy karma as the cause. If they do not awaken in this life, how will they escape sinking in later lives?

讀雪竇禪師祖英集歌

Song on Reading Chan Master Xuedou's Zuying Collection.

漕溪一水分千派，照古澄今無滯礙。近來學者不窮源，妄指蹄窪為大海。雪竇老師達真趣，大震雷音椎法鼓。獅王哮吼出窟來，百獸千邪皆恐懼。或歌詩，或語句，叮嚀指引迷人路。言辭磊落意尚深，擊玉敲金響千古。爭奈迷人逐境留，卻作言相尋名數。真如寶相本無言，無下無高無有邊。非色非空非二體，十方塵剎一輪圓。正定何曾分語默，取不得兮捨不得。但於諸相不留心，即是如來真執則。為除妄想將真對，妄若不生真亦晦。能知真妄兩俱非，方得真心無礙。無礙兮能自在，一悟頓消歷劫罪。不施功力證菩提，從此永離生死海。吾師近而言語暢，留在世間為榜樣。昨宵被我喚將來，把鼻孔穿放杖上。問他第一義何如，卻道有言皆是謗。

The one stream of Caoxi divides into a thousand branches (the base text has a wrong character for "Cao"), illuminating the past and clarifying the present without obstruction. Of late students do not trace the source, and falsely call a hoofprint puddle the great sea. The old master Xuedou penetrated the true meaning, and shook the sound of thunder, striking the Dharma drum. The lion king roared and came out of his den, and the hundred beasts and thousand evils were all afraid. Some he made into songs and poems, and some into sayings, earnestly pointing out the road for the lost. His words are lofty and his meaning deep, striking jade and knocking gold, echoing through the ages. Yet the lost still linger on their objects, and go off to seek names and numbers in verbal forms. The true suchness and precious mark were never words at all, with no low or high and no edge. Not form and not emptiness, not two bodies, the dust-lands of the ten directions are one round wheel. True concentration never divided speech from silence; it cannot be grasped and cannot be let go. Only leave no heed on any marks, and that is the true Dharma standard of the Tathagata (the base text may have a different character for "standard" here). To remove delusion one sets truth against it, but if delusion does not arise, truth too is dim. If you can know that truth and delusion are both not so, only then do you gain the true mind without hindrance. Without hindrance, one can be free, and with one awakening all the sins of past kalpas melt at once. Without applying effort you realize bodhi, and from here you leave the sea of birth and death for good. My teacher's speech of late has been fluent, and he stays in the world as a model. Last night I called him over, and he passed his nostril through and hung it on the staff. I asked him what the first principle is, and he said that anything said is slander.

夫戒定慧者，乃法中之妙用也。佛祖雖嘗有言，而未達者有所執。今略而言之，庶資開悟。然其心境兩忘，一念不動曰戒；覺性圓明，內外瑩徹曰定；隨緣應物，妙用無窮曰慧。此三者相須而成，互為體用。三者未嘗斯須相離也。猶如日假光而能照，光假照以能明。非光則不能照，非照則不能明。原其戒定慧者，本乎一性；光照明者，本乎一日；一尚非一，三復何三？三一俱忘，湛然清淨。

Precepts, concentration and wisdom are the wondrous functions within the Dharma. Though the Buddhas and patriarchs have spoken of them, those who have not yet understood grow attached. Now I shall speak briefly in hope of aiding awakening. When mind and object are both forgotten and a single thought does not move, this is called precepts; when the awareness is round and bright and inside and outside are crystal clear, this is called concentration; to respond to things with conditions, with wondrous function without end, is called wisdom. These three depend on each other to come about, and are each other's substance and function. The three have never been apart for an instant. It is like the sun: it illuminates by means of light, and the light is bright by means of illumination. Without light there is no illumination, and without illumination there is no brightness. Trace precepts, concentration and wisdom to their origin, and they are rooted in one nature; light and illumination and brightness are rooted in one sun; if one is not even one, how could three be three? Forget three and one alike, and be clear, still and pure.

西江月（十二首）

Twelve Poems to the Tune of Xijiang Yue.

妄相不復強滅，真如何必希求。本源自性佛齊修，迷悟豈拘前後。悟即剎那成佛，迷兮萬劫淪流。若能一念契真修，滅盡恆沙罪垢。

False marks need not be forcibly extinguished, nor need true suchness be sought. The original nature is cultivated as one with the Buddha, and awakening or delusion is not bound by before and after. Awakened, one becomes a Buddha in an instant; deluded, one sinks and drifts for ten thousand kalpas. If a single thought can accord with true cultivation, the sins and stains of Ganges sands are wiped out.

本是無生無滅，強求生滅區分。只如罪福亦無根，妙體何曾增損。我有一輪明鏡，從來只為蒙昏。今朝磨瑩照乾坤，萬象昭然難隱。

At root there is no birth and no death, and it is by force that we seek to divide birth and death. Sin and merit likewise have no root, so when did the wondrous body ever gain or lose? I have a bright mirror that was only ever covered in dimness. Today I polish it and it lights heaven and earth, and the myriad phenomena are clear and cannot hide.

我性入諸佛性，諸方佛性皆然。亭亭寒影照寒泉，一月千潭普現。小即毫毛莫識，大時遍滿三千。高低不約信方圓，說甚長短深淺。

My nature enters the nature of the Buddhas, and the Buddha-nature of every quarter is just so. A cold, lofty shadow shines on a cold spring, and one moon appears in a thousand pools alike. Small it is hard to recognize even as a hair, and great it fills the three thousand worlds. High or low, it is not fixed as square or round, so why speak of long and short, deep and shallow?

法法法原無法，空空空亦非空。靜喧語默本來同，夢裡何勞說夢。有用用中無用，無功功裡施功。還如果熟自然紅，莫問如何修種。

Dharma, dharma, dharma, the dharma was never a dharma; empty, empty, empty, and the emptiness is not empty either. Stillness and noise, speech and silence are at root the same, so why talk of a dream inside a dream? There is use, and within use no use; there is no merit, and within merit merit is applied. It is like fruit ripening and turning red of itself, so do not ask how to cultivate and plant.

善惡一時忘念，榮枯都不關心。晦明隱顯任浮沉，隨分飢餐渴飲。神靜湛然常寂，不妨坐臥歌吟。一池秋水碧仍深，風動莫驚盡恁。

Forget good and evil at once, and care nothing for flourishing or withering. Dim or bright, hidden or shown, drift or sink; as your lot allows, eat when hungry and drink when thirsty. The spirit is calm, clear, and ever still, and it does no harm to sit, lie down or sing. A pool of autumn water, green and deep: if the wind stirs it, do not be alarmed, but let it be as it is.

對境不須強滅，假名權立菩提。色空明暗本來齊，真妄休分兩體。悟即便明淨土，更無天竺漕溪。誰言極樂在天西，了即彌陀出世。

Facing objects, there is no need to extinguish them by force; a borrowed name sets up bodhi for the time being. Form and emptiness, bright and dark are at root equal, so do not divide truth and delusion into two bodies. Awakened, you at once see the Pure Land, and there is no India or Caoxi (the base text has a wrong character for "Cao"). Who says Paradise lies west of heaven? When you understand, Amitabha comes into the world.

人我眾生壽者，寧分彼此高低。法自通照沒吾伊，念念不須尋覓。見是何嘗見是，聞非未必聞非。從來諸用不相知，生死誰能礙你。

Self, others, sentient beings and lifespan: how to divide this from that, high from low? The Dharma illuminates itself without any "I" or "you," and thought after thought needs no seeking. Seeing right, when did one ever see right? Hearing wrong, one does not necessarily hear wrong. All the functions have never known each other, so who can hinder you in birth and death?

住相修行佈施，果報不離天人。恰如仰箭射浮云，墜落只緣力盡。爭似無為實相，還元返樸歸淳。境忘情盡任天真，以證無生法忍。

Practicing giving while dwelling on marks yields a reward that does not leave the heavens and the human realm. It is like shooting an arrow at floating clouds: it falls only because its strength is spent. How much better is the unconditioned true mark, returning to the source and the plain, and going back to simplicity. When objects are forgotten and feelings exhausted, let natural truth be, and with this realize the forbearance of non-arising.

魚兔若還入手，自然忘卻筌蹄。渡河筏子上天梯，到彼悉皆遺棄。未悟須憑言說，悟來言語成非。雖然四句屬無為，此等仍須脫離。

Once the fish and hare are in hand, one forgets the trap and snare. The raft that crosses the river and the ladder to heaven are both abandoned when you reach the other shore. Before awakening one must rely on words, and once awakened, words turn out wrong. Though the four-line verses belong to non-action, these too must be left behind.

悟了莫求寂滅，隨緣且接群迷。斷常知見及提攜，方便指歸實際。五眼三身四智，六度萬行修齊。圓光一顆好摩尼。利物兼能自濟。

Once awakened, do not seek extinction, but follow conditions and for now guide the multitudes of the lost. Cutting off views of permanence and annihilation and drawing them along, skillful means point toward the true limit. The five eyes, three bodies, four wisdoms, six perfections and ten thousand practices are all cultivated together. One round light, a fine mani pearl, benefits beings and also saves oneself.

我見時人說性，只誇口急酬機。及逢境界轉痴迷，又與愚人何異。說的便須行的，方名言行無虧。能將慧劍斬摩尼，此號如來正智。

I see people of the day speaking of nature, only boasting of quick repartee. When they meet a situation they turn dull and deluded, and how are they different from fools? What one says one must practice, and only then is it called words and deeds without lack. One who can cut the mani pearl with the sword of wisdom is said to have the Tathagata's right wisdom.

欲了無生妙道，莫非自見真心。真身無相亦無音，清淨法身只恁。此道非無非有，非中亦莫求尋。二邊俱遣棄中心，見了名為上品。

Thinking of the wondrous way of non-arising, is it not that you see the true mind yourself? The true body has no mark and no sound, and the pure Dharma body is just so. This Way is neither nothing nor something, and not the middle either, so do not seek it. Send away both extremes and cast off the center, and when you see it, it is called the highest grade.

竊以人之生也，皆緣妄情而有其身。有其身則有患；若無其身，患從何有！夫欲免夫患者，莫若體夫至道；欲體夫至道，莫若明夫本心。故心者道之體也，道者心之用也。人能察心觀性，則圓明之體自現，無為之用自成。不假施功，頓超彼岸。此非心鏡朗然，神珠廓明，則何以使諸相頓離，纖塵不染，心源自在，決定無生者哉！然其明心體道之士，身不能累其性，境不能亂其真，則刀兵烏能傷，虎兕烏能害，巨焚大浸烏足為虞？達人心若明境，鑑而不納，隨機應物，和而不唱，故能勝物而無傷也。此所謂無上至真之妙道也。

I privately think that people are born, all because of deluded feeling, and so have this body. Having a body one has trouble; if there were no body, where would trouble come from! To be free of trouble, nothing is better than to embody the utmost Way; to embody the utmost Way, nothing is better than to clarify the original mind. So the mind is the substance of the Way, and the Way is the function of the mind. If one can examine the mind and observe nature, then the body of round brightness appears of itself, and the function of non-action is accomplished of itself. Without applying effort, one leaps at once to the other shore. If the mind-mirror were not clear and the spirit-pearl not bright, how could all marks be left behind at once, not a particle of dust stain, the mind's source at ease, and non-arising certain! But a person who has clarified the mind and embodied the Way cannot have his nature burdened by the body, nor his truth disturbed by objects, so how could blades wound or tigers and rhinoceroses harm him, and why should great fire and floods be a worry? The mind of an enlightened person is like a bright mirror, reflecting without taking in, responding to things as occasion arises, harmonious without leading, and so he can overcome things without harm. This is what is called the utmost true, unsurpassed, wondrous Way.

原其道本無名，聖人強名；道本無言，聖人強言耳。然則名言若寂，則時流無以識其體而歸其真。是以聖人設教立言以顯其道，故道因言而後顯，言因道而返忘。奈何此道至妙至微，世人根性迷鈍，執其有身而惡死悅生，故卒難了悟。黃老悲其貪著，乃以修生之術，順其所欲，漸次導之。以修生之要在金丹，金丹之要在神水華池，故《道德》、《陰符》之教得以盛行於世矣，蓋人悅其生也。然其言隱而理奧，學者雖諷誦其文，皆莫曉其意，若不遇至人授之口訣，縱揣量百種，終莫能著其功而成其事，豈非學者紛如牛毛，而達者乃如麟角耶！

Tracing the origin, the Way at root has no name, and the sages forced a name on it; the Way at root has no words, and the sages forced themselves to speak of it. But if names and words fell silent, the people of the age would have no way to recognize its substance and return to its truth. So the sages set up teachings and established words to make the Way plain, and thus the Way appears through words, and words return to oblivion through the Way. Unfortunately this Way is utterly wondrous and subtle, and people of the world have dull roots of nature, cling to having a body, hate death and delight in life, so that in the end it is hard for them to awaken. The Yellow Emperor and Laozi pitied their attachment, and so used the arts of cultivating life, following what they desired and gradually leading them on. Since the key to cultivating life lies in the golden elixir, and the key to the golden elixir lies in the divine water and flowery pool, the teachings of the Daodejing and the Yinfujing came to flourish in the world because people delight in their lives. But their words are hidden and their principles deep, and though students recite the texts, none understood their meaning; if they do not meet a perfected person who gives them the oral instructions, then however many hundred ways they guess, they in the end cannot apply effort and complete the work. Are not students as many as the hairs of an ox, and the enlightened as few as the horn of a unicorn!

伯端向己酉歲於成都遇師，授以丹法，自後三傳非人，三遭禍患，皆不愈兩旬，近憶師之所戒云：“異日有與汝解韁脫鎖者，當宜授之，餘皆不許。”爾後欲解名籍，而患此道人不知信，遂撰此《悟真篇》，敘丹法本末。既出，而求學者湊然而來，觀其意勤，心不忍拒，乃擇而授之。然所授者，皆非有巨勢強力能持危拯溺、慷慨特達、能仁明道之士。初再罹禍患，心猶未知，竟至於三，乃省前過。故知大丹之法至簡至易，雖愚昧小人得而行之，則立超聖地，是以天意秘惜，不許輕傳於匪人也。而伯端不遵師語，屢洩天機，以其有身，故每膺譴患，此天之深戒如此之神且速；敢不恐懼克責。自今以往，當鉗口結舌，雖鼎鑊居前，刀劍加項，亦無復敢言矣。

In the Jiyou year, Boduan met a teacher in Chengdu who gave him the elixir method; afterward three times he passed it to unsuitable people, and three times he suffered calamity, each within twenty days. Lately I recalled the teacher's warning: "If someday someone comes who unties your reins and unlocks your shackles, you should give it to him, and to no one else." Afterward, wanting to be freed from my registered name, and fearing others would not know to believe this Way, I composed this Wuzhen Pian (Awakening to Perfection) and set out the beginning and end of the elixir method. Once it was written out, seekers of learning flocked to me, and seeing their earnest intent I could not bear to refuse, so I chose some and gave it to them. But those I gave it to were none of them people of great power and influence who could uphold the endangered and rescue the drowning, or men of generous distinction who were humane and understood the Way. At first I fell into calamity again and did not yet know why, until the third time I finally realized my former mistake. So I know that the great elixir method is utterly simple and easy, so that even a foolish small man who gains it and practices it at once leaps into the sacred ground; for this reason heaven secretly guards it and does not permit it to be lightly given to the unworthy. And Boduan did not obey the teacher's words and repeatedly leaked heaven's secret; because I have a body, I was each time struck by punishment and calamity, so deep and so swift and godlike is heaven's warning; how dare I not fear and rebuke myself. From now on I should seal my lips and tie my tongue, and though cauldrons stand before me and a sword is set at my neck, I will not dare speak again.

此《悟真篇》中所歌詠大丹、藥物、火候細微之旨，無不備悉。倘好事者夙有仙骨，觀之則智慮自明，可以尋文解義，豈須伯端區區之口授耶。如此，乃天之所賜，非伯端之輒傳也。其如篇末歌頌，談見性之事，即上之所謂無上妙覺之道也。然無為之道，濟物為先，雖顯秘要，終無過咎。奈何凡夫，緣業有厚薄，性根有利鈍，縱聞一音，紛成異見，故釋迦、文殊所演法寶，無非一乘，而聽學者隨量會解，自然成三乘之差。此後若有根性猛利之士，見聞此篇，則知伯端得聞達摩、六祖最上一乘之妙旨，可因一言而悟萬法也；如其習氣尚餘，則歸中下之見，亦非伯端之咎矣。

In this Wuzhen Pian, the great elixir, the drugs, and the fine points of the fire timing are all fully described in the songs. If some lover of such things has long had an immortal's bones, then on reading it his thought will clear of itself, and he can seek the meaning in the text, so why would he need Boduan's petty oral teaching? In such a case it is heaven's gift, not something Boduan transmitted on his own. As for the songs at the end of the book, which speak of seeing one's nature, that is the Way of unsurpassed wondrous awakening mentioned above. But the Way of non-action puts saving beings first, and though I have revealed the secrets, in the end there is no fault. Unfortunately ordinary people have thick or thin karmic conditions and sharp or dull roots of nature, and even if they hear the same sound together, they come up with different views; so the Dharma treasures that Shakyamuni and Manjushri expounded were nothing but one vehicle, yet hearers and learners understand according to their capacity, and so naturally the differences of three vehicles arise. After this, if there are people of keen root who see and hear this book, they will know that Boduan heard the wondrous purport of the supreme one vehicle of Bodhidharma and the Sixth Patriarch, and may awaken to the myriad dharmas from a single word; if their old habits remain, they fall back on middling or lower views, and that is not Boduan's fault.

時元豐改元戊午歲仲夏戊寅日張伯瑞平叔再序。

At the time of the first year of the Yuanfeng era, the Wuwu year, on the Wuyin day of midsummer, Zhang Boduan, styled Pingshu, wrote this second preface.