7. The fundamental truth of Neidan: Let's talk about the point below the gas. The name "Inner Dan" originated late and was used to avoid grain, eat gas and guide gas. This name originated earlier. Ancient China people divided the world into "big universe", that is, heaven and earth, and "small universe", that is, human body. They feel that the two are interrelated. Later, people in Taoism thought that "external alchemy" could make people live forever because Ding Lu imitated the universe, and gold cinnabar was the treasure of immortality. The treasure of immortality can be refined in a small universe for a long time, so the human body is also a small universe, and qi is the source of human life. The accumulation and operation of qi in the body, just like the circulation of qi between heaven and earth, can also make people live forever, so it can also make people live forever. There is a basic idea in this. Taoism believes that man is formed by the blood of father, essence and mother, and is influenced by yin and yang of heaven and earth. "Qi", a special Taoist term, is "Qi", which is the foundation of human life. In ancient China, people imagined that in the state of infants and even fetuses, the qi of the human body was circulating all over the body. At that time, it was "innate vitality" and there was no need to breathe through the nose. But after birth, people breathe from the top to the nose, at most from the bottom to the end, so "Qi" can't flow all over the body, so Zhuangzi said: "The breath of people is in the throat". And they think that when people have desires in the world, they will be careless, dry, careless, and dry gas will consume the original "vitality." In the final analysis, what I said by inhaling through the nose and mouth is "moving more and more." People's vitality has lost money, those passions have consumed people's vitality, and coarse grain meat has occupied the human body, so that fresh "qi" can not be supplemented. Over time, vitality is gradually consumed. It is based on this idea that many health preserving techniques appeared in ancient times, except for drug supplementation, which later became external alchemy. As mentioned earlier, it includes three categories: one is eating gas, the other is pull-ups, and the third is sex. Among them, "eating qi" is to guide the inhaled "qi" to run in the body with your own thoughts, so that the qi veins of the whole body flow through. This has existed for a long time in ancient times. Qi Yu Pei, discovered many years ago during the Warring States Period, and An Introduction, discovered in the Han bamboo slips of Zhangjiashan in recent years, are all about this knowledge. In the eyes of the ancients, because of their own consumption, one of the ways to supplement is to eat gas, which is also turbid. The innate vitality is the kind of "swish" sound of life elements, and it is an unpolluted clean gas. In order to eat clean gas, we should not only clean ourselves, but also prevent pollution, so we should "eat grain", because food is also turbid, and it is best to eat gas in the early hours of the morning. So, so far, why so many people climb the Xiangshan Mountain in Beijing in the morning is because of the concept that the air in the morning is fresh and clear. The concepts of "vegetarian", "turbid" and "clear" can often be understood through feelings in the sensory world of China people. The so-called "pull-ups, physical fitness" is gymnastics, which originated very early. Laozi is full of passion, soft in the middle and firm in the middle, and Zhuangzi is full of "the bear has crossed the bird and stretched out", all of which are probably "teasers". The guide map found in Mawangdui Han Tomb, all the way to Hua Tuo's Five-Animal Play, is this method. As for "indoor technology", it may have originated very early. Ma Wangdui's silk books "Harmony of Yin and Yang", "Ten Questions" and "Health-preserving Prescription" in the Han Dynasty all talk about how men and women can get health care of their lives and bodies through sexual life, and some even describe them as the way to become immortals. Later, the yellow book "Harmony" appeared in Taoism, that is, using "the skill of Huang Chi" to achieve immortality. This was very popular and important knowledge at that time. People in that era did not have the moral and ethical consciousness of modern people. Perhaps before the Tang Dynasty, this knowledge was still open, so there were many records in the ancient books copied by the Japanese from China. How can he copy it if it is not public or popular? Just look at the Classic of Medical Mind and Motome. There were many such words at that time, and they were very public. Like the signature Bai Xingjian, Bai Juyi's brother wrote "Fu for Making Love with Yin and Yang", which greatly praised this kind of thing. However, after the popularization of morality, the taboo between men and women gradually became strict and marginalized, and it became a technique of "taking Yin to replenish Yang" that could not be mentioned publicly. 8. The basic method of Neidan returns to the topic of Taoist Neidan itself. It should be said that the internal alchemy method is based on this idea, and the requirements for refining internal alchemy are not complicated to sum up. First of all, people are required to keep empty and clean in both body and mind, which returns to Taoist thought. Only with a peaceful mind can you keep your vitality, your body is clean, and your body is clean, so you can get rid of all kinds of secular distractions, and don't eat meat, fish, spices or even less whole grains, so as to keep your mind calm and your body clean. Secondly, using the mind to control breathing is abdominal breathing, with eyes slightly closed, including light vision, eyes looking at the nose, eyes looking at the heart, the heart showing the abdomen, and the tongue touching the palate, that is to say, the tongue rolls back to the Tianchi point, two air leakage holes at the base of the tongue facing the palate. The abdomen is the most important warehouse and base of vitality in Taoism, so it is also called "Qi Sea". According to Taoism, taking the essence of the five elements, we should also imagine the evolution of southeast, northwest, middle, green, red, white, black and yellow, combined with the five elements. At this time, we reach a state of no desire and no thoughts, and at the same time exhale polluted air, which is called "expelling the old and absorbing the new" While breathing, there are some auxiliary activities, such as swallowing saliva. Holding firmly means holding your hand like a fist, knocking on your teeth means knocking on your upper and lower teeth, and sometimes you have to massage, comb your hair and ring the bell, which means knocking on both sides of your fingers. Thirdly, the "qi" inhaled into the abdomen should slowly run through the whole body. Taoism assumes that there is a fire in people's hearts, using the symbol of "separation" in the Book of Changes, and that there is "water" in people's kidneys, using the symbol of "Kan" in the Book of Changes, while "Qi" guides yin and yang to balance fire and water, and at the same time, it is necessary to gradually discharge the turbid gas inside the human body, and gather the absorbed clear gas, that is, vitality, on the list bit by bit. Zhuangzi said: "The breath of a real person is followed by the heel". In other words, the qi of the real person should run to the heel, but the most important thing is to get through the second pulse of Ren Du, that is, first guide the qi with the mind, slowly descend, pass through the perineum, and ascend along the Du Meridian. When reading novels, you will often see these two words: Ren pulse is the pulse on the chest, and Du pulse is the pulse on the back, which opens the second pulse of Ren and Du, that is, "Xiao Zhou Tian". Qi moves around in a small Sunday, just like traveling around the universe, becoming "innate vitality" and can be stored in the body. A little higher, it will be connected with the "Twelve Rings of Paris". At this time, the "vitality" is higher and more vital. "Qi" circulates in the body, making the whole body communicate with blood vessels and blood vessels, and people will live forever. Taoism often regards this process of qi passage as a heavenly way to pursue immortality, so many pictures imagine this movement of qi in the body as climbing Kunlun Mountain to find immortality. This kind of imagination is like the map of Neijing below. Finally, when people get used to this kind of breathing, they always breathe in the abdomen, and the qi pulse flows endlessly until they are unaware of it and reach a calm, mindless and endless state. At this time, the vitality and essence existing in the Dantian field are combined into one, which is called "elixir" and "nine turns to return to Dan" in Taoism, and people take a deep breath like immortals. Taoism regards "Inner alchemy" as an alchemist and associates the movement of "Qi" with gossip. It is considered that the heart is fire, which belongs to "separation" (-), the nature is dynamic, the kidney is water, which belongs to "stagnation" (-), and the nature is static. In the cycle of "qi", they blend with each other in the abdomen to achieve "mutual growth and mutual resistance" Speaking of Taoist Neidan, I would also like to remind you that although there are many books on Taoist Neidan, unlike medical books, Neidan is not an open knowledge, but a mysterious technology. It pursues immortality rather than health, so these books by Taoist Neidan are often difficult to understand. On the one hand, it always uses mysterious argots and special terms, such as lead and mercury in foreign orders, Kan and Li in the Book of Changes, White Tiger and Qinglong in traditional numerology, and famous argots such as Love Girl, Yellow Flower and Yellow Flower. On the other hand, there may be many key places that need teachers to teach, so there are often so-called "secrets" in Taoism. Without teachers' teaching, it is often impossible to practice, so as to ensure the monopoly and mystery of this knowledge. 9. Pursuing immortality This is the method and technology of Taoist pursuit of immortality. The so-called eternity or immortality is really an old and always worrying problem. What can last forever? In the eyes of the ancients, rivers and lakes, mountains and rivers, the sun, the moon and stars, those things that have always been there are eternal. Compared with them, people are short, so life is very sad. The ancients said that "drinking is a song, and life is geometric, such as morning dew, and it is more bitter to go to Japan", so they especially hope to live forever, especially when the concept of "reincarnation" in Buddhism has not taken root and the fact of "reincarnation" has not been confirmed. Therefore, trying to pursue eternal life, Taoism is aimed at this kind of anxiety and trouble, which is one of the reasons why Taoism can exist and prosper. In ancient China, Confucianism was concerned with society and order. "If you don't know who was born, how do you know who died?" They think that once a person has established his position, made a statement and become famous, he has completed the value of life, so he doesn't care about life and death. Buddhism pays attention to transcendence and regards life as suffering, so it requires people to pay less attention to life and death. On this philosophical level, it can be free from life and death. Only Taoism regards life as beautiful and sets the pleasure of life on enjoyment and joy, so there are such external Dan and internal Dan. In external Dan and internal Dan, especially internal Dan, we can see that Taoism not only relies on fantasy to communicate with God, but also relies on experience to feel its own side. That kind of "thought" and "pulse" are not so easy to master, and can only be realized under extremely quiet external conditions and extremely clean internal conditions. In this respect, Taoism and Taoism are the same. They also believe that the state of "fasting" and "forgetting myself" is the best psychological state to integrate with "Tao", and they also believe that the state of "unintentional" is the only way to reach and experience "Tao". So in Taoism, Taoist philosophy has always been an authentic theory. When scholars enter Taoism, they often confuse Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts with Taoist thoughts. What they get is a calm experience and feeling, which is different from the fantasy and madness that ordinary people rely on the communication between man and god to save secular problems!