性命功 Inner Nature & Life-Destiny Gong

性命功
Inner Nature &
Life-Destiny Gong
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古人云 :

世有性记足，而命记亏。

-大成捷要·动静无偏

The ancients said:

The world possesses Innate Nature Gong sufficiently,
yet Life-Destiny Gong is lacking.

-《Essential of the Shortcut to the Great Achievement》
chapter Movement and Stillness Without Deviation

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First of all it is warranted to define the two terms Inner Nature and Life-Destiny; Inner Nature [xing性], is one’s conduct as well as one’s thoughts, while Life-Destiny [ming命] is denoting the physical body. Life Destiny Gong [1], furthermore, refers to the sublimation or transformation of the physical flesh.
Many practitioners fail at this as they have not placed any emphasis on the Inner Nature Gong, which revolves around the forging of a benevolent character and becoming a good person. It could be argued that Buddhism places emphasis and thus has its strong points in the Inner Nature Gong [2], while Daoism attaches more importance on Life-Destiny Gong and subsequently the dual cultivation of both [3] is more prevalent in Daoism. Li Shi Fu put forth that the best at carrying this in his Spirit [i.e. double cultivation] was Jesus, whereas the best in cultivation of Innate Nature was Shakyamuni. That is why Shi Fu Daoism promotes the unification of the Three Teachings [4].
Ancestral Founding Master Lü Dong Bin [吕祖] in《Poem of Striking the Hexagram Lines》[qiao yao ge 敲爻歌] warns not to focus singly on the cultivation of Inner Nature overlooking Life-Destiny :

只修性,不修命,此是修行第一病。
只修祖性不修丹,万劫阴灵难入圣。
Only cultivating Inner Nature without cultivating Life-Destiny is the first fault of cultivation.
Only cultivating the ancestors’ Inner Nature without cultivating the Elixir,
it is difficult for the Yin Divinity [5] to enter sagehood [for] Ten Thousand aeons.

You can achieve Life-Destiny Gong in one hundred days, but Inner Nature Gong [6] takes a lifetime. It is also proposed that once the Inner Nature is moving in the right direction, the body, and thus Life-Destiny, follows suit. Zhang San Feng [张三丰] even went so far as to cultivate his Inner Nature in a brothel, remaining unstirred in his Heart-Mind despite the visual stimuli he was exposed to. It is poetically called refining the Inner Nature in the Flower Street [7].
According to the《Verifications of the Dao’s One Thread of the True Mechanism》[证道一贯真机 ].
Shang Yang Zi [上阳子] states the major difference in their attainment as the following:

性由自悟。
命假师传。
[While] Inner Nature depends on self-awakening,
Life-Destiny borrows the transmissions from the masters.

Despite the necessary cultivation of both of them, there is another stark discrepancy in terms of necessary environment to maximise the cultivation efforts.

在社会炼性，在深山炼命。
Within society refine Inner Nature,
within the deep mountains refine Life-Destiny [8].

[1] See also Fabrizio Pregadio’s article titled Destiny, Vital Force, or Existence? On the Meanings of Ming 命 in Daoist Internal Alchemy and its Relation to Xing 性 or Human Nature, which can be downloaded at no cost on academia.edu
[2] Li Shi Fu recommended 《Discourse on Transforming Inner Nature》[available on amazon] as an indispensable scripture for the cultivation of Inner Nature.
[3]The cultivation Inner Nature and Life-Destiny is synchronous [修行修命是统一的]. It could be compared to the North and South pole. Without a body oen could not cultivate Inner Nature. One is formless [wu xing 无形] and invisible, while the other is of form [you xing 有形], and can be seen.
[4] In Chinese 三教合一[san jiao he yi].
[5] The Yin Divinity [阴灵] is interchangeable with the Yin Spirit [阴神].
[6] Life-Destiny Gong includes changing one’s mind and subsequently one’s body, when Life-Destiny and Inner Nature are merged into the True Body.
[7] In Chinese, 花街炼性 [hua jie lian xing].
[8] Li Shifu would add that in the mountains, you cultivate Essence, Qi and Life-Destiny.

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Post-Scriptum:
The full article will appear in the appendix of Purple Cloud Press’ forthcoming publication of 《The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao》 by Xing De, a manual for refining one’s Inner Nature based on Liu Yiming’s 50 Barriers.