百日筑基 Hundred Days of Laying the Foundation [excerpt 1]

Daoism Series 10

百日筑基
Hundred Days of Laying the Foundation [excerpt 1]

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百日筑基固，
十月胎养全。
三年乳哺毕，
九载面壁完。
-劝刊大成捷要五言古

The Hundred Days of Laying the Foundation’s firmness,
The Ten Months of the Nourishing the Embryo completed.
The Three Years of Suckling the Infant finished,
The Nine Years of Facing the Wall have come to an end.

– The Essentials of the Shortcut to the Great Achievement: Five-Word Poem Inscription of Advice

[一] 初节炼精化气功夫
I. The Gongfu of the First Stage of the Refinement of Essence into Qi
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This is the first step to be taken, the first course of study and the first class of cultivation. When one is healthy, without illness, and one’s Essence is full and sufficient, one is able to open the door and begin the Hundred Days. One should cease all thoughts and remain for twenty-four hours a day within this stillness. At this time, one will still need to eat. But one may well need very little sleep, with just three to five hours being enough – this is not a pathological inability to sleep, so it is quite different to insomnia. In this state, one remains:

空空洞洞虚虚靈靈。
Empty and concave,
void and divine.

This is all that needs to be said and there is no point in saying more about it. All one needs to do is to concentrate the Spirit by focusing downwards and placing it in the Lower Cinnabar Field. In this way, one preserves, nourishes and silently illuminates one’s Wisdom Radiance. One must be truly unmoving and take good care of the light. Furthermore, one must observe the Radiance of the Spirit for one hour perhaps to begin with, then gradually increase the length of time to two or three hours. When stillness reaches its peak, one’s breathing will become natural – long, thin and even – while only a small amount of air will enter the lungs, just a tenth or fifth of the quantity in normal breathing, yet this will be very natural and silently illuminating. Li Shi Fu invites everyone to experiment with this and verify it for yourself. However, it will be difficult to undertake this practice for 49 days after returning to one’s home, since one still has to go to work, look after one’s children, fulfil one’s responsibilities and deal with other worries and temptations. For now, one should implement this practice at a slow pace and remain at the level of longevity. So long as one does not attain the True Seed or the Great Medicine, all the methods and techniques employed will be restricted to the longevity level. Just thirty minutes or an hour of sitting meditation and stillness cultivation will transform the body and the endocrine system. So if one meditates for one to three days, or even for seven days in one session, can you imagine what the transformations of the body would look like? Unless one has tried this, it will be forever unfathomable.
After the three months or One Hundred Days, you will be truly able to enter deeper levels of cultivation, as the Spirit will be connected and unified in the belly where it is hidden. This is called Embryonic Breathing. When the Embryonic Breathing manifests, allow it to follow its natural course and let it proceed without forcing it.

[二]绝食腥荤香辣
II. Severing Meat Dishes, Stimulants, Fragrances and Spices
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The second step, when one starts the Gong of the One Hundred Days, is to regulate one’s diet. One must refrain from eating meat and fish, along with all fragrant and spicy foods, and even salt, for they all disturb one’s thoughts. Fragrance and acridity are traditionally said to disperse Qi, which the adept wants to accumulate. Moreover, it is often the case that meat carries blood, which should not be ingested. One should also avoid eating to the point of being overly full, as this will damage the body, while to be overly hungry will damage Qi. When one is hungry, one should eat just a little, but not too much, and then stop. To eat spicy foods will lead to the rising of Fire, which creates problems as there will be an imbalance in the body. Thus, one must be careful and sensitive with respect to one’s diet.

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Post-Scriptum:
This article will appear in the appendix of Purple Cloud Press’ forthcoming publication of 《The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao》 by Xing De/Li Shi Fu, a manual for refining one’s Inner Nature based on Liu Yi Ming’s 50 Barriers. Li Shi Fu is abbot of Five Immortals Temple (www.fiveimmortals.com).