Dharma Words Of Master Yuanyang 原阳子法语

Written by Zhao Yizhen (style Yuanyangzi), a Taoist priest of the early Ming Dynasty, and compiled by his disciple Liu Yuanran.

It consists of two volumes and is included in the Taixuan Section of The Daozang.

The book collects forty-eight poems and hymns, two colophons, and one treatise by Zhao Yizhen.

Most of his writings discuss the cultivation of nature and life in the Dao of immortality, integrating doctrines of the Jingming and The Quanzhen Dao schools.

He advocates the unity of the Three Teachings, dual cultivation of blessing and wisdom, benefiting oneself and others, and salvation for all. On the Dao of the elixir, he upholds the joint cultivation of internal and external alchemy.

He states that Internal Alchemy refers to the self-nature Dharma-body, which is inherently complete, not dependent on external things, and naturally true. Its practice consists in gathering emotions back to nature, and gathering nature back to qi.

A hymn says: “Gather emotions to nature, return to the One; The One itself is forgotten, and forgetting too vanishes. Gather the Three Realms into Emptiness; Shatter Emptiness, sever the bond of life.”

He also says of External Alchemy: The physical body is inevitably subject to decay; one must rely on external medicine to refine and transform it into truth. Its practice involves absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, seizing the creativity of Qian and Kun. When the Sword Ladder enters the mouth, desires vanish at once; flesh and bones merge completely, until form and spirit are both wondrous, and one ascends to heaven in broad daylight.

Though the functions of internal and external elixirs differ, they lead to the same Dao.

He further holds that karmic retribution of good and evil is clear and trustworthy. He recounts that in his early years he studied the Dao from Master Li (Xuanyi Li), who instructed him to use diary-keeping as a gate to refining the mind and entering the Dao. After accumulating practice over time, he attained sudden penetration: “The mind merges with principle, heaven and humanity unite in virtue; only then does one know that cultivating the mind is cultivating the Dao.”