The meaning of Reversing in Taoism 什么是逆

The core of Daoist cultivation theory and an essential category of Daoist philosophy. The character "reversal" (nì) signifies inversion and return, using Internal Alchemy cultivation to simulate the process of cosmic reversion. Daoism has the principle "following the ordinary course produces human beings, reversing it produces immortals," stating that "the Yijing uses reversal as its method; the Daoist school extracts from Kan and fills Li, all taking the reversed course."

The meaning of Reversing in Taoism

Immortal scriptures say: "When the Five Elements are inverted, the great earth becomes seven treasures; when the Five Elements proceed in order, the dharma realm becomes a pit of fire." Daoism's adoption of "reversal" is also a behavioral norm: disliking what the multitude likes, despising what the multitude values, and opposing what the multitude desires, thus distinguishing oneself from ordinary people through reversed conduct. From the nine palaces to the eight trigrams, applying seven transformations to regulate six positions, gathering the five phases to unite the four images, combining the three powers into two principles, and collecting the two soils to form the elixir—completing the cultivation process of three returning to two, two uniting into one, and one reverting to void—this is the marvelous application of the character "reversal."