The Essential Mysteries of the Quanzhen School
Composed by Li Daochun in the early Yuan Dynasty.
It consists of one scroll and is included in the Methods Category of The Dongzhen Section within The Daozang.
The book is divided into two parts. The first is Annotations and Commentary on Zhouyi Cantong Qi, an explanation of the poems in Zhang Boduan’s Awakening to the True. The second is An Explanation of the Taiji Diagram, an annotation of Zhou Dunyi’s Explication of the Taiji Diagram. Its doctrines are based primarily on the I Ching, incorporate Buddhist and Taoist ideas, and advocate the unity of the three teachings.
The Essential Mysteries of the Quanzhen School
It proclaims: "The way of the I Ching is extensive and comprehensive; apply it to the study of Buddhism, and one attains Buddhahood; apply it to the pursuit of immortality, and one becomes an immortal; apply it to self-cultivation, family harmony, state governance and world peace, and one achieves these goals." The author expounds the principles of the I Ching to elucidate the original nature of the human body and mind, and apply such insights to the cultivation of nature and the refinement of the Golden Elixir.
He holds that grasping the origin and the end, and returning to the fundamental and the primordial, is the essence of cultivating nature and life. The method of practice lies solely in establishing the foundation through stillness. Hence it is said: "Subdue the wandering heart, eliminate delusional emotions, calm the upright Qi, nurture the primordial essence, and one will naturally communicate with all things in the state of utter stillness and motionlessness."
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