Writing
The glossary, and essays.
Glossary
The glossary: 177 terms, with Chinese characters. Some have longer entries:
Jing, qi and shen精氣神Draft
The three treasures internal alchemy works with.
Qigong, neigong and neidan氣功 內功 內丹Draft
Three words often used loosely, and how they differ.
The dantian丹田Draft
What the dantian is, and where the three fields are.
What is internal alchemy (neidan)?內丹Draft
What Taoist internal alchemy is, in brief.
Who is Wang Liping?王力平Draft
Wang Liping, the current transmitter of the Dragon Gate lineage.
Essays
The Steps of Yu and Pacing the Big Dipper
An article by Wang Liping on the Steps of Yu and Pacing the Big Dipper, with two methods of Seven Star Pacing. Translated by Nathan Brine.
No Problem
The world around us reflects our inner state. A short note on turbid qi, resistance, and accepting what is.
Moving Jing to Change into Qi
A talk by Wang Liping on a method for restoring health from the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, written up by Hu Qiao and translated by Nathan Brine.
Liuhebafa
A rare internal martial art from the Huashan Taoist Chen Tuan, how Nathan came to it in 1997 and returned to it, and why it builds foundation for neidan.
Pore Breathing
An excerpt from Volume One of The Taoist Alchemy of Wang Liping: the six aspects of pore breathing, the most useful foundational technique in the system.
The Barrier of Sitting
Zuoguan, the barrier of sitting: the first major challenge of neidan practice, and how to get through it.
Qigong vs. Internal Alchemy
Qigong and internal alchemy are often confused. What each one does, how they differ, and where one leads into the other.
Taoist Poetry on Breathing
Classical Taoist verses on the breath, with translation and comment on what they describe in practice.
Release the Mind, Feel the Body
Why thinking about the practice gets in the way of it, and how to move attention out of the head and into the body.
Heart Stabilizes and Spirit Returns
On settling the heart-mind so that the spirit comes home to the body, and why this is the first benchmark of the practice.
Taoist Walking: the Nature Qi Exchange Method
A walking practice from Wang Liping's system for exchanging qi with the natural world, and how to do it.
Hear our Father, Recall our Mother
A method for sorting through the parts of ourselves that come from our parents, on the way to finding the True Self. Written for Mother's Day.
Taoist Perspective on Health
How Taoist practice understands health and illness, and why internal alchemy treats the body as the place where the work begins.
The Seven Emotions and Six Desires
Notes on qiqing liuyu, the seven emotions and six desires, from a 21-day fasting retreat with Wang Liping in 2014.
Tuning into Qi
Learning to feel qi: what the sensations are, why they are subtle at first, and how to tune the body and awareness to pick them up.
Burning through Karma
How the alchemical fire works on the karmic material stored in the body, and what that feels like in practice.
Activating the Dantian
Tips and tricks for finding the lower dantian and getting it working, from someone who had trouble finding his own.
Stillness in Neidan Practice
Stillness (jing) as the foundation of the alchemical work: what it is, why it is needed, and how movement arises from it.
The Three Spaces
The three internal spaces of the body (abdomen, chest, head) and the three external spaces, and how the practice works with them.
Reincarnation Energy
Zhuanshi nengliang: the karmic material carried into this life, how it shows up in practice, and how neidan clears it.
Purify the Furnace
Cleaning energetic and emotional sludge out of the body (qing lu) is the first job, and it comes before the alchemical work proper.
Precelestial and Postcelestial
Xiantian and houtian: the two states of being that Taoist alchemy moves between, and what the precelestial state is like from the inside.
Pain as Access in Neidan Practice
Physical discomfort in long sitting is not only an obstacle. Used properly it is a way into the body.
Furnace and Cauldron
What the furnace and the cauldron are in internal alchemy, and why the body has to be prepared before anything can be cooked.
Si and Wang: Taoist Perspective on Death
The modern word for death, siwang, is two classical words with two different meanings in Taoist practice.
Xiu and Lian: Cultivation and Practice
Cultivation (xiu) and practice (lian) are two different things. The methods are tools; the real work is making ourselves better.
Taoist Epistemology
How Taoist practice knows what it knows: direct experience in the body, checked against teacher and tradition, rather than belief.