A Record of the Assembled Immortals and Gathered Perfected of the Western Hills by Richard Bertschinger

Author:Richard Bertschinger [Bertschinger, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780857013446
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2018-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

12

Rebuilding the Breath

To rebuild the breath is the ultimate art…

ABOVE THE HIGHEST HEAVENS THERE IS NO DARKNESS, beyond the bowels of the earth there exists no light. From out the earth is born the Yang one hundred and eighty days and it ascends into the sky; but it does not pass beyond the sky. Thus the Yang light is born from within the Yin dark, as the silent breath of life, sending on down its surplus into the human spleen. These words come from The Magical Texts Describing the Jaden Flower.

In a quiet room shut off the breath,

‘Taking in more, letting out less’,

And ‘in ten days you should see results’,

The body and limbs sleek and shining,

The channels and collaterals lively and strong.

If you foster and develop any lesser art, it will never achieve a result such as this.

NOTE: The Yang life-force, the warmth of the spring, is born again from within the dark Yin world of the earth. The one hundred and eighty days comprise spring and summer. The surplus of breath is stored within the spleen. We need to follow this same art in the body.

Each of the five inner organs has its season: one organ prospers whilst another weakens, one breath swells whilst another contracts. If you decrease where you find too much and build where there is insufficiency, once the organs are consonant together, all the joints of the body self-attune.

As all the joints of the body self-attune, all ails are stifled at birth.

Then as all ails are stifled at birth, a thousand harvests become a possibility!

NOTE: Again, following the ideas of the last few chapters, the admonition is to foster the breath – rebuilding where there is deficiency whilst reducing when there is excess.

THE WESTERN MOUNTAIN SAGES STATE THAT THE breath ultimately has no form, and so must rely on having a semblance of existence within the physical body.

Once the physical body is formed, the breath is in place, and it can be fostered and built up: it matters not whether you are young or at the end of your life; what is valued most is the utmost devotion you give to this task, from beginning to end holding to the single aim.

NOTE: The task is the fostering and rebuilding of the breath, which exists within the physical body, notably the human spleen, in the manner described above. We must have the utmost devotion to this task, working steadily through the seasons of the year.

The Holy Rhyme on the Secret Usage of the Sacred Ruling Foetus explained the highest doctrine of ‘rebuilding the breath’. Bodhidarma’s Ultimate Principle of the Foetal Breath also spoke of the middle doctrine. Later it was explained as ‘foetal breathing’ by Bian Que in the Lingshu and Ge Hong’s commentary on Foetal Breathing. But these were of lesser importance. Beyond these there is nothing worth noting.

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