Chapter 8 Chapter Six

The god of the valley is immortal, which is called Xuanbei, and the gate of Xuanbei is called the root of heaven and earth.If it lasts forever, don't use it frequently. Inheriting the above-mentioned law of "between the heaven and the earth, it is still flat! It is empty and unyielding, and it moves more and more. It is better to stay in the center than to talk too much", explaining that the role of the world, the myriad things and the lives of people and me often lies in the movement and stillness between.We must grasp it well and make good use of it.Therefore, I quote the passage of "The God of the Valley Is Immortal" in this chapter.It seems to be nothing but actually contains infinite magical functions. Although the magical functions are infinite, it also contains skillful means that are useful but useless.

In order to truly understand the connotation of this chapter and the various annotations of the general cultivators of immortality and alchemy in later generations, it is first necessary to resolve two key terms, namely the so-called "Gushen" and "Xuanmu". "Gushen": Valley, of course, is the abbreviation of the so-called valley.But the so-called valleys can roughly be summarized into two forms.One is a bag-shaped valley, with access but no exit.The second is the narrow and long passageway between the two mountains, which is flat and hollow at the top, which is relatively hidden or tortuous.

In the first type of valley, most of the air cannot convect, and there must be echoes when there is sound or movement.This echo is produced because the air cannot convect.But in the view of some ignorant people, they think that such an empty valley must be the cave house of the gods, so there is an echo.In fact, the echo is a physical effect, not a powerful spirit of the gods.However, in the minds of foolish men and women, religious myths are often formed because of this, and many unfounded legends are shaped, and they believe that there are gods in them.What's more, he borrowed the term from Lao Tzu, a representative of Taoism, and called him "God of Valley".

The second type of valley is dark and tortuous, with narrow and long passages connected at both ends, air convection, and calls from one end can quickly reach the far end.Therefore, it has also become a subject that is woven into mythology, and it is believed that there is divine help in it.In fact, it is also the sound transmission effect of the air, and there is no incredible mysterious existence. First of all, understand the reason why "Gushen" is a god is because there is nothing in the middle of it, so it forms the ethereal effect in it.It is precisely because of its emptiness and nothingness that it appears to be nothingness and contains functions that seem to exist.

Secondly, it is "Xuanmu", the word "Xuan" is also commonly used as the word "Yuan" for Yuanshi, Yuanlai, and Genyuan.Element, equal to the initial root element of all things, is a synonym for the extremely subtle first cause. "Mu", in ancient Chinese texts, is an elegant synonym for maternity and female reproductive function.On the contrary, the word "Mu" is the code name of male and male physiological functions.In this world, all animals and plants, although the continuous life is formed by the combination of male and female, most of the individual lives are born of females, that is, the female reproductive organs.Therefore, Lao Tzu created a term called "Xuan Mi".Later Taoists derived from this, believing that there is a "sea eye" at the center of the sea. Although the "sea eye" is small, it flows out continuously and becomes the source of all oceans and rivers on the earth level. It is the "mysterious mother" of the sea.As for the North Pole, it is the "mysterious mother" of the earth.The "perineum" part of the human body is the "mysterious female" of the source of human life.The Indian yoga term for body yoga calls it the "bottom of the sea", or a cave that is regarded as "spiritual energy" and "spiritual power".

After understanding the connotations of these two nouns, you can roughly understand the meaning of this chapter of "Lao Tzu", which is to experience the realm of "God of the Grain", which is empty and has infinite magical effects.Because of its emptiness and emptiness, life is endless, life is non-life, existence is not, so it is eternal and immortal.Later Taoism changed its appearance and called it "Dongyuan" and "Dongxu", which is where it came from. "Gushen" is the function of giving birth to wonderful existence from emptiness, and is the root of the source of life for all things in the world. Taking a synonym, it is called "Xuanmu". Although "Xuan Mi" is hollow and empty, it is a cave house that breeds the life of all things in the world.In this verse, we must pay special attention to Lao Tzu's clever use of words—the word "Ruo". The word "Ruo" and the word "Ru" in Buddhism are the same adjective, which means "like" in modern language.The function of producing wonderful existence in nothingness seems to be an endless existence, but there is no real thing.If there is a substance, everything that exists will eventually come back to nothingness at the beginning. This is an inevitable law.It is similar to the principle of mass-energy interconversion in modern physics.

I used a sharpener to blow hair In this section, Lao Tzu said another very important saying, which is "use it without diligence".On the contrary, if you use it too often, you will use it frequently, frequently, and for a long time.In this way, it will violate the miraculous function of "mianmianruocun".So, what is the reason for "not using it diligently"?Let us borrow a poem and verse written by Zen Master Linji Yixuan as an in-depth explanation. How about more than asking along the stream?It really looks like him. It takes a lot of time to blow hair away from celebrities.

The so-called continuous flow means that our thoughts, emotions, perceptions and feelings are always drifting with the flow, being led by the outside world to go downstream, and we cannot grasp the stop. If you can be open-minded and careless about the situation, you can only look back at yourself, look at your own mind, and see where the fluctuations of your mind arise and disappear, neither increase nor decrease, neither welcome nor reject without any resistance or help, as if you are innocent, Then, it is a little bit like the real photo of the imaginary. In short, "Tao" is originally a thing that is separated from its name and form, and it is wrong to say it in words.It’s wrong to fix it, and it’s also wrong not to fix it.

However, in terms of the function of "continuously existing" and flowing along, it must be used anytime and anywhere at the same time, and it must not be careless.It's like having an extremely sharp sword, if you take a hair and blow on its sharp edge, the hair will be cut off immediately.Although it is said that its sharpness cannot be increased, but in any case, once it is used, there must be some slight wear and tear, which is not true. blunt iron.Therefore, even if it is a sharp sword that can be broken at a blow, it must be trimmed as soon as it is used.Maintaining it at any time can make it eternally new and "existing".This is the best illustration of "not working hard".

guardian of god Having said that, people who practice Xuanzong's immortal alchemy school in later generations have changed Lao Tzu's theory of "the god of valley" and pulled it into the Taoist "Huang Ting Nei Jing Jing" to match the ancient medical "Huang Di Nei Jing" According to the same principle, the functions of the human body, such as the brain, heart, and lower abdomen, are each assigned a guardian deity to cooperate with the laws of heaven, earth, sun, moon, time, space, and orientation to take special care anytime and anywhere. time.If we use the Western concept of cultural classification, it certainly belongs to the representative work of the era of theocracy.However, changing Lao Tzu's theory of "God of the Valley" into the god of protecting the valley can achieve immortality and become immortal. This is the first transformation of Lao Tzu's Taoist thought into the Taoist Supreme Lord.

Later, the Taoist school of Immortal Alchemy combined with the Buddhist meditation method of practicing mindfulness of the body, and then changed to the practice method of "inner illuminating the body". The Daoyin alchemy of the lower three dantians, such as "shouping the orifices", has a three-step exercise method of moving the river cart, opening up the eight extraordinary meridians, "refining the essence to transform Qi, refining Qi to transform spirit, and refining spirit to return emptiness".From Lao Tzu's theory of "God of the Valley" being immortal, it is the second metamorphosis of "keeping the key and clearing the customs" again. Therefore, the practice of immortals who believed in the "Huang Ting Nei Jing Jing" and the alchemy practice of "keeping the orifices and preserving the gods" of later generations have their own ends, and they have similarities and differences.It's just that I have forgotten Lao Tzu's warning of "if it lasts as long as it lasts, don't use it diligently", or use "if it lasts as long as it lasts" to focus on one step of refining qi.Everyone is sticking to their bodies, busy, and playing with their spirits tremblingly. It is unavoidable that they are too diligent and too contrary. No wonder I knew it before, and felt that it was worthless, so I rode a green ox out of Hangu Pass and went west. step. In fact, the human body is originally an empty valley. The ancients once described it as a stinky bag, or a stinky bag. It belongs to life and is a tool of life, not the eternal possession of life.As for the imaginary spirit, which is used like a god's life soul, it uses this empty shell that only has one breath like "橐口" to manifest its spirit.If you can be in a state of motion and stillness, "still and still, feel and communicate", know the time, measure, stop and stop anytime, anywhere, "use it quickly after blowing hair", "use it not diligently", "valley "God" will naturally not die.What's more, death is only the effect of a general breath, and death means life. The "God of Valley" is inherently immortal, so why do you need to be so busy protecting it in order to keep this "God of Valley" immortal?If this is the case, then gods are not as good as people, and it is so precious to keep this "God of Valley"!This is probably a gimmick made by taking "Lao Tzu" out of context because of too much eagerness to seek immortality.In fact, if you go on and read the following, you will not be trapped by the "God of the Valley", and you can understand that "using it without diligence" is also the natural law of the universe.