Summarized from the Introduction of:
Liu Yiming's View of Neidan
"Superior Virtue" and "Inferior Virtue"
Concerning Neidan, Liu Yiming makes a fundamental distinction between two ways of self-cultivation, respectively called "superior virtue" (shangde) and "inferior virtue" (xiade). Superior virtue is the state in which the precelestial has not been damaged and the original state of Unity is unspoiled. The few persons who have an inherent potential to preserve this state only need to "protect it and guard it". This requires receiving the instructions of a master, but the method (fa) ultimately consists in following the Tao itself: there is no need to "do" a practice, and one operates by "non-doing" (wuwei). If this original state is not preserved, the precelestial is dispersed and the postcelestial takes over. To recover the precelestial state, one cannot anymore operate by "non-doing" and instead must "do": one needs a technique (shu) through which one can conjoin the True Yang and True Yin now found within the postcelestial Yin and Yang, respectively. This is the way of Internal Alchemy, which is the way of inferior virtue. However, Liu Yiming points out that when the way of inferior virtue has been fulfilled, it leads "to the same destination as superior virtue".
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"Doing" and "Non-Doing"
In parallel to the distinction between superior and inferior virtue, Liu Yiming also establishes a key difference between two aspects, or stages, of the Internal Elixir. These stages focus on the cultivation of Nature and Existence, and they correspond to the ways of superior and inferior virtue, respectively. Those who are able to follow the way of superior virtue perform the two stages simultaneously: "In superior virtue, there is no need to cultivate Existence and one just cultivates Nature: when Nature is fulfilled, then Existence is also fulfilled." Everyone else should perform the two stages in sequence, starting from the lower one and then proceeding to the higher one: "In inferior virtue, one must first cultivate Existence and then cultivate Nature; after Existence is fulfilled, one must also fulfill Nature". The way of superior virtue attains both stages instantly by "non-doing." Inferior virtue, instead, is the gradual way, and its practice is performed first by "doing" and then by "non-doing."
The Two Elixirs
Cultivating the Tao
Teachings on the principles of Taoism and Taoist Alchemy, by the great Taoist master Liu Yiming (1734–1821)
The stages mentioned above correspond to two different Elixirs, which Liu Yiming calls Small Reverted Elixir (xiao huandan) and Great Reverted Elixir (da huandan). The Small Reverted Elixir "consists in returning from the postcelestial to the precelestial". This is the movement of ascent, the "inversion of the course" performed through Internal Alchemy. The practice, however, is completed only by compounding the Great Reverted Elixir. At this stage, one performs the complementary movement of descent, returning "from Non-Being to Being, and from the subtle to the manifest". Thus Internal Alchemy, through its gradual process, enables one to ascend to the precelestial, but its practice is concluded when the descent to the postcelestial is also performed. Then the precelestial and the postcelestial become one, and one operates by transforming (hua) the postcelestial into the precelestial.
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