Liu Yiming on the Golden Elixir
Quoted from:
Awakening to Reality: The "Regulated Verses" of the Wuzhen pian, a Taoist Classic of Internal Alchemy, translated by Fabrizio Pregadio, page 77
Human beings receive this Golden Elixir from Heaven. It is perfectly good with nothing bad in it, it is innate knowledge (liangzhi) and innate capacity (liangneng). It is the Numinous Root, entirely achieved and with nothing lacking. It is the Breath of precelestial Perfect Yang. . . .
Golden Elixir is another name for one's inchoate fundamental nature (xing). There is no other Golden Elixir outside one's fundamental nature. Every human being has this Golden Elixir complete in oneself: it is entirely achieved in everyone. It is neither more in a sage, nor less in an ordinary person. It is the seed of the Immortals and the Buddhas, the root of the worthies and the sages.
Source: Liu Yiming (1734-1821), commentary to the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality), poem 3.
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