Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian)
The Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality) is one of the most important and best-known Taoist alchemical texts. Written in the 11th century, it describes in a poetical form, and in a typically cryptic and allusive language, several facets of Neidan (Internal Alchemy).
Materials listed on this page are excerpted from:
Awakening to Reality: A Taoist Classic of Internal Alchemy, translated by Fabrizio Pregadio. Golden Elixir Press.
Preview (PDF)
Translations
Poem 3
"If you study immortality, you should study celestial immortality: only the Golden Elixir is the highest principle. When the two things meet, emotions and nature join one another; where the five agents are whole, Dragon and Tiger coil. . . "
Poem 7
"You should know that the source of the stream, the place where the Medicine is born, is just at the southwest -- that is its native village. When Lead meets the birth of gui, quickly you should collect it: if Metal goes past the full moon, it is not fit to be savored. . . "
Commentaries by Liu Yiming
● Commentary to Poem 3
● Commentary to Poem 7
Other Selections
Other short selections from Awakening to Reality:
● Poem 1
● Poem 6
● Poem 9
● Poem 12
● Poem 14
Articles
An Introduction to Awakening to Reality
A five-part essay on the Awakening to Reality, its dotrinal sources, and its teachings on the Internal Elixir.