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:

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.