Reproduced from:
Fabrizio Pregadio, Awakening to Reality: A Taoist Classic of Internal Alchemy
Golden Elixir Press
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)The terms "innate knowledge" and "innate capacity" derive from one of the main Confucian texts, the Mengzi (chapter 7): "What one is able to do without learning is called innate capacity; what one knows without pondering is called innate knowledge.". 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. All human beings have this Golden Elixir complete in themselves: it is entirely achieved in everybody. 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.
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