Observations placeholder

The Secret of Freedom

1.  Jadelike purity has left a secret of freedom
In the lower world:
Congeal the spirit in the lair of ene€rgy:
And you'll suddenly see
White snow flying in midsummer,
The sun blazing in the water at midnight.
Going along harmoniously,
You roam in the heavens
Then return to absorb
The virtues of the receptive,

2.  There is another line, a mystery within a mystery:
"The homeland of nothing whatsoever is the true
abode." The depths of the mystery are all contained
in a single measured verse.

3.  The essence of the great Way is to act purposefully
without striving. Because of nonstriving, one does
not cling to local conventions, forms, or images; but
because of not striving yet acting purposefully, one
does not fall into indifferent emptiness, dead voidness.

4.  The function is all in the center, but the mechanism
is all in the two eyes. The two eyes are the handle of
the stars, which manages Creation and operates yin
and yang.

5.  The major medicinal ingredient beginning to end is
only the "metal in the middle of primary water", (i.e.,
the "lead in the region of water,'). The preceding talk
of turning the light around points out a method for
beginners to control the inside from outside, thus
helping them to attain independence.

6.  This is for middling and lesser people cultivating the
lower two passes in order to penetrate the upper
pass. Now as the Way gradually becomes clear and
mastery of the device gradually matures, Heaven does
not begrudge the Way but directly divulges the
unsurpassed doctrine. Keep it confdential, and
work it out.

7.  Turning the light around is only the general term: with
each level of progress in practice, the efflorescence of
the light increases in magnitude, and the method of
turning around becomes subtler. previously one con-
trolled the inside from the outside; now one abides
in the center and controls the outside. Before, the
assistant administered for the master; now one
promulgates policy in service of the master. There has
manifestly been a great reversal.