Translated by Shuyu

 

The Gold Elixir system here is referred to a set of Taoist training methods that can achieve what alchemists all over the world tried to achieve for thousands of years, immortality.

While alchemists tried to create a pill (the Elixir) with various chemical and mystical processes to achieve this goal, Taoist ancestors have found ways inside our own body to replicate the processes and create the pill inside our body. We call this process the inner Elixir system.

In this system, our body as a whole acts as the stove, and the three Dantians (which are center region of our head, chest and lower abdomen) act as three cauldrons. When the practitioner is in crossed-legged sitting position, it looks like a three-legged cauldron with two loop handles (two ears) inside a stove. Stove is used to start and control fires. Cauldron is the container for cooking or synthesizing the ingredients to create the Elixir. There are different types of cauldrons, and the highest level of cauldron is gold cauldron, and the Elixir made from the gold cauldron is called the Gold Elixir.

In the Taoist model of human life, there are three important moments: the first one is fertilization; the second one is the unity of the two energies into one and the embryo is formed; and the last one is the full development of the fetus right before birth. This before-birth stage has high significance in Taoist model of life, it is the stage where all the essential life forces of the person are developed. After birth, when reached puberty, which is roughly 14 for girls and 16 for boys, the energy and vital substances of a person reached its maximum, and then it starts to wear out until the essential life forces are consumed. So for a regular people, the life span and health level depend on two factors, the amount of life forces gained before birth, and the wear out speed afterwards. Based on this model, Taoism found a way to beat death, which is to turn back this process. First turn back to puberty, then further turn back to newborn, and finally to before birth. Of course it doesn’t mean that our body will turn back to a baby, it means revert back to the level of essential life forces before it wears out, and even further to the before-birth stage so one can regain more life forces. Based on this theory, Taoist ancestors created a series of training methods. In the Taoist vocabulary, this process is called turning from three to two, from two to one (Taichi), from one to the original source. And the methods are summarized as the Gold Elixir system. It is consisted of three major parts, converting vital substances into energy, converting energy to spirits, and converting spirits to emptiness of the origin.

So during the training of the Gold Elixir system, a practitioner uses his or her body as stove and Dantians as cauldrons. Also inside the body, there are various energies, the Yin and Yang energies, the energies taken from the universe, and the energies of the five elements. These energies serve as the ingredients for creating the Elixir. One more important ingredient is the spiritual light in the universe. Then the practitioner can start convert the vital substances, the energies and the spirits. During the process, depending on the purpose, the spirit can act as container for energies, the energies also can act as container for the spirits. This process of returning to the original source, using the ingenious ways of creating Gold Elixir, is the Gold Elixir system.

Depending on each individual person, the ingredients used in the Gold Elixir system is different, so there are many different ways in practicing the Gold Elixir system. The system is complicated and hard to communicate by words. It is hard to succeed without an experienced teacher. That is why very few have succeeded in the history. And the system has been regarded as the secret of Gold Elixir.