The image of smelting and refinement is a huge Taoist Alchemical metaphor.
ÒAnother Chinese tradition that contributed to the development of alchemical experiments was that of bronze and iron technology. É The myths of the heroes of Chinese culture, the founders of the legendary dynasties, abound in stories about the sacred art of fusing metals and the casting of royal treasures.Ó [1]
Because there are so many different types of Taoism, we will just call this group of Taoists the Alchemists, to distinguish them from Taoists of other persuasions. The Alchemists have a distinct background, which contains many traditional Taoist principles but has its own unique approach, which tends to be scientific, experimental, and psychological rather than supernatural and mystical. One of their schools is called the Complete Reality School. The focus is on dealing with the energy of this world, not the next. These Alchemists were used to mixing ingredients, but one of the original images was the smelting of ore for refinement.
The following quote is from an alchemical Taoist text, Four Hundred Words on the Gold Elixir, i.e. The Inner Teachings of Taoism, whose roots go back to the first centuries of this era. This book is foundational in the Taoist alchemical tradition associated with the Complete Reality School. The commentator and transmitter Liu I Ming lived in the 1800s. Liu I Ming considered The Journey to the West a sacred book. Master Ni considers the author of The Journey to the West an avatar that left this message behind to help out. Hence we are going to be examining the Journey to the West from the perspective or filter of these schools, i.e. Taoist Alchemy and TÕai Chi. Thus we will examine this analogy of bronze casting in Taoist Alchemy to give it an appropriate context.
400 Words on the Golden Elixir by Chang Po-tuan
Ò#8. Work the fire to smelt and refine.
Activate sane energy; sweep out aberrant energy.
Gentle cooking and fierce refinement are the methods of immortals;
Fire comes forth in the spiritual furnace, yin and yang,
Burning away the thousand kinds of pollutants.
Naturally the great medicines emanate misty light.Ó[2]
The analogy with metallurgy is obvious and direct. The idea is that we are here to purify our souls. We are polluted and need to be refined, purified. In Gold Elixir there are many images of the polluted knowledge, which needs to be refined. The idea is to cook ourselves in this huge vat to purify our spirits. If we are cooked enough then our purified essence survives.
ÒThe method of alchemy involves gathering the bit of true fire of open awareness within conscious knowledge and refining out the adulterating energy of confused feelings.Ó Liu I Ming p15
ÔThe bit of true fire of open awarenessÕ would be analogous to the purified copper; Ôconscious knowledgeÕ would be the ore, while the refinement involves ÔgatheringÕ or separating the pure metal from the ore, Ôthe adulterating energy of confused feelings.Õ
Once the Refinement has been achieved, then the combining begins, the Mixture, the Blend. Neither one nor the other, but both. Existing between yin and yang, thatÕs Taiji. A permanent synergy is created, called bronze in the exterior analogy.
One of the features of bronze that made it so attractive besides its hardness and beauty was that it resisted corrosion and could be recast indefinitely without reverting to its earlier elements. Hence once bronze was created it was permanent. Thus the effort to produce bronze created something eternal and ÔimmortalÕ. Thus Piggy, i.e. Wood, and Monkey, i.e. Metal, combine as allies behind Tripitaka to become Immortals, in this alchemical combination. Once bronze is created it is forever.
Thus according to the Alchemical analogy, first comes soul purification. The individual elements must be isolated. Then these pure elements must be combined to achieve the synergy of true transformation. In the bronze analogy, after the mixture of metals comes the casting process. The transformed metal, bronze, finds a form.
From the fertility perspective, the synergy is Art. The Human being is refined; the soul is purified. This purification opens up the channels. The Initiate becomes an Empty Vessel, a conduit, for transmitting the Divine Energy. This divine energy is manifested as Art, the agri-cultural Fruit. The process of creation is the unformed bronze, while the finished piece of art is the cast bronze. The permanence of the Art is in itself and in its Seeds. Hence we fertility worshippers are not looking for personal immortality, but immortality for our Art. Sometimes a personÕs LifeÕs example is the Art, itself. Witness Jesus, Buddha, or Confucius, none of whom left anything behind except their incredible lives.
Thus in psycho-spiritual terms the bronze analogy included the refinement of different aspects of the personality followed by the integration of these isolated parts into the whole. This whole purified soul was now ready to produce the Great Work. The soul had found the Tao, the Path. This is the alignment with the Will of Heaven. The Soul was now ready to fulfill Destiny and thwart Fate. Refinement and integration without the Great Work, is empty from the fertility perspective.
Soul purification, integration, and actualization are three distinct processes that are necessary to fulfill Destiny. In actual practice the three processes, while distinct, interact in both positive and negative ways. The process of actualization also acts to purify and integrate the soul. The pollution of the soul degrades integration and actualization. Further the lack of actualization diminishes purification and integration. In other words all three processes must occur to optimize the result, i.e. for the Being to be aligned with the Will of Heaven.
In The Journey to the West, the Quest begins with the Will of Heaven. It begins when Buddha decides to give Ôthree baskets of true scriptures which can persuade man to do goodÕ to the people of the East, China. Tathataga Buddha will not however give the scriptures directly to the Chinese because they are too dull witted to perceive the Truth. They must earn the scriptures by sending one of their own on a long and perilous journey to obtain them. The Will of Heaven is that a Chinese citizen should travel the long mountainous route to India to obtain the holy scriptures for the redemption of the Chinese.
Tripitaka is chosen and told of his Mission by Kuan Yin. Thus aligning himself with the Will of Heaven, he goes on this arduous quest. Because he is aligned with the Will of Heaven he is given a dragon horse to ride and provided with three companions with prodigious military powers to protect and assist him on his Journey. Also he is provided with a multitude of guardian angels to further protect him as long as he continues the Quest, i.e. continues to align himself with the Tao of Heaven.
But remember just because Tripitaka is protected does not mean that he feels no pain. While he suffers a tremendous amount of anxiety because he is frequently threatened (although he suffers no real harm), there are times when he is tied upside down and whipped. One episode has Monkey waiting to save him until he has received the proper amount of necessary whipping to toughen him up.
Once the Will of Heaven has been revealed and the elements have been assembled for the Journey, then the task is to balance and integrate the individual elements. Because the elements enter the Quest in a polluted state, there is a tendency to distort the process through obsessive behavior. As examples: Monkey, Piggy, and even Tripitaka threaten the Journey because of the polluted qualities they brought into the Quest, which include pride, laziness, and an obsession with form. Each of the elements must be purified and integrated slowly for the Party to achieve the Great Work of acquiring the scriptures. The focus upon the purification process at the expense of the Great Work is emptiness; the obsession with the Great Work without purification or integration produces Art of inferior status. Purification and integration are both essential aspects of actualization as manifested in the Great Work. Without these elements the work is flawed and will not last through the Fire. If the elements of the process are polluted or fragmented, then the firing will not create anything of lasting quality.
In terms of The Journey to the West, Hsi-yu Chi, this same pattern is followed. Each of the five elements – Monkey, Piggy, Monster, the Monk, and the Horse – is polluted because of previous transgressions against heaven, mostly carelessness. Joining forces on this mystic quest gives each of the fallen immortals the chance for ego purification through personal interaction, excruciating trials and the earning of merit. Simultaneously as they experience ego purification they also begin the process of integration, melding into a single cooperative unit. Further they also experience the actualization of the Journey itself.
Stepping a little further back, the author himself experiences purification, integration, and actualization as he writes the work. He does not experience enlightenment and then write the book. The book is a record of his own Journey to the Buddha of the West. The book itself is the ÔtoolÕ, the cast bronze, the Golden Pill, that he manifests through his existence as a ÔSageÕ.
In Taiji, the process is also the same. Initially it is necessary to purify mind, body, and form. The mind purification is necessary because the mind leads the body. The body purification is necessary to clear all the blocked channels for proper energy flow. The form purification has to do with separating out the elements. Basically all the elements are polluted from unrestrained interaction. Hence the first step is differentiation. This is known as distinguishing the true from the false. It is necessary to know true from false in order to not get tricked into going down the wrong path.
This is a constant theme in The Journey. While Monkey with his fine sense of discrimination can always distinguish true from false, Tripitaka is regularly tricked by appearances. Young girls, elder Taoists, pagodas, Buddhists, and Buddhas regularly deceive him. Monsters and demons immediately realize that Monkey, Piggy and Monster are too powerful to attack head on. Hence they change their appearance into someone or thing that looks good on the surface, in order to capture Tripitaka. This may be through TripitakaÕs compassion, his emphasis on appearances, or upon his desire to reach his goal. Once he has been tricked it takes all of MonkeyÕs ingenuity to free Tripitaka from the monsterÕs grip.
With all of these predicaments Tripitaka is given the chance to integrate the Buddhist idea of the unreality of existence into his body. However while his fear lessens, it never goes away. Once he reaches his goal he is still fearful and anxious about returning to China to the emperor with the scriptures for the Chinese people. Still he does not embrace the unreality of existence. He still cares deeply unto the end about accomplishing his destiny upon this Earth.
As a parallel, the author of the Journey cared deeply about communicating to a real world. Liu I-ming mentions this compassion in his commentary on the Monkey book,
ÒThe reason why the Adept [the author of The Journey] used such a double edged style and expended an immeasurable amount of compassionate care on this [The Journey] was surely his desire that every person might become an immortal or a Buddha.Ó [3]
This does not speak of the Buddhist/Yogic unreality of Maya but instead speaks about the compassion of the Mother for her creation.
After the refinement – the differentiation, comes the integration.
In The Journey, the first integration has to do with joining all the elements behind TripitakaÕs quest. Then it has to do with the cooperation between the quarreling elements to fight the monsters and obstacles in their path.
In Taiji Quan it has to do with integrating the different body parts behind the whole. On the most elementary level, this has to do with using the body muscle to do the work rather than individual muscles. Thus the muscles of the extremities are integrated with the body muscles. The second level is to integrate the breathing with the movements. At the highest level the mind is also integrated into the complex.
A major danger to the Process is premature integration. Another name for this is Ôintegration at the expense of differentiationÕ. In our bronze analogy, polluted copper and tin would be mixed to make polluted bronze, which is brittle and cracks. It is in no way going to be the true immortal bronze.
In The Journey, when all the 5 elements are assembled they are still polluted. Monkey and Piggy continually threaten to leave the quest. The party is continually threatened by internal disintegration. The pollution of MonkeyÕs anger and pride, the pollution of TripitakaÕs desire for Buddhahood and his obsession with appearances, and pollution of PiggyÕs desire for comfort and laziness, all threaten the Journey Quest at one time or another. These are internal forces, not external. Early on in the Journey, the Quest would have disintegrated except for the Dragon/Horse. There are also other instances when Sha Monk holds the Quest together.
In taiji premature integration occurs when interrupt is taken out prematurely. Putting ÔinterruptÕ in is to differentiate out all the movements in order that none are left out. ÔInterruptÕ has to do with practicing each movement distinctly – with breaks – without flowing. This is especially important while learning the form. It is important not to take ÔinterruptÕ out too quickly, at the expense of the individual elements. Many times continuity replaces differentiation rather than overlaying it.
In Taiji terms, moving too quickly, without focusing upon proper fundamentals degrades the result. Moving too quickly is almost impossible to avoid, but it is always important to retrace your tracks, if necessary, putting ÔinterruptÕ back in if it has been removed too quickly. Without the proper container, the elixir leaks out. In alchemical terms mercury has been added too quickly and lead has been removed too soon, or in 5 element terms, metal has been removed and wood has been added too quickly.
As Chang Po-tuan says:
Ò19. É Extract and add taking care.Ó
WeÕll be back to this topic when we examine five-element theory in the section on the Chou dynasty.
Part of the Quest has to do with Tripitaka taming Monkey; Monkey cultivating PiggyÕs spiritual nature; and Heaven purifying Tripitaka through life experience. All of these purifications happen on the quest, not through meditation, not through insight, nor through the practice of martial arts. Instead they occur through life experience over time on the Quest. The spiritual idea led the five elements to join together, but their purification, integration, and actualization occur over the Journey Quest. In terms of the external story, the actualization had to do with acquiring the scriptures and returning them to the Source.
The scriptures are distortions and damaged but nevertheless need to be returned to China, for the actualization to be complete, for destiny to be fulfilled, for the five participants of the Journey Quest to become Immortals. The subliminal message of this external story is that the Quest was more important than the Truth. BuddhaÕs truth played only a minor part in their becoming immortals. What made them immortals was overcoming the distinct number of trials laid in the path of their excruciating trip. Indeed at one point, Tripitaka has already received the holy scriptures but the gods realize that he has not completed the right number of ordeals. The last ordeal happens after reaching Buddha, i.e. the scriptures are damaged when they are immersed in water.
While the Quest is more important, a major element of this Journey is acquiring the truth and then returning with it to the masses, distorted and damaged though it may be. Thus the quest for truth must be balanced by returning it to the Source, no matter how flawed that it might be.
In terms of Taiji Quan, the search for the truth of Taiji must be balanced by the teaching of it. No matter how distorted and damaged the goods might be, it is important to transmit this information. Of course this obsession with cultural transmission is part of our genetic cultural conditioning which is so dominant. Hence the Journey embraces the reality of existence again. Tripitaka never comes to the insight that the desire for cultural transmission is a hang up that he needs to become enlightened to.
Obviously the care with which the author wrote The Journey indicates his earthly desire for cultural transmission. What this purification indicates is that there is something left after the purification of desires. This has to do with this desire for transmission. If The Journey is one of the highest levels of cultural transmission, it is because it transmits to the human species. The culture is human culture. While he communicates from a Chinese cultural context, the messages are universally human. Thus the Seeker does not detach from cultural transmission but instead embraces it as the only reality.
Thus the finished cast work of bronze which becomes artwork, probably a cauldron, is more than the purified metal, which is more than the now-enlightened immortals that made up the quest, which is more than the perfect Taiji form and body. The Story, the Book, and the actual Life of the being all transcend even the Quest. Purification and integration are not enough by themselves. Indeed purification and integration occur through the process of actualization. This precipitation from the Process, the divine seed which survives the Great Fire, it is this that is the Aim.
While the Great Fire – Shiva – ultimately consumes everything, some things last longer than others. BuddhaÕs observation that all is change is based upon the Macro or micro perspective. On the Macro all is inevitably consumed by the Fire, on the micro everything is constantly squirming, nothing is fixed. Thus for the very big and the very small, this holds true. However most of us are in-between. For practical purposes we can look at a 3000 year old Shang bronze and call it immortal and permanent. We can call the lives of Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Jesus, and Mohammed immortal, knowing full well that the End is near. To last through time and we achieve our Destiny.
In summary, during the Shang dynasty the bronze technology was perfected. This included the smelting of metal ore followed by the combination of the refined metals at high heats to make the bronze. Finally the metal was heated again and poured into molds. This bronze metaphor was at the heart of one of the symbolic foundations of Taoist Alchemy. Further this same bronze analogy also applies to the motive force behind The Journey to the West and Taiji Quan.