death neidan

Emergency Death Meditations for Internal AlchemistsAuthor(s): Stephen EskildsenSource: T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 92, Fasc. 4/5 (2006), pp. 373-409Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4529048 .Accessed: 25/08/2013 11:27

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EMERGENCY DEATH MEDITATIONS FOR INTERNAL ALCHEMISTS

BY

STEPHEN ESKILDSEN (The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)

Introduction

When striving upon a religious path of self-cultivation, how should one deal with the prospect of imminent physical death? Certainly, one ought to be able to accept death with equanimity, if not joy, if one feels that one's striving has guaranteed the desired state of salvation. However, death does not always wait until such a state of self-assurance is reached. What, then, can one do? If one's notion of salvation is a state of redemption and eternal life granted by a supreme being, one will most likely take recourse to prayer, repentance, or sacrament in hope of divine mercy. If one believes in a more self- reliant approach toward salvation, and fears obtaining an evil rebirth as dictated by the principles of karma and samsara, one would probably try to mitigate the damage at the last moment by keeping the mind as pure as possible.

What should one do, however, if one is willing to settle for nothing less than an eternal life unbound by the laws of karma altogether? Furthermore, what if one believes-as do Taoist internal alchemists- that this goal requires the dual refinement of both mind and body? In such a case, one might perhaps try to hold on more tenaciously to the body, or devise special tactics to avoid passing into a disembodied or subhuman state. This essay will examine a few such measures endorsed by at least some Taoists, whose views are primarily represented in early internal alchemical texts. These Taoists appear to have endorsed and practiced techniques of emergency death meditation by which they hoped to "enter the womb", "change the dwelling", "repel the killer demons", or "flee the numbers".

Internal alchemy (neidan PgF), the predominant method of Taoist

C) Brill, Leiden, 2006 T'oung Pao XCII Also available online - www.brill.nl


374 STEPHEN ESKILDSEN

meditation from the Song period onward, typically entails the creation (or more properly speaking, recovery) of an inner immortal Spirit' that can travel at will outside the body before and after physical death. This Spirit is referred to by various terms, such as "Golden Elixir" (jindan iB), "Single Numinous Real Nature" (yiling zhenxing

or "Radiant Spirit" (yangshen WF$); the last of these terms alludes to the notion that the Spirit, through the internal alchemical process, has attained full maturity and power, and is pureyang in its constitution.2

The internal alchemical process involves both body and mind. Through a combination of prescribed postures and movements, breathing methods, saliva-swallowing, mental concentration and visualization, all of which is grounded on a lifestyle of purity and self-discipline, the adept replenishes, circulates, combines and refines his/her basic "ingredients" namely, essence (jing g), energy (qi i) and spirit (shen 14). At the rudimentary stages, where the procedures tend to be more complicated, the adept aims to achieve perfect health for the body, after which he/she will move on to advanced procedures, typically less complicated but quite arduous, designed to "conceive" the inner Spirit (or "baby") and bring it to maturity. In the late stages the Spirit is transferred from the abdomen (the "womb") into the head, and from this point the adept can begin to send the Spirit out from the head on journeys outside the body. Initially the Spirit can only travel a few "steps" out of the body,

1 I capitalize the word "spirit" so as to designate a singular, unified consciousness / life force that survives and emerges from the flesh. I do so in order better to distinguish it from the concept of the thousands of spirits said by the Taoist tradition to inhabit the body during life. The Spirit is completed (or restored) by bringing all the spirits together.

2 The meditation method is called "internal alchemy" because the psycho- physical procedures and phenomena that unfold in the mind and body of the practitioner are said to be analogous to the procedures and chemical reactions that take place in laboratory alchemy (waidan X1r, "external alchemy"). Neidan texts draw heavily on the abstruse terminology employed in the more ancient waidan materials. The best and most comprehensive study of Chinese alchemy (external and internal) in English is Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 5, nos. 2, 4 and 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974, 1981 and 1983). A good history and introduction to the art of neidan is Isabelle Robinet, Introduction a l'alchimie interieure taoaste: de l'uniti et de la multiplicite (Paris: Le Cerf, 1995). Another excellent discussion, with particular emphasis on women's practices, is found in Catherine Despeux and Livia Kohn, Women in Daoism (Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2003), pp. 177-243.


EMERGENCY DEATH MEDITATIONS FOR INTERNAL ALCHEMISTS 375

but after some period of time it becomes able to travel enormous distances. Simultaneously, the countenance of the Spirit by this stage the adept should experience visions, and is not merely engaging in active imagination gradually grows from that of an infant, ultimately into a luminous replica of the adept's full-grown physical body.3

Taoist hagiography is filled with feats of multi-location, clairvoyance and other miracles performed before and after death by internal alchemists reputed to have thus completed the Radiant Spirit.4 The Radiant Spirit, by virtue of being pure yang, is deemed capable if it so wishes of making itself visible to the eyes of ordinary people and of taking on corporeal traits such as physical solidity or the functions of eating and drinking.5 In contrast, an immature, yin Spirit cannot manifest itself or bear any corporeal traits if it ventures outside the physical body. The Zhonglii chuandao ji Jgf4 and

See for example Zhen longhu jiuxian jing A'LJtY{LU (DZ227/TT112), lOb- 11 a; "Taibai huandan pian" A; Et R5g in Daoshu L (DZ 1017 /TT641-648), 27/lOa-l ib; Chen xiansheng neidanjue Wq;Hf3 (DZ1096/TT743), lib; Xishan qunxian huizhen ji - (DZ246/TT 116), 5/8b- 1 Oa; Bichuan Zhengyang zhenren lingbao bzfa ' (DZ 1191/TT874), 3/8b-12a; Dadan zhizhi

H (DZ244/TT 115), 8b-9b. (The DZ number denotes the number by which the text is catalogued in Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen eds., 7The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004]; the TT number denotes the fascicle in which the text is found in the 1926 Commercial Press [Shanghai] edition of the Taoist Canon.) See also the discussions in Eskildsen, "Aeidan Master Chen Pu's Nine Stages of Transformation", Monumenta Serica, no. 49 (2001), pp. 1-31; Eskildsen, T7he Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), pp. 93-94; and Despeux and Kohn, pp. 237-241.

4 Tales of this sort from the Song period can be found in abundance in Zhao Daoyi St (fl. Ca. 1294-1304) comp., Lishi zhenxian tidao tong/ian ff. X (DZ296/TT139-148),juan nos. 47-52. On such tales within the early Quanzhen tradition, see Eskildsen, Teachings and Practices, pp. 121-126.

5 This belief is clearly reflected in the Chunyang djun shenhua miaotongji ,,f Wi tP{L4fktd (DZ305/TT159), an early 14th_century compilation of stories concerning the legendary internal alchemist/ immortal Lu Yan. There we find an episode where Lu Yan and the spirit of a deceased Buddhist monk visit a home where a vegetarian feast is being held. Lu Yan is fed immediately, but has to ask for another serving for the Buddhist spirit, whom the hosts are unable to see. Lu Yan ends up eating both servings himself, since the Buddhist spirit is incapable of eating his (3/1 la- 1 2a). A similar story about the famous internal alchemist Zhang Boduan mfnxm is found in Lishi zhenxian tidao tong/ian, 49/7b- 11 a. There we are told about a contest held between Zhang Boduan and a friendly Buddhist monk. Both men entered into trance and sent out their Spirit from Sichuan to Yangzhou. Zhang Boduan then proposed that they each pluck a flower and bring it back as a souvenir of their journey. The monk complied, but when they both came out of trance back in Sichuan, only Zhang Boduan was holding a flower.



Bichuan Zhengyang zhenren lingbao bifa (ca. 11th c.), both important texts of the influential Zhong-Lu internal alchemical tradition,6 state as follows:

Lu [Yan]7 said, "What are these 'Ghost Immortals' (guixian) that you refer to?"

Zhong[i Quan]8 said, "Ghost Immortals constitute the lowest of the five grades of immortals. They have become emancipated from within the yin (the insufficiently trained body), and their spiritual image is not bright. Their surnames are not found in the Ghost Pass, and their name is absent from the Three Mountains. Although they do not enter samsara, they have difficulty returning to Peng and Ying (islands of the immortals). In the end they have no place to return to, and can only enter into a womb (toutai) or take up a dwelling (jiushe)."

Lu said, "Ghost Immortals such as these; what technique or exercise do they employ to bring about this?"

Zhong said, "Practitioners, without understanding the Great Tao, nonetheless desire to attain [their immortality] quickly. They make their bodies like

6 Beginning probably in the 1 oth or 1 1 th century there emerged a lore concerning two immortals named Zhongli Quan i1M and Lu Yan go, along with a corpus of neidan teachings purportedly taught and practiced by them. The history of the move- ment that propagated this lore and teachings (e.g., when it originated and who partici- pated in it) is still very murky. Three of the principal texts of this "Zhong-Lui neidan tradition" are Zhong-Lii chuandaoji f (In Xiuzhen shishu , XA+ [DZ263/ TT 1 22-13 1], juan 14-16), Bichuan Zhengyang zhenren lingbao bzfa, and Xishan qunxian hui- zhenji.

7 Lu Yan (sobriquet, Chunyang ,$t; style name, Dongbin iW-j) is probably the most revered Taoist immortal from the Song period onward. While his historicity is uncertain, hagiographical records indicate that he was born at the end of the eighth century. Various internal alchemical writings are supposed to have come through his hands, and hagiographies are full of his miraculous feats. He is also an important deity among popular spirit-writing cults. The already-mentioned Chunyang djun shenhua miaotongji (DZ305/TT159), an early 14th century text compiled by a Quanzhen monk named Miao Shanshi Pq , records in detail his conversion and tutelage under Zhongli Quan, and presents over a hundred stories of his subsequent miracles and exploits. Accounts of his life are also given in Zhao Daoyi, Lishi zhenxian tidao tong/ian, in the Jinlian zhengzongji MIF'd (DZ 1 73/TT75-76), and in the Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan IEv{[//fM (DZ 1 74/TT76). Also see Isabelle Ang, "Le culte de Lu Dongbin sous les Song du sud", Journal Asiatique, no. 285.2 (1997), pp. 473- 507; Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, "Lii Tung-pin in Northern Sung Literature", Cahiers d'Extriime-Asie, no. 5 (1989/1990), pp. 133-169; and Paul Katz, Images of the Immortal: The Cult of Lii Dongbin at the Palace of Eternal joy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), pp. 52-93.

8 Zhongli Quan (sobriquet, Zhengyang REX; style name, Yunfang g) is said to have been the teacher of Lu Yan. Although he almost certainly is a fictional character, he is said to have been a government official and military general during the end of the Han Dynasty and the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty (i.e., third century A.D.). Accounts of his life are found in the Lishi zhenxian tidao tong/ian, Jinlian zhengzong ji- and Jfinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan.



withered trees and their minds like dead ashes. Their spirit-consciousness guards the inside, single-mindedly without scattering. While in their meditative absorption they send out their yin Spirit. This is but a pure and numinous ghost; it is not a pure yang immortal. Due to their single-mindedness the yin Spirit does not scatter. This is why it is called a 'ghost immortal'. Even though it is called an immortal, it is in fact a ghost. Buddhists of past and present do their exercises and arrive at this result, and thereby say that they have attained the Tao. This is truly laughable."9

From times of old until now few have practiced this method (the liberation of the Spirit) and succeeded. This is because their merit is insufficient and yet, desiring speed in their practice they immediately carry out this method. Or, furthermore, without verifications of merit and efficacy (gongy~an) they assign themselves solely to quiet sitting, desiring to seek transcendence and liberation. Or, furthermore, without scattering theyin Spirit (yinling), they send it out and become Ghost Immortals. People cannot see their form. They come and go with no place to go home to in the end. They are merely able to enter into a womb or take a dwelling, thus seizing the bodily shells of people and getting to become Human Immortals (renxian). Or, inept and inexperienced at exiting and entering [their bodies], they come and go without a [proper] method. They leave and come, but have no way of re-entering their original body, and the Spirit (shenhun) does not know where it is. This is the seated transformation (zuohua) of Buddhists and the corpse liberation (sh4/ie) of Taoists. 10

We are thus told that there are unseasoned, impatient and misguided practitioners (both Buddhist and Taoist) who attempt to liberate the Spirit without having followed appropriate internal alchemical procedures and without an adequate degree of prior mystical experience. The Spirit that they send out is nothing better than ayin Spirit (yinling KA-,yinshen or Ghost Immortal, which lacks many of the powers of the Radiant Spirit, such as the ability to become visible and assume other corporeal properties. Although it is

9 Zhong-Li chuandaoji, in Xiuzhen shishu 14/3a-b. 10 Bichuan Zhengyang zhenren lingbao bjfa, 3/1 la-b.



no longer subject to the laws of karma and samsara, it cannot merge with the Tao, nor can it enter the various paradises of the immortals (things which the Radiant Spirit can do at will). It may even be "lost", unable to return to its body, thus inadvertently causing death. The best that such ayin Spirit can do, then, is to "enter a womb" or "take up a dwelling". To "enter a womb" apparently means to become reincarnated through entry into the womb of a parent of one's choice. To "take up a dwelling" means to take over the body of another person. Having thus reassumed human physical form, the adept can attain no more than so-called Human Immortal status, which in Zhong-Lu literature designates merely good health and longevity, and does not constitute immortality properly speaking." 1

"Entering a womb" and "taking up a dwelling" are thus cited as measures resorted to by inept, misguided practitioners who have failed to refine the Spirit adequately and yet have foolishly- or inadvertently-separated the feeble yin Spirit from the body. It would therefore appear that these are not measures that a competent, properly guided internal alchemist should ever have to resort to. This rather disdainful view is expressed in various other internal alchemical texts from the Song period down to late traditional and modern times-most notably the Wuzhen pian Ig1o' and its various commentaries12-and might be charact-

" See Zhong-Lii chuandaoji, in Xiuzhen shishu, 14/3a-b. 12 Zhang Boduan's WnbS (984-1082) Wuzhen pian is one of the most influential

of all neidan classics. In it one finds a passage that reads, "Entering a womb, seizing a dwelling (duoshe) and changing one's residence from one's decrepit dwelling. [Those who do these things] are referred to as the people attaining the four fruits. If one is able to subdue the dragon and tiger, the true metal will hold up the house- when will it ever decay?" $

;. The various commentators understand this as a passage that contrasts Buddhists and other heterodox practitioners unfavorably to good internal alchemists. For example, Xue Daoguang jg& (1078-1191) comments, "Those who enter a womb and seize a dwelling are people attached to emptiness; subduing the dragon and tiger is the marvel of the recycled elixir" t; . Lu Shu M (fl. 1 3' c.?) comments, "The Way of the Golden Elixir-once attained it is attained for perpetuity. You have a body outside the body that you can hide or reveal without limit. This is unlike the fellows of stubborn emptiness who enter a womb and seize a dwelling" 21VTri. Chen Zhixu WR (b. 1290) explains that the four fruits are those of the four grades of Buddhist practitioners known as 1) srota-dpanna (xutuohuan gtL,l; a stream-winner who will be reborn seven more times alternately as a deva and a human before attaining enlightenment), 2) sakrd-agamin (situohan WrF'-t; a once returner who is destined to be reborn as a deva, and then once more as a human, and then gain enlightenment), 3) anagamin (anahan rjflt; a non-returner who will never be reborn in the realm of desire and is



"entering a womb" and "taking up a dwelling" along with "repelling the killer demons" are valid tactics for sincere, able adepts to resort to when physical death looms imminent before the Spirit has gained its full perfection and maturity. Both of these texts are tentatively datable to the Tang dynasty, which is quite early in the evolutionary history of internal alchemy.16 The Taibai huandan pian, a discourse ascribed to Wang Yuanzheng EEJLEE, states as follows:

However, if within the period [of practice] (yiji zhi nez)`7 you encounter difficulty, there are three things that you can practice. They are called "entering a womb", "changing your dwelling" (yishe), and "repelling the killer demons" ju shaguti).8

This passage comes at the end of a long description of the internal alchemical process, which culminates in the maturation and sending out of the Spirit. It is clearly addressed to sincere, diligent internal alchemists who are recommended to "enter the womb", or "change their dwelling", or "repel the killer demons", in the event of "difficulty". The difficulty anticipated here as will become clearer in

16 Admittedly, some skepticism is warranted in ascribing neidan texts to such an early date. The fact that neither text is included or cited in the Yunji qiqian (the voluminous Taoist anthology compiled in 1028) strengthens this skepticism. However, the neidan theory and method described in both texts is indeed indicative of a quite early date. The theories and methods seem archaic and quite different from what is described in the influential neidan classics of the Song period, as do their assumptions regarding what the highest immortality entails (both texts seem to regard immortality of the Spirit alone as an ideal less lofty than the immortality of both mind and flesh). The then longhujiuxianjing is listed in both Zheng Qiao's 9%--- (1104-1162) Tongzhi c and Ma Duanlin's W-6 (ca. 1254-1323) Wenxian tongkao 3;tS. The latter bibliogra- phy mentions that the text was once banned during the Dazhong era of the Tang (847-859); if so, this would indeed mean that it is a Tang text and could explain its exclusion from the Yunji qiqian. One modern Chinese scholar speculates that the ban perhaps resulted from the controversial nature of some of the procedures alluded to (i.e., some of the very ones that constitute the topic of this article). See RenJiyu, ed., Daozang tiyao, pp. 163-164.

17 The length of time meant here is unclear. Oneji could perhaps mean ten years, twelve years, a century, or more vaguely a period of indefinite length. In the text immediately preceding this passage we are told that the elaborate procedures for de- veloping and nurturing the "elixir" or "embryo" within the body take a total of three years. After this the adept proceeds to send the "infant" out of the head on journeys of increasing length. After a hundred days of this it grows to the size of an eight year-old boy, and becomes the same size as the adept's body after a year. See Daoshu, 27/1 la-b.

18 Daoshu, 27/1 lb.



our ensuing discussion-is none other than death, or the imminent threat thereof. "Entering a womb", "changing one's dwelling" and "repelling the killer demons" are three types of emergency death meditation. They are psychic techniques that a competent internal alchemist can and should perform when he/she is running out of time. Despite his/her best efforts, the allotted life span of the adept can sometimes run out slightly before the Spirit has attained maturity. What the adept then needs to do is transfer the Spirit to another body where it can continue to mature, or buy some time by fighting off the forces of death.

The Zhen longhu jiuxian jing also regards these psychic techniques as the property of competent adepts, but at the same time it conveys an awareness of their potential abuse. After describing visualization techniques for sending the spirit out through the head, the text adds:

Some [adepts] return and dwell in their original body. Some leave it and enter another body. Some start from the beginning elsewhere (are reborn in a new womb?). Some take away from others to give ease to their selves. Some cause others to leave their bodies. Some use expedient means to help and rescue [others]. Some vastly spread peace and wellbeing [to others]. Some benefit themselves while harming others. Guilt becomes attached to their persons, and they will definitely fall. This method [of sending out the Spirit to do such various things] is truly not false. Through lengthy kalpas it has simply been like this.'9

This method is a lesser art. You can use it to benefit yourself so that you can live for a long time amidst the world. At your own will you can constantly emerge and disappear. One, you can enter a womb. Two, you can change your dwelling. Three, you stay in the old [dwelling/body]. Four, you can seize the rank [of another adept?].20

The Zhen longhujiuxianjing thus asserts that psychic techniques such as "entering the womb" or "changing the dwelling" truly do exist and have been practiced by advanced adepts throughout all ages of history. (As we shall see, "repelling the killer demons" is mentioned and described at some length in the commentary to the Zhen longhu jiuxian jing. "Stay in the old" perhaps alludes to the repelling of the

19 Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 6a-b. 20 Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 6b-7a.



killer demons, or what results from it.) They are "lesser arts", perhaps because they do not in themselves constitute the attainment of the ultimate goal, which for this early internal alchemical text seems to be heavenly ascension of both the Spirit and the transformed physical body. However, as will be apparent later in our discussion, they can be utilized in the lengthy process leading ultimately to the highest goal. These psychic techniques can also be utilized for the benefit of other people by performing helpful miracles of the sort extolled in Taoist hagiography.

However, the text also notes that the psychic techniques can be used in ways that are selfish to the point of being evil. What it seems to suggest is that less scrupulous adepts will usurp the bodies of people who are still living, thus displacing their spirit(s) from their rightful "dwelling", and exploiting the resources of essence and energy that the previous "inhabitant" perhaps an adept in his/her own right- had been carefully replenishing and refining. (This may be what is meant by "seize the rank"; i.e., usurping the place in the ranks of the immortals that rightfully belongs to the other person.) The text warns, albeit in vague terms, that such unscrupulous adepts will suffer just and stern consequences (they will "fall"). One of the two commentaries to the text the one ascribed to Luo Gongyuan2' elaborates slightly as follows:

This is [what is known as] a Spirit Immortal (shenxian). His/her body hides amidst the mundane world, but his/her spirit and energy are both wondrous. They exit and enter and are discernible and bright. This is called a Spirit Immortal, and is also called an Energy Immortal (qixian). He/she can come and go at will. However, if he/she violates the precepts of the immortals22 in going about the process, he/she will be punished.23

21 The other is ascribed to Ye Fashan. The two commentaries shall here on be referred to as the "Luo commentary" and "Ye commentary".

22 The best study to date on moral precepts in Taoist history is Livia Kohn, Cosmos and Community: The Ethical Dimension of Daoism (Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2004). Numerous sets of moral precepts were being transmitted, recited and put to practice among Taoists during the period considered in the present case. The text here is implying that the psychic powers of internal alchemists can be abused in ways that violate the precepts, and seems to be specifically denouncing the act of "changing the dwelling" to "seize the rank"-an act that violates precepts against stealing and killing.

23 Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 6b.



Thus, while the psychic techniques sometimes are used immorally, both the text and commentary agree that the Taoist universe is moral, and that unscrupulous adepts will be punished.

In what follows, we shall examine in more detail what the Taibai huandan pian, Zhen longhu jiuxian jing, and other texts have to tell us about how, when and why one should carry out emergency death meditations.

Entering a Womb

After enumerating the three types of emergency death meditation, the Taibai huandan pian gives the following lengthy, and baffling, description of how to "enter a womb":

What is [the method for] entering a womb? Its essence lies merely in recogniz- ing one's external surroundings. If you see large houses and high buildings, these are dragons. Thatched shacks are camels and mules. Wool-covered carts are hard- and soft-shelled turtles. Boats and carts are bugs and snakes. Silk-brocaded curtains are wolves and tigers. Thatched huts are cows. Those in fur robes are elephants. Slender branch sedan chairs are pigs and sheep. Baoxiang flowers are chickens. White lotus flowers are geese. White lotuses are ducks. Black lacquered towers are dogs. Those in yellow robes are zhang deer.24 Those in silk-brocaded robes are pheasants. The hundred [varieties ofl flowers in the forest are the hundred [varieties of] birds. Woolen curtains are beasts. Those covered with armor are fish. Those entering the water are bugs and maggots. Those troops charging toward enemy lines are bees. Those crowds bearing the same name are ants. Jugs and jars are conch-shelled mol- lusks. People going about in the mountains are lice. Those wielding swords and battleaxes are crabs. Those falling into wells are women. Those falling from mountains are men.25

One can speculate here that this passage is describing visions that the adept is likely to encounter while in the process of dying and becoming reborn: it is deemed crucial for the adept to know and discern what the visions are or represent; his/her ability to do so

24 The zhang is a variety of deer that is small in stature, has no antlers, and has small fangs.

25 Daoshu, 27/llb-12a.



will somehow determine the species of living being that he/she will be reborn as. Such speculation readily occurs to whoever has some familiarity with Tantric Buddhist theories and practices concerning the bardo-an intermediate state between death and reincarnation that is filled with visions-as described in such texts as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which has come to be so well-known to Europeans and North Americans.26

Although the Tibetan Book ofthe Dead itself probably dates to no earlier than the 1 4th century, some of the essential concepts underlying it are already present in Indian Buddhist texts that had been translated into Chinese by Tang times. Vasubhandu's Abhidharnakosa (4th c.)27 argues for the existence of an intermediate state between death and rebirth called the antardbhava, in which the deceased exists as a type of spirit called a gandharva composed of subtle aspects of the five aggregates (skandhas), whose organs are complete and who already bears the form of the being that it is going to be incarnated as. The gandharva, by virtue of its past actions, possesses a "divine eye" by which it sees its future parents having sexual intercourse. If the gandharva is male it will feel sexual desire for its future mother and will be born male and vice versa if it is female.28 A similar exposition is found in an even earlier text, the Mahavibhasa (2nd c.), which was first translated into Chinese in 383.29 Substantial descriptions of the intermediate state are also found in such sutras as the Garbdvakrdntinirdesa-siitra30 and the Saddharmasmrtyupastdna-si7tra31 (both texts were translated

26 See WY Evans-Wentz, comp. and ed., The 7Tibetan Book of the Dead or The After- Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering (London: Oxford University Press, 1927); Glen H. Mullin, Death and Dying: The Tibetan Tradition (London: Arkana, 1987);John Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhzsm (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1995), pp. 283-3 10.

27 The Chinese translation, by Xuanzang -, (ca. 596-664), bears the title Api- damojushe lun s (Taishi DaizokyU, vol. 29, no. 1558).

28 The whole matter was highly controversial. The notion of antarabhava was ac- cepted by such schools as the Sarvastivadin (to which Vasubhandhu was affiliated), VAtsiputrTya, Sammatlya and Pirvasaila. It was rejected by the Theravadins, as well as the Vibhajyavadins, Mahasanghikas and Mahlisasakas.

29 This translation bears the title Piosha lun W51 (Taisho Daizokyo, vol. 28, no. 1547). The longest and most authoritative translation is Xuanzang's Apidamo dapiposha lun . (Taishi Daizjkyft, vol. 27, no. 1545).

30 The oldest existing Chinese translation of this text is the Foshuo baotaijing %:=W, Y (Taisho Daizjkyo, vol. 1 1, no. 317), translated by Dharmaraksa (Zhu Fahu SA) during the WesternJin Dynasty (265-316).

`' The Chinese translation of this text, byjutan Panruo Liuzhi L dates



into Chinese before the Tang Dynasty). The latter gives a description that particularly resembles later Tibetan Tantric descriptions of the bardo.32 It describes how people have visions of being crushed by a mountain when dying, and then see a bright light at the moment of death. This confuses and perplexes them even more, so that while in the intermediate state they see "all sorts of things such as are seen in dreams", culminating in the same sort of "Oedipal" vision described by Vasubhandu.33

In other words, by the 6th century there existed among some exoteric Buddhist schools (such as the Sarvastivadin and Yogacara) a notion of an intermediate state during which certain visions were to be experienced. However, the exoteric Buddhist texts in question do not convey any notion that practitioners, by possessing prior knowledge about the visions of the intermediate state, can somehow favorably determine their station in their next rebirth while they are in the intermediate state. What unfolds there is entirely preordained by the karma accrued before death. The notion of controlling to an extent the outcome of the intermediate state while in that state would appear to be the contribution of Esoteric (or Tantric) Buddhism. This notion, which is clearly articulated in Tibetan texts, perhaps originated from the Indian Esoteric schools that sprung up around the 7th and 8th centuries. By the 8th century, Esoteric Buddhism had found its way into China and was enjoying great prestige at the Tang court.34 It was also around this general period that the Taibai huandan pian and Zhen longhujiuxianjing were composed.

In sum, while the basic notions concerning the intermediate

to around 542 and bears the title, Zhenfa nianchujing H (Taishi Daizokyoi, vol. 17, no. 721)

32 A translation of this passage by Arthur Waley is found in Edward Conze et al., ed., Buddhist Texts Through the Ages (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1954), 283.

` See BryanJ. Cuevas, The Hidden History of The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 40-44; BryanJ. Cuevas, "Predecessors and Pro- totypes: Towards a Conceptual History of the Buddhist Antarabhava", Nurmen, vol. 43, no. 3 (1996), pp. 263-302; Robert Kritzer, "The Four Ways of Entering the Womb (garbhMvakrantt)", Bukkyo bunka, no. 10 (2000), pp. 1-41; Robert Kritzer, "Semen, Blood and the Intermediate Existence", journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, vol. 46, no. 2 (March, 1998), pp. 30-36; Robert Kritzer, "Garbhdvakrantisiutra: A Comparison of the Contents of Two Versions", Maranatha: Bulletin of the Christian Culture Research Institute, ;Notre Dame Women's College, no. 6 (1998), pp. 4-13.

34 See Kenneth Ch'en, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964), pp. 325-337.



existence and the visions therein not to mention the very notions of karma and samsara35 are clearly of Indo-Buddhist origin, the psychic techniques for manipulating its outcome may have been developed simultaneously within the Buddhist and Taoist camps, which existed in ready proximity. If one is to speak of connections rather than mere parallels, one should consider the possibility that Taoism influenced Buddhism (by proposing tactics to manipulate the outcome of the intermediate state) as well as vice versa. Also, a certain degree of initiative and autonomy can be glimpsed on the Taoist side in that the specific contents of the visions are different from those in the Buddhist descriptions. Most notably, perhaps, Wang Yuanzheng's description lacks the "Oedipal" vision at the culmination of the intermediate state an essential component of Buddhist expositions from Vasubhandu right down to the Tibetan texts.

What the adept is to do once he/she has these visions and is properly discerning them is not at all specified by Wang Yuanzheng. If one were to further speculate, in part based on what we know about the bardo theories, it was probably deemed important to avoid that the dying adept become startled or agitated, or attracted or drawn to the wrong type of vision. Perhaps the understanding was that the adept will be reborn as a dragon if he/she gets drawn into a large house or high building, or that he/she will be reborn as a camel or

35 In some indigenous Chinese, pre-Buddhist texts, one does occasionally find conveyed notions of what might be considered reincarnation, where it is said that living beings, or the materials/life-forces constituting them, get recycled into other life forms. Most notable here, perhaps, are a few passages in the 6th and 18th chapters of the Zhuangzi. See Burton Watson, transl., Zhuangzi: Basic Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), pp. 80-82, 118-119. However, it is fair to say that the notion of reincarnation, understood as being dictated by the laws of karma (and further dictated by underlying states of mind), did not become an integral part of the Chinese religious worldview until Buddhism had left its impact. The Lingbao scriptures of the fifth century, which clearly were deeply influenced by Mahayana Buddhism, are the first Taoist scriptures to expound forcefully upon karma and samsara as central themes within their system of soteriology, cosmology and morality. Karma and samsara have been an important part of the religious Taoist worldview ever since. See Erik Zurcher, "Buddhist Influence on Early Taoism; a Survey of Scriptural Evidence," 7ToungPao, vol. 66 (1980), pp. 84-147; Stephen Bokenkamp, "Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures," In Michel Strickmann, ed., Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of RA. Stein (Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1983), vol. 2, pp. 434-486; and Stephen Eskildsen, Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), pp. 95-128.



mule if he/she is drawn into a thatched shack, and so on. Since the adept will presumably want to be reborn as a human being, so that he/she can resume the internal alchemical practice,36 one would guess that he/she is somehow supposed to try mentally to go toward "those falling into wells" and "those falling from mountains", or perhaps envision him/herself falling off a mountain or into a well (very peculiar though this might seem).

Fortunately, there exists in the Taoist Canon a text that gives a fuller exposition on death visions and how to bring about a desirable rebirth. This is the Lingbao guikongjue flR2=R, compiled by Zhao Yizhen S (d. 1382).37 This text is of much later date than the Taibai huandan pian or Zhen longhu jiuxian jing-interestingly, it dates to roughly the same period when the Tibetan Book of the Dead was "rediscovered" or authored by the Ter-ton Kar-ma Ling-pa.38 Zhao Yizhen states in his postface that his work was in part based on an older text which had been in circulation for some time and was purported to be the work of the semi-legendary first Chan Pa- triarch, Bodhidharma (fl. ca. 500). (Zhao Yizhen himself expresses strong skepticism regarding Bodhidharma's putative authorship, however.) Although in many ways the descriptions in the Lingbao guikongjue are very different from those in the Taibai huandan pian Buddhist terminology is much more abundant, and the details of the visions do not match-they do say a little more about what the adept actually does, and so may help us speculate as to what was intended in the Taibai huandan pian. The Lingbao guikongjue describes the practice as follows:

Examine [yourself] while burning incense in the quiet of the night. If there are two or three signs of returning to emptiness,

36 That such was the objective is conveyed more clearly in the Zhen longhujiuxianjing, lOb, as we shall see below.

37 DZ568/TT3 19. Zhao Yizhen was one of the leadingTaoists of the late Yuan and early Ming period. He is regarded as one of the patriarchs of the Qingwei f School, one of the most important lineages of Thunder ritual. See Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, vol. 2, pp. 1095-1096 and vol. 3, p. 1290; and Kristofer Schipper, "Master Chao I-chen (?-1382) and the Ch'ing-wei School of Taoism," In Akizuki Kan'ei, ed., Dokyo to shiikyj bunka (Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppansha, 1987), pp. 715-734.

38 There is the idea in Tibetan Buddhism that Tantric masters of extraordinary attainment sometimes hide texts and images in secret locations and guard them with spells that keep them secret until conditions are right for them to be discovered. Such hidden treasures are called terma, and those who discover and reveal them are called terton.



Bathe yourself in hot peach water and change your clothing. [Drink] one cup of white tea and return to the samadhi of stillness.39

Various sights of people and things will come, Drawing you toward the paths of karma to receive transmigration. Firmly hold your mind-seal without craving or becoming attached. When the axe splits [your head] do not be scared and do not resent it.40

Only see the paths of thunder fire and lightning radiance, Rays of sun light in measurements of 1000 fathoms. Take yourself and bravely go with an unwavering heart. Thereby you will attain human or deva status, or take refuge in the Pure

Land.4'

54 t9t H XQ ttST X X]At If you encounter a yin person (woman) who offers you tea, This is a medicine that confuses the hun soul-do not partake. If you can firmly remember [what has been told to you about] this vision, You will [some day] be able to penetrate your past lives, forever without

forgetting.42

The "signs of returning to emptiness" are physical symptoms indicative of the imminence of death. They are enumerated at some length in the portion of the text preceding the verses just quoted. Some of the symptoms can be detected during meditation. Concentration on the Great Light Passage (daming guan )kHJA ) at the top of the head is said to bring forth thunderous rumbling noises in the head. If two or three rumblings occur, the adept has only two or three years left to live. If only one rumbling occurs, he/she has only one year left. (Presumably, then, an inability to make it rumble at all would indicate that death is imminent.) Another way of discerning his/her remaining lifespan is by covering the ears and tapping the back of the head with the fingers thirty-six times. If the tapping produces a sound like that of drums, one has three years (or more?) left. If the sound made is more like bells or chimes, there is a year left. If the sound is like that of cicadas, there are only about seven days left. If

39 Lingbao guikongjue, 3b. 40 Lingbao guikongjue, 4a. 41 Lingbao guikongjue, 5a. 42 Lingbao guikongjue, 5b.



be a potion that causes a person to forget all memories of their past lives. The implication seems to be that common people inevitably drink the tea, and that this is why virtually all living beings retain no memory of their past lives.45

In his prose commentary to the above-quoted verses Zhao Yizhen provides a much more detailed description of the visions:

As your life is coming to an end, the eyes transform into nameless demons. The ears transform into ashei demons.46 The nose transforms into dead tree demons. The tongue transforms into swift troop demons. The body transforms into demons of thought. The heart transforms into female and male demons. All the demons and spirits arise from the mind. In other words, they do not come from the outside. You need to know what they are in advance.

If you meet with various forms of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, teachers or literati, some welcoming you with their entourages, these are all visions brought by celestial demons and infidels. If you meet with the members and relatives of a vengeful family, or with yellow, red or white paths, these are also demonic scenes of the ways of karma. If you meet with lamp lights, these are family members and relatives of inner demons.

If you come upon vast open fields, these are the wombs and eggs of humans. If you encounter younger female relatives, these are the wombs for entering samsara. Without a womb, one enters the field (?). If you encounter black and white sedan chairs, these are the wombs of cows, horses and the like. If you encounter palaces, these are the wombs of pigs and sheep. If you encounter those in yellow robes and white garments, these are the wombs of cats and dogs. If you encounter those with yellow flags and leopard tails, these are the wombs of running beasts. If you encounter elephants, these are the wombs of foxes. If you encounter those playing flutes, these are the wombs of earthworms, cicadas and such. If you encounter drum music, these are the wombs of birds and insects. If you encounter red light districts, these are the wombs of snakes.

If you encounter busy marketplaces with many people coming and going, with some black, some white, some blue and some purple, these are all [sights leading to] the path of beasts. If you encounter wines, meats and other food and drink, this is the path of hungry ghosts. If you smell wondrous fragrances,

45 A very similar notion (provided my interpretation is accurate here) is found in Chinese popular religious beliefs concerning afterlife judgment and reincarnation. According to Wolfram Eberhard, Guilt and Sin in Traditional China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), p. 41, the Dongming baoji , an early 20th century morality book (shanshu ) describes a place called "Mother Meng" located in the tenth hell. This is "a kind of amusement park" in which waitresses, directed by an old woman, offer drinks to all who go there. The drinks make everybody forget about their entire past.

46 The word ashei oJl can mean "who" or "somebody". An "Ashei demon" perhaps means an anonymous demon or the ghost of a stranger. Possibly Ashei could also be a transliteration of a Sanskrit term denoting some sort of demonic or ghost being in the Indo-Buddhist world view.



these are the wombs of devas and humans. If you encounter your father, mother and other family members and relatives, these have issued from the heavens of six desires, and will cause you to become a deity of the kind enshrined at village temples. If you encounter instruction from a divine person in golden armor, this is a meat-eating god of great blessings among humans and devas.

All such sights of deities and humans are external demons drawn to you by your own spirit-consciousness. Thus these are not of the proper Way. Do not carelessly dispose of them, but in coming and going do not fear or dislike, or take, or cherish them. If you transgress in a single thought, you will thereby fall into the womb of another.

At the moment the energy is cut ofT, you may feel the sensation of being split apart with an ax; do not be scared. As it becomes dark do not flee or hide; it is essential to hold firmly to the mind-seal without wavering. After a while, you will become stable.47

aE2fAR ai ,#\WEkkiSE em R4, SkR;- flJ PR MfiA @SA M i R 1~ mAASA 1), 7'P L9S

In its gist (though not in its specific details), the third paragraph of the above passage is more or less the same as what is described in Taibai huandan pian. However, in the paragraphs preceding and following it we are told of how the various parts of one's own body turn into demons and invite other demons from the outside to come and entice the adept. Some of these external demons are so devious as to assume the form of sacred, virtuous beings. The adept is again told to remain calm and focus on the "mind-seal". He/she is also told to maintain equanimity at the actual instant of death-the moment the energy is cut off, in other words when the vital energy departs the body for good-when he/she is likely to feel as though the head is being split open with an ax.

The lingering question is whether or not, and to what degree, one can rely on information in the Lingbao guikongjue to fill in the gaps in the Taibai huandan pian. During the roughly six hundred years that elapsed between the two texts there must have been a great deal of

47 Lingbao guikongjue, 4a-5a.



evolution and elaboration in Taoist and Buddhist death meditation theories and methods. The Lingbao guikong jue incorporates many more concepts and terms of Buddhist origin, e.g., devas, Pure Lands, Buddha, Bodhisattva, infidels (waidao #St), paths of samsara, hungry ghosts; it is a syncretistic text that perhaps has Buddhists and Taoists equally in mind as its intended audience. (Interestingly, though, it also lacks any description of what we have called an "Oedipal" vision; perhaps this one element was too unpalatable to Taoist/ Chinese tastes.) In contrast, the Taibai huandan pian seems to reflect a more pristine stage of development, where it is not clear whether Buddhism is influencing Taoism or vice versa.

For a Taoist internal alchemist, the benefit desired from "entering a womb" is the renewed opportunity to cultivate the Spirit in a fresh new body richly endowed with essence and energy. Thus, the Zhen longhu jiuxian jing asserts that it is perfectly valid to "enter a womb" over and over again in one's pursuit of lofty immortality:

The Holy Body (shengshen) leaves the worldly dust, Lengthily and quietly. Amid meditative absorption you contrarily enter a womb, To cultivate again and form together again. In one century48 to transform four bodies, Gradually in the manner as before. When it appears, its responses are limitless, It is called the true method of change and transformation. This is all completion by accordance, Completely without recalcitrant transformation.49

The Holy Body here (assuming that the Luo commentary's interpretation is correct)50 refers to the Spirit of the adept that has left the body in the midst of meditative absorption. Instead of returning to the body it "contrarily" (que) enters a womb. The word

48 Although there are several other possible ways to translate the termji td ("ten days", "twelve days", "one period"), the context here would tend to suggest that "one century" may be what is intended.

` Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 14a. 50 For example, the Luo commentary states as follows: "When the Holy Body is

completed, night after night from the Sea of Essence it mounts a purple cloud and rises to the Golden Hall andJade Palace. After thoroughly observing and taking notice of [the body] from head to foot, it thrusts through the gate of the head, riding on the purple cloud. When your holding of breath comes to its limit, it descends back down to the Golden Hall andJade Palace." (Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 1 Ob.)



"contrarily" might be taken to imply that "entering the womb" comes about as the result of a mistake or miscalculation, and that the adept enters a womb contrary to his/her intentions. If so, the text would be in agreement on this point with the Zhong-Lu texts that speak so disdainfully of "entering the womb." However, this is probably not the correct interpretation here; entering the womb is "contrary" not to the adept's intent, but to what he/she had been habitually doing until then, which was to send the Spirit (or Holy Body) in and out of his/her body repeatedly. Earlier on in the Zhen longhujiuxianjing we read as follows:

Night after night it comes out seven-times-seven times. The gate of the head naturally has a response. After ten months it is equal to your body. Darkly, darkly, you become an Earthly Immortal.5

Thus, the adept sends the Spirit out through the head and back forty-nine (seven times seven) times per night for ten months, until the Spirit grows to be the same size as the physical body. This in fact has a great transformative effect on the physical body. Once every nook of it is filled with a Holy Body that equals its size, the adept becomes an "Earthly Immortal"; in other words, he/she has attained physical immortality. Most interestingly, the Ye commentary remarks here, "the Earthly Immortal (dixian) is superior to the Spirit Immortal (shenxian)".52 Thus, in the view of some-or most?-of the very early internal alchemists, though commendable, immortality of the Spirit alone without the flesh is not the highest goal; it is preferable to live eternally in the flesh on earth, and best of all to ascend fully in body and spirit to the heavens. Such was perhaps also the attitude of Wang Yuanzheng, the author of the Taibai huandan pian, judging from his exposition on "expelling the killer demons" examined later on in this essay.

What does it mean to say that "entering a womb" constitutes "completion by accordance" (shuncheng) and is not a "recalcitrant transformation" (nihua)? The two commentaries explain as follows:

"Not recalcitrant transformation" means that one does not burn the body and does not subdue the Three Corpses and Nine Worms. There is another

51 Zhen longhujiuxianjing, l Ob. 52 Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 1 l a.



method in which you refine the form by burning the body. The transformative fire [arises] from below and reaches the head. Visualize it as a red flame that spreads throughout the entire body. Visualize the Three Corpses (sanshi), Nine Worms (jiuchong) and Seven Po Souls all exiting the body. Thereby you accomplish recalcitrant transformation. In the present method (of entering a womb multiple, successive times) you attain the Tao together; the Three Corpses, Nine Worms and Seven Po Souls all ascend to heaven together with you. (Luo commentary)53

"Accordance" means that when the great limit arrives, you do not fight with them. However, if you repel with transformative fire, or utilize the stabilization of breath amidst samadhi, the demons and spirits will naturally be subdued. Some use the Fire of Samadhi Concentration, which is called the Ground of Flaming Wisdom. Some change the dwelling in order to avoid this (death and the killer demons). Therefore this is called completion by accordance and involves no recalcitrant transformation whatsoever. All practitioners must earnestly keep their hearts firm. (Ye commentary)54

nW A ET-W$f kriE< eWQ A toffiS-W Rff

We can see from the two commentaries that "entering a womb" is carried out at the preordained time of death ("the great limit"), when one can anticipate hostile encounters with death-bringing demons. (According to the Luo commentary, these demons are none other than the Three Corpses, Nine Worms and Seven Po Souls- malicious corporeal spirits well-known in early medieval Taoist literature.)55 To fight against death and the demons that bring it on would be "recalcitrant transformation". By contrast, to "enter a womb" or "change your dwelling" means that you avoid fighting the demons and concede the death of the old body-thus, it is deemed "by accordance". The Luo commentary seems to maintain that, ultimately, in the consummate transformation into an ascending immortal body that occurs after "entering a womb" multiple times the killer demons themselves are converted without a fight and get to partake in celestial immortality. "Recalcitrant transformation", then,

5Z4en longkujiuxianjing, 14a-b. 54 Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 14b. 5 The Three Corpses-also known as the Three Worms-are evil spirits that were

believed to dwell in the three elixir fields (dantian fJSiE) located in the head, chest and lower abdomen. A detailed study on the development of this concept can be found in Kubo Noritada, Koshin shinko no kenkyiu (Tokyo: Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkokai, 1961).



is tantamount to the practice of "repelling the killer demons" (the Ye commentary states so earlier on in more specific terms),56 which shall be treated shortly in our discussion. First, however, let us briefly turn our attention to the matter of "changing your dwelling".

Changing your Dwelling

Regarding the method for "changing your dwelling", the Taibai huandan pian elaborates as follows:

What is [the method of] changing your dwelling? A person who is a prior acquaintance and has already entered the darkness (died)-this is an empty dwelling. It should be someone who prior [to death] had not been ill from wind and coldness, and whose essence was firm and full. If so, you can move to [this dwelling]. A male child is the best [dwelling to move into]. Thereby when I enter into it I can resume my training just as before.57

Unfortunately, we are not told of the actual technique for transferring the Spirit to another body. But it is noteworthy that the Taibai huandan pian does not even mention-much less, endorse- taking over the body of somebody who is still living. As the reader will recall from the introduction to this essay, the Zhen longhujiuxian jing does mention that such a thing can be and has been done, although it warns that such selfish, cruel behavior will incur divine punishment. Wang Yuanzheng, the author of Taibai huandan pian, was quite likely aware of such abuses of the technique of "changing your dwelling"; he probably chooses not to mention them, since they are immoral and ultimately harmful to both self and others.

Wang further states that the new "dwelling" ought to be the corpse of an acquaintance. This again would seem to be due to considerations of what is right and proper in human relations and interactions. The implication seems to be that one has gained prior consent from the deceased and/or the family thereof. Or, somewhat more cynically, one might surmise that the corpse of an acquaintance is preferable

56 'Also, if you have the great affliction, which is that of non-permanence (death),

you can use the fire to repel the killer demons. The method is described in my commentary later on below" (Zhen longhujiuxianjing, 3b).

57 Daoshu, 27/12a.



because the adept can thus have greater knowledge of the life that the deceased had lived, and thus also the consequent condition of the new "dwelling".

The reason why the deceased should not have been "ill from wind and coldness" during his/her life could be that it was thought that pathological conditions might be lingering in the body after death, and that the adept might "inherit" them when he/she enters it. The deceased should also preferably be young and virginal. This is because the "essence" becomes depleted with age and with sexual activity. As for the recommendation that the deceased ought to be a male child, the most likely explanation is that the author is male and tends to make his statements with fellow male adepts in mind. If he had had female adepts in mind, would he have said that they should transfer into the body of a deceased young woman? This is hard to say. As has been discussed by Catherine Despeux and Livia Kohn, the female body was considered to be in some ways disadvantageous, yet in other ways advantageous for the practice of internal alchemy.58

Unfortunately, further discussions of "changing your dwelling" have so far proven hard to come by in internal alchemical literature. Again, as we have seen, the Zhen longhujiuxianjing warns that adepts who take over the bodies of living people will be punished. The Taibai huandan pian seems to refuse to mention that such a practice existed. However, I have found one Taoist text that speaks quite non- judgmentally of what appears to be a somewhat similar phenomenon. This text is a self-cultivation manual of uncertain date (possibly late Tang or early Song) entitled Taixuan baodian ZWit.59 It states as follows:

58 Women are at some disadvantage at the initial stages of practice, since they have to become able to retain and harness their vitality by "decapitating the Red Dragon"- i.e., stopping the menstrual cycle. However, they are thought to be at an advantage at the intermediate stage of "growing the embryo", since they are naturally endowed with wombs. See Despeux and Kohn, Women in Daoism, pp. 221-243.

59 DZ 1034/TT703. This interesting text contains instructions on neidan meditation along with the preparation /ingestion of medicines. Unfortunately, the text bears no colophon and is virtually free of references to historical figures and events. My guess is that it is a product of the relatively early phases of the neidan tradition, since it lacks some of the characteristics of neidan texts of the Southern Song onward (e.g., references to such fabled neidan masters as Lu Yan, Zhongli Quan or Zhang Boduan; quotations from such texts as the Zhouyi cantong qi M J WuIzhen pian or Jnfujing XA;sM; polemical statements asserting the superiority of neidan over other immortality techniques).



When the refining of energy is complete, and the spirit is stable without disorder, [adepts] can jump up through the Gate of Heaven and send out the Spirit. Thus they can penetrate. Some take their lodging in icons. Some lodge in the bodies of people. Human bodies that get lodged in are those of people whose spirits are disorderly and whose energy is declining. If they meet frequently [with such a Spirit?] they will fall down. Some [Spirits of adepts] mingle and respond to people while they are drunk.60

While the full sense of the above passage is hard to grasp, it seems to describe how adepts can enter bodies of vulnerable living people, apparently at times to their detriment (they "fall down"). It is unclear whether the passage is speaking of transient episodes of possession, or whether it means to imply that the adept's Spirit permanently evicts the body's previous inhabitant. If it is with mere temporary possession that we are dealing here, this can plausibly be justified morally helpful revelations can come through the mouths or hands of possessed mediums and is in fact, to this day, a capacity frequently attributed to immortals, particularly within the context of spirit writing.

Repelling the Killer Demons

The Zhen longhu jiuxian jing describes the method for "repelling the killer demons" as "recalcitrant transformation", since it entails fighting for the life of one's body rather than conceding it to the forces of death. Wang Yuanzheng's Taibai huandan pian describes the method for "repelling the killer demons" in the following terms:

What is [the method for] repelling the killer demons? [Suppose that] a practitioner of the Tao has not yet completed his residence in the womb but is not far from [the time when] he/she will exit it. Suddenly there is the great limit (the predestined time of death). By what means shall he/she cope with this? If the five hearts have a single pain, this means that the great limit has arrived. ([Editor Zeng Zao's note:] "Five hearts" refers to the centers of the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, and the heart.) Thereupon you should sit peacefully in a quiet room and carry out the visualization of having an audience with the Realized Ones. [The visualization of] having an audience with the Realized Ones [is done as follows]: Darken the mind [to focus on the] inner being. Use the chain [to bind] your ears, eyes, nose, tongue, hands,

60 Taixuan baodian, 2/9b- 1 Oa.



feet and the orifices of ren and gui.61 Make your teeth your city walls. With your heart make fire, and with it burn your body. When you see the demons, do not be scared. The heart is the emperor. Store the three in the nose. The feet are the Three Tai [stars]. With it illuminate the ten thousand ministers. The god(s) of the liver command(s) 36,000 deities of refined radiance, and defend(s) the left side. The god(s) of the lungs command(s) 12,000 shadowy deities and defend(s) the right side. The god(s) of the spleen command(s) the 84,000 deities of the hairs and pores and defend(s) the front side. The god(s) of the kidneys command(s) the 50,000 refined efflorescent primal energy deities and defend(s) the back. The god(s) of the head and the god(s) of the neck command the deities of the hair and defend the upper palace. The god(s) of the gall bladder defend(s) the lower section. The six bowels are the six ding. When you engage the demons in battle, the demons will retreat. Three to five days later they may come back again. Then you can abandon the city and directly ascend to the Heavenly Officials [to join their ranks]. Or, you can become a Heroic Immortal (liexian). Or, you can become an Earthly Immortal (dixian).62

tEXkAf~ ~~~6 f4lX8E L 1S P W; P t E M M XtoL' GiW 1p;FFin

Wang Yuanzheng recommends this type of death meditation when the Spirit has yet to reach the desired level of maturity in the "womb", but is nonetheless close to doing so. The implication is perhaps that the adept who opts for this method is an adept who at the time of impending doom has reached a higher level of cultivation than one who would chose to "enter a womb" or "change the dwelling". The body as well as the Spirit have been trained and refined to a point where abandoning this particularly body for another would be a great shame. The Spirit, the body, or both, are on the brink of attaining a lofty grade of immortality if one can just buy some more time. The

61 "The orifices of ren and gui" probably refers to the lower bodily orifices, particu-

larly the genitals. Ren and gui are the ninth and tenth "stems" in the traditional method of denoting days and months by combinations of "stem" and "branch" symbols. In traditional correlative cosmology, ren and gui both correspond to the agent of water, the direction of north. Within the human body, the kidneys and the lower end of the abdomen were thought to correspond to this agent and direction. Also, the kidneys were regarded largely as a sexual organ that manufactures semen. The testicles are known as the "outer kidneys," as opposed to the "inner kidneys".

62 Daoshu, 27/12a-13a.



imminence of one's predestined time of death, we are told, can be ascertained by pain that is felt in the heart, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Time is to be bought by fighting off the demons of death.

The description of the method of "doing battle" is abstruse in some of its terminology. Besides, it does not, unfortunately, tell us more about who or what these demons are (the Three Corpses and Nine Worms, perhaps?), and whether they come from the inside, the outside, or both. Still, we can see that the "fighting" is done by means of a method of meditative concentration and visualization. The adept imagines the body as a "city" that is defended by firmly closing its entrances (the sense organs and bodily orifices) and concentrating the mind and senses within. The adept generates inner heat ("fire"), most likely through a combination of intense mental concentration and the holding of breath (the latter is probably what is meant by the obscure phrase, "store the three in the nose"). The "fire", presumably, is meant to serve the function of burning away the demons. The text anticipates that the adept may experience visions of the demons, and tells him/her not to fear them. While arousing the "fire", the adept also mobilizes his/her inner "troops", which are the tens of thousands of corporeal spirits commanded by the chief resident deities of the principal bodily organs.

After the demons have been successfully repelled, they are likely to return several days later. If so, the adept has three different options. One is to abandon the "city"-the body-and ascend spiritually to heavenly immortal existence. The implication seems to be that the Spirit has been refined to full maturity during the several days since the first "siege" and has now become capable of lofty heavenly ascension-which it was not at the moment of the first "siege". The other two options-or at least the option of Earthly Immortal- would appear to entail fighting off the demons as many times as necessary while making the immortal body one's eternal dwelling. A "Heroic Immortal", it would appear, is also a type of immortal that lingers in the world of mortals, and furthermore employs martial powers to combat the evil and benefit the righteous.63

63 This interpretation (and translation) of the term liexian YJ{W is based on what comes after in the text of the Taibai huandan pian and on parallel passages from the roughly contemporary (if somewhat earlier) Zhen longhujiuxianjing. Both texts contain descriptions of how to forge a "sword" through inner visualization and manipula-



By the Northern Song period there came to be known yet another method for neidan practitioners to buy time at their allotted time of death. The idea of this method, known as "fleeing the numbers" (huanshu C.), seems to be to flee from the forces of death rather than fight them. The Dongyuanzi neidan jue [a tf []H-q , a text roughly datable to the Northern Song64 and, to my knowledge so far, the only one to discuss this particular method, states as follows:

When practitioners of the Way refine their spirits and make them immortal, the yin registers erase their names, and demonic monitors will go far away. Even if your dust number (remaining life span) is about to be exhausted, you can still flee from it. This is why Lord Lao said, "My life is in my [own hands], it is not in [the hands of] heaven".65

Later on in the text we find a chapter entitled, "Chapter on Fleeing the Numbers" ("Huanshu pian" ) which reads as follows:

[The following regards] people who come to understand the Way and engage in training late in life: If their training is not completed and the number of years [that they have put into training] has not reached [the requisite amount of time], they will definitely be unable to avoid death and fly to immortality. If they know that the number has arrived (the time of death has come), they can flee from it. After becoming Earthly Immortals they can cultivate the way of long life and heavenly ascension.66

tion of one's own qi. The Zhen longhujiuxianjing (Luo commentary) further provides a ranked list of nine types of Immortal Knights who employ a flying sword with varying degrees of power and skill. The most likely explanation is that this internally forged flying sword was supposed to be wielded by the adept's Spirit, which could be sent out of the body during trance to combat evil forces in remote locations. Essentially, it seems to have been a technique of therapeutic magic by which some early internal alchemists claimed to be able to slay the demons that caused disease. However, in mainstream internal alchemical discourse the "sword" came to be reinterpreted as a metaphor for the adept's inner wisdom and fortitude, capable of slaying and cutting off ignorance and temptations. I have discussed this issue of the internal alchemist's sword in more detail in a conference paper, "Do Immortals Kill? The Controversy Surrounding Lu Dongbin", presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 2005 (currently under revision for future publication).

64 DZ1097/TT743. As the title is listed in Zheng Qiao's Tongzhi, it probably dates to the Northern Song. See RenJiyu, Daozang tyao, p. 840.

65 Dongyuanzi neidanjue, preface 3b. 66 Dongyuanzi neidanjue, 2/6a.



Unlike the Zhen longhu jiuxian jing (and perhaps also the Taibai huandan pian), the Dongvuanzi neidanjue envisions the ultimate form of immortality as the one of the perfected Spirit which casts aside the bodily husk and ascends to the heavens.67 However, we are told that people who embark upon neidan practice late in life are likely to see their earthly lifespan run out before the Spirit is sufficiently perfected- a large part of the problem being that such late practitioners need extra time to replenish through neidan the "essence" they have lost through past sexual activity. These people must "flee the numbers"; if they are able to cheat death in this way, they have in effect already become "Earthly Immortals" (here regarded as of a rank below that of Spirit Immortals that have been "liberated from the corpse"). The text follows with a description of the actual method:

People of the world in their life spans vary in length and shortness. Observe the great number as it gets completed over the mornings and eve-

nings. If the spiritual light has left, the doorway will be black. If you arouse the fire three times and yet the fire does not circulate, You will know that the numbers have arrived and you must flee. Quietly stabilize the Dark Passage (xuanguan)68 with utmost firmness. Before your eyes you will see many divine immortal companions. Some will be holding vermillion kerchiefs and wearing dark red sashes, In their hands they will be holding the Most High Ordinance of the Mysteri-

ous Origin. They will come inviting you with painstakingly polite phrases, And they will speak of various matters pertaining to heavenly ascension. [They will further speak of] accompanying your body in its ascension to the

Nine Skies. If they say things such as this, never listen to them. If they want to go with you, do not fight with them. Just know that you must confine yourself at the head of the Vermillion Gates

(zhumen).69 Discretely within the Mysterious Palace (xuangong) relax in great stillness.70

67 The Dongyuanzi neidanjue, preface, 5a, states: "The way of cultivating immortality begins with a ten-month regimen, and is completed in three years. You escape your filthy body the way a cicada sheds its shell."

68 The Dark Passage here most likely refers to either the mind or the heart, or perhaps to the Lower Elixir Field behind the navel. See Qing Xitai, ed., Zhongguo daojiao shi (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1996), vol. 3, pp. 169-170.

69 The meaning of this sentence is not very clear. It seems to mean, "keep the heart or mind stable". The color vermillion (or any shade of red) corresponds to the agent fire and the direction south, and thus physiologically would most likely refer to the heart.

70 The meaning of this sentence is not very clear. It means perhaps "to focus the mind inwardly on the kidneys". The character xuan t (translated as "mysterious")



Wandering spirits [will come] from 1000 li away, traversing mountain passes [or Make your Spirit travel 1000 li, traversing mountain passes].

Wait for them to leave and [or: After those accompanying you have left,] then come to see (?).

After the wandering spirits have left [or When you send your Spirit traveling], there is a divine chant [for you to chant].

The chant is transmitted from an immortal master with a golden mouth (?).1

It is first of all crucial to know when to "flee the numbers"; thus, the Dongvuanzi neidanjue-like the Lingbao guikongjue and Taibai huandan pian sets forth a method for anticipating the predestined moment of death. The adept is able to know that this moment is imminent when there is no "spiritual light" (shenguang) and "the fire does not circulate". The "fire" in this case probably refers to the inner heat that neidan adepts create through breath-holding and mental concentration: it is claimed here that it cannot be generated and spread through the body effectively when death is imminent. The "spiritual light" is also something that a neidan adept normally expects to be able to generate or experience during meditation. A little later, in a section entitled "Chapter on the Spiritual Light" ("Shenguang pian" ~$tBY,), Dongyuanzi, the text's obscure author, criticizes his contemporaries for maintaining that this "spiritual light" should be generated by rubbing the lower eyelids. Rather, Dongyuanzi argues, one should simply sit in a dark room during the fifth watch, prior to the rooster's call, with one's eyes closed and one's mind calm. After a while one will be able to see a "spiritual light" resembling that of the sun and moon, or perhaps of a candle, rotating and flickering about. If for three days in a row the procedure fails to bring forth such visions of light, one will know that the time of death has come.

As death approaches, the adept concentrates his/her mind inward and experiences visions, not of menacing demons, but rather of amiable Immortals who invite him/her to ascend to Heaven with them. Though it is not explicitly stated, it seems that one must

often denotes the color black, which corresponds to the kidneys. Besides, in two different places (1/6a, 1 /9b) the Dongyuanzi neidanjue appears to use the term xuangong t to denote the kidneys.

71 Dongyuanzi neidanjue, 2/6b.



understand here that these Immortal envoys are in fact demons, or spirit envoys of the underworld, intent on deceiving the adept and taking his/her premature Spirit to some less desirable destination of the sort ordinary dead people normally go to (purgatory, or some lowly station of samsara). The adept is told to ignore their invitations, but also not to argue or fight with them; apparently they lack the power to abduct him/her as long as he/she does not become deceived.

The rest of the passage is quite difficult to understand. Possibly, it says that the adept's Spirit is simply to stay put within the head while more and more deceptive spirits arrive from distant places, and wait until they all leave for good. Another possible interpretation is that, while concentrating inside, the adept sends his/her Spirit out on a journey-and some of the demons perhaps tag along; after the demons have given up harassing the adept's Spirit and body, the Spirit returns safely to the body. If the latter interpretation is correct, it would mean that the demons do not threaten to occupy the body even when the Spirit is absent. But then it is hard to say whether the reason is supposed to be their lack of power-or interest-to do so, or if it is because when the Spirit is absent the adept's body is guarded by some other corporeal spirits.

Conclusion

Techniques such as "entering a womb" or "changing the dwelling", which are rather haughtily disdained in the Zhong-Lu texts (and in many other internal alchemical writings), were in fact regarded by some-perhaps, many-internal alchemists as valid measures to resort to when death looms imminent and the desired level of attainment has not yet been reached. Through these methods, as well as those of "expelling the killer demons" and "fleeing the numbers", adepts hoped to overcome the crisis in a manner that would enable them to continue to exist in some sort of condition where they could continue to make progress toward the level of immortality deemed desirable. The post-crisis condition envisioned varies according to the technique used: the Spirit either transfers to another womb or body (in the cases of "entering a womb" and "changing the dwelling") or manages to stay on in its accustomed body (in the cases of "expelling the killer demons" and "fleeing the numbers"). Our texts seem to assume ta- citly that adepts who can and should "enter the womb" are at a



lower level of attainment compared to those who can "change the dwelling"; the latter in turn do not match those who can "repel the killer demons". The bardo condition certainly seems highly perilous and unstable, one which an adept ought to try to avoid entering altogether if possible. To "change the dwelling" is a way of finding another body without subjecting oneself to quite so much peril and uncertainty; to "repel the killer demons" successfully would be even better.

Internal alchemists also varied in their final desired goal. Some saw physical immortality as superior to immortality of the Spirit alone; the author and commentators of the Zhen longhujiuxianjing are an example, as is perhaps also Wang Yuanzheng, the author of the Taibai huandan pian. Others saw it as most desirable for the pureyang Spirit to cast off the bodily shell; this is the view of the Dongvuanzi neidan'jue, of the Zhong-Lu texts, and of the subsequent mainstream Quanzhen tradition. But in all cases what seems to be at issue is whether the mind of the adept will live on whole and intact, and whether it will maintain control and free will in the face of hostile and deceptive forces.

Ultimate defeat and failure-death in the true sense-occurs when the adept's mind loses the power to control its own destiny. The adept is winning as long as the famous phrase from the medieval Taoist classic Xishengjing fi kg (Scripture of the Western Ascension), "My life is in my [own hands], it is not in [the hands of] Heaven", holds true. It is therefore natural that all the techniques examined should involve keeping the mind calm, attentive and in control as it is about to confront psychic forces spirits and demons that threaten to take away its free will and/or disintegrate its state of unity and awareness. These dangerous psychic forces can be internal-dwelling within the adept's own body or psyche or external; they seem to be of various types associated with both indigenous and Indo-Buddhist conceptions of death and the afterlife.

Since at least early medieval times the immortality-seeking/Taoist tradition has believed in the existence of corporeal spirits that desire the person to die and disintegrate, and thus have the propensity to delude them into self-destructive behavior or report their misdeeds to the divine bureaucracy. The Three Corpses, Nine Worms and Seven Po are such spirits/demons, and Luo Gongyuan's commentary to the Zhen longhu jiuxian jing specifically identifies them as the malignant forces that one must flee or fight. Even older indigenous beliefs-



belonging to the larger common religious tradition and dating back to Han times and earlier-have maintained that there is a spirit bureaucracy in possession of the records of people's appointed times of death, and that the souls of the dead live on in a subterranean land known as the Yellow Springs (huangquan t7g) or the Underground (dixia ittFT).72 In its description of how to "flee the numbers", the Dongyuanzi neidan jue seems to be describing an encounter with envoys of the underworld who have disguised themselves as celestial immortal envoys in an attempt to mislead the adept. The Indo- Buddhist influence-deeply embedded in the Taoist religion since around the 5th century-is apparent in the way the Taibai huandan pian and Lingbao guikongjue describe encounters with deceptive, vision- creating forces instrumental to the unfolding of the processes of samsara. These forces-at least according to the Lingbao guikongjue- are both internal and external.

So, what is at the source of such beliefs pertaining to death and the psychic techniques for coping with it? Instrumental first and foremost is the natural and virtually universal human wish or hope that the life of an individual will continue somehow, at least at the psychic level, after the seemingly inevitable death and decay of the body. However, accompanying that hope is the uncertainty about what the fate of such a disembodied mind might be-whether it will soon face decay and disintegration, much like the corpse, or perhaps survive eternally, but in a state of abject weakness and misery. Hopes and fears such as these would then inspire people to imagine the sorts of hazards that the mind may face at the time of death and devise strategies to help ensure its survival and freedom. However, one also surmises that internal alchemists did not derive their beliefs only from mere ordinary imagination. As mystics who cultivated frequent trances of disembodiment whether real or imagined-the most accomplished of them probably based their beliefs on evidence gleaned from personal experiences that bore at least subjective reality. They believed they had experienced the disembodied state in these trances and had witnessed the increasing power that the Spirit comes to bear with the repetition of such experiences.

Were the various sorts of death meditation developed completely

72 See Mu-chou Poo, In Search of Personal Weffare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), pp. 62-66,157-177.



indigenously, within strictly Taoist circ

death neidan

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