Daoist School Zhen Dao Pai

“When a person is about to die, there must be a turning back of the light and reflective illumination, and suddenly there is clarity.”

This is one of the most important moments in the entire argument. At death, when the ordinary heart-mind begins to lose its power—when its projects, fears, calculations, and cravings cannot be maintained—there can appear a brief brightness that is not produced by effort. It is like the sky clearing when the wind stops. The author is describing a phenomenon known across contemplative traditions: when the grasping mind weakens, another clarity can flash forth. He interprets this as Yuan Shen’s radiance appearing “for a single instant.”

This leads to the decisive conclusion: “a person’s Yuan Shen lives only after the heart-mind has died.” Again, the “death” here is not simply biological death. It is the death of the postcelestial ruler—the end of the discriminating, clinging consciousness that has taken the throne.
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
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In early infancy there is still “two or three parts” of numinous capacity. Again, the text is not doing mathematics. It is saying: there is still some remainder, but it is already declining. The child cannot “speak on their own” because the postcelestial instrument—language, deliberate expression, conceptual sorting—has not yet matured.

And then, as the “crown of the head fills in,” the author marks a further closure: Yuan Shen becomes “deeply shut.” What replaces it is not true loss, but a change of regime. “The Precelestial numinousness changes into Postcelestial numinousness—and then they are able to speak.” Speech is presented as a sign of the postcelestial taking power.

To speak is to name; to name is to divide; to divide is to build a world of objects. This is both a necessary human function and, from the standpoint of cultivation, the beginning of exile from the original light.
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
______
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The next episode of the Chronicles of the Flying Sword is out now.

Episode 5 of Chronicles of the Flying Sword continues the legendary journey of Lü Dongbin along the path of awakening, transformation, and the Dao.

English version:

Chronicles of the Flying Sword. Episode 5 Lü Dongbin | Daoist Immortal | A Story from Chinese MythologyEpis...

The Dao of Nature is quiet and yet able to respond; therefore it is said to be self-awakened and ever responsive to things—thus it can truly attain Xing. Yuan Shen loves stillness, yet the heart-mind ruins it; Yuan Shen is able to respond, yet the heart-mind scatters it.

When ordinary people are first born, there is none who do not know the karmic causes and effects of their previous lives. But once they take in the water and milk of the human world, their numinous capacity closes.

However, while they are still infants, they still retain two or three parts of numinous capacity—only their Qi-strength is insufficient, and they cannot speak on their own. Therefore, when the crown of the head has filled in, their numinous capacity gradually wanes and Yuan Shen closes deeply. The Precelestial numinousness changes into Postcelestial numinousness—and then they are able to speak.
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
______
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If you attempt to “cultivate spirit” while remaining governed by Shi Shen—by constant discrimination, craving, and agitation—you are trying to see the sun while stirring up dust. The more you stir, the less you see. The text therefore points to a reversal: settle the breath and the heart-mind together until the reactive mode “dies,” and then the original mode “lives.” This is not a dramatic miracle; it is the quiet restoration of rightful rulership.

Read this way, the passage also preserves a crucial ethical implication. The reason Shi Shen grows powerful is not only sensory stimulation; it is also the heart’s attachment—its craving, its grasping, its indulgence.

Therefore refinement is not merely sitting still; it is also dissolving the patterns that keep the heart-mind in hunger and agitation. When desire is thinned and the breath is settled, the inner light does not need to be summoned. It appears as what was always there, the precelestial clarity that cannot be improved by cleverness, only unveiled by return.
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
______
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This leads directly to the distinction between Shi Shen (識神, shí shén), the Conscious Spirit, and Yuan Shen (元神, yuán shén), the Original Spirit. Shi Shen is the heart-mind’s knowing and discriminating: the faculty that names, judges, remembers, compares, and reacts. It is useful for daily life, but it is also easily entangled. Because it is built on contact with objects, it strengthens the sense of “I” and “mine,” and it lives by chasing meanings in the outer world. When this mode becomes dominant—when it is “day by day more severe”—the text says Yuan Shen “day by day diminishes.” This does not mean Yuan Shen is destroyed in essence; it means its function is no longer accessible. The more the surface mind churns, the less the original light can be recognized as ruler.

Yuan Shen, by contrast, is described as a “single point of numinous light before birth.” This is the author’s way of saying that true spirit is not a product of the acquired personality. It is prior to acquired habits. It is precelestial. It is not obtained by adding something new; it is returned to by subtracting what covers it.
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
______
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In the Precelestial there are Eight Trigrams of Yin and Yang; in the Postcelestial there are also Eight Trigrams of Yin and Yang. Those who cultivate the Dao must understand these two sets of Eight Trigrams—these four Yin–Yang aspects—only then can one go from the Postcelestial and return to the Precelestial. In the Precelestial, Qian is in the south and Kun in the north; in the Postcelestial, Li is in the south and Kan in the north—yet Earth always abides in the center. Therefore, establishing True Earth must be the first step.

What is True Earth? It is not the heart, not the kidneys; not the spleen, not the stomach; not the mouth, not the nose; not the ears, not the eyes; not the crown gate, not the navel wheel; not Guanyuan, not the Sea of Qi.

Within the human body, there is no such “aperture.” Only when stillness reaches its utmost does it appear: when the Postcelestial spirit becomes hazy and indistinct, it merges with the Precelestial Qi. Then True Intention appears, and True Earth is established.
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
______
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☯️ How to Evaluate a Teacher ☯️

One of the recurring warnings in Daoist literature is that a seeker should not be impressed by appearances.

Do not be impressed by titles.

Do not be impressed by claims of possessing secret teachings.

Do not be impressed by unusual methods, mysterious language, exotic experiences, or great confidence.

These things may be genuine—or they may simply be distractions.

The old masters advised looking deeper.

Does the teacher understand the real principles behind the Five Phases and the Four Images?

Do they understand the symbolic meaning of Lead and Mercury, and the difference between postcelestial and precelestial circulation?

Do they understand the Fire Phases (the firing process) and the proper timing of cultivation?

Do they understand what is meant by the “Precelestial within the Postcelestial,” the “Precelestial within the Precelestial,” and the principle of “using the false to cultivate the Truth”?

Do they understand the relationship between Dao and virtue, cultivation and conduct?

These questions are far more important than lineage titles, robes, certificates, or claims of attainment.

A true teacher may appear quite ordinary.

A false teacher may appear extraordinary.

The real question is not how impressive someone looks, but whether they truly understand the principles and can guide others according to them.

Without understanding, even sincere effort can lead people astray.

Without virtue, even correct methods can become harmful.

This is why the classics repeatedly emphasize both wisdom and character.

Methods matter.

Understanding matters.

But without virtue, neither can lead to the Dao.

Kan and Li, the sun and moon, Water and Fire, the heart and kidneys—these are all analogies and metaphors. They must not be taken as literal realities.

The ancient sages knew that the Elixir Way is extremely secret; therefore they employed a hundred kinds of comparisons in order to teach later generations. Yet those who are deluded only become more deluded, and instead turn these metaphors into “literal realities.” They do not know that in the flesh-and-blood heart and kidneys, what Dao could possibly be spoken of?

Kan is the essence of Water; Wu is simply the Yang Qi within Water. Li is the spirit of Fire; Ji is simply the Yin Qi within spirit. Wu and Ji belong to Earth; therefore both Water and Fire contain Earth.

A person’s heart and kidneys indeed correspond to Water and Fire, but the “self” is not Water and Fire—how could one cling to them?
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
______
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The human being is also a small Heaven and Earth. Therefore Earth is True Intention: it is what commands Spirit and Qi—this is self-cultivation. In the Confucian school there is “making intention sincere”; in Buddhism there is “purifying intention”; and the Dao’s True Intention is one and the same. Therefore intention is the ruler of the human body.

But when deviant thoughts obscure the center, what is true can no longer be seen. For this reason, one who first enters the Dao must first seek True Earth. When True Earth is established, the Dao first settles its foundation. Earth is True Intention.

True Intention is a single point of numinous light from the Precelestial—before the vast undifferentiated chaos had yet divided. Within human beings it is surrounded and clustered by desires; therefore day after day one loses one’s original face. When it is lost entirely, one dies.
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Excerpt from the Book “Daoist Cultivation, Book 35 - The True Transmission of the Great Dao” translated and commented by Vitaly Filbert.
______
You can buy a paper book on Amazon.
https://a.co/d/0bVB701F

Most ebooks are available in Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. Go to the author page, click filters, and select language.

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