Neidan Study Group Netherlands

07/12/2025

“In heaven, it is the celestial center; in man, it is the true intent. The great elixir ascends and descends through the rotation of true intent, just as the celestial wheel circulates through the celestial center; both follow the same principle.”

在天為天心，在 人為真意.大藥憑真意之轉旋而升降，猶天輪藉天心之斡運而循環，皆一理也

- Da Yi Tong Jie 大易通解 (Comprehensive Explanation of the Great Changes)

04/12/2025

30/11/2025

The Yang Spirit Manifests- Xing Ming Gui Zhi - 性命圭旨

The unconditioned golden body springs out of the end of a shining white hair
Scorching in the light of the śarīra, universally manifest a great chiliocosm
Vairocana circumambulates on the crest of your head
Play in the Sea [of Suffering] is extinguished in quietude
Strange, this wonderous gate
The Buddha patriarch once bestowed [upon you] a prophecy of future enlightenment
The yang spirit manifests, shining golden bright
Board that white cloud; roam free and easy in the Emperor’s country
The Buddha heard half a gātha and abandoned his entire body.
Loftily evincing his position as a person revered for 10,000 virtues Completely attain nirvana, the eyes of the true dharma
The diamond indestructible body long-endures
See that your body has no reality; it is the Buddha body Understand that your mind is like an illusion: this is the Buddha’s illusion
Completely realize that the foundational nature of the body and mind is void This person and the Buddha, how can they be different?
The mind is the same as the Void Realm
It shows you that it is equivalent to the Void’s dharma
Attain the Void body
The dharma of non-affirming and non-denying
The Void has no inner and outer.
The mind dharma is also like this.
If you understand that things are empty,
Then you’ve understood the principle of true thusness.

Xing Ming Gui Zhi - 性命圭旨 - translation Burton Rose

(there might be more accurate translation, we read this document couple of years ago and my friend Robert translated some terms differently, but this poem gives you a taste. The use of Buddhist terms in Neidan literature is definitely used sometimes for other purposes, they get a Daoist twist for sure. Neidan is extremely eclectic and the Xing Ming Gui Zhi, an outstanding and very influential Neidan work from the Ming Period shows very interesting ingredients, next to the obvious Daoist and Neo Confucian elements, clear influence from Chan and also Tiantai, and even Vajrayana Buddhism. The fact that Vairocana is at the top of the head when the Yang Sheng emerges out of the Sky Gate has clear resemblances to some Ta***ic Buddhist practices, also the whole language is heavenly influenced by Buddhist parlour. Rereading this text from time to time makes me aware how the three teachings are sublimely merged in the Neidan literature. Xing Ming Gui Zhi remains own of the most fascinating texts of the Neidan tradition.

29/11/2025

Aniconic representation of the Dharmakaya "Sarvavid Vairocana" as a moon disc atop an enthroned blue lotus, Qing Dynasty (18th century) - China

Interesting is that Vairocana, figuring prominently in esoteric Buddhism (Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese alike) is also mentioned is some Neidan literature, like the Xing Ming Gui Zhi, although the meaning might change in these Internal Alchemy texts, it proves its highly eclectic nature.

24/11/2025

Dzogchen subtle body anatomy is different from the Vajrayana subtle body. Some Nadis/ channels overlap, some are very different, like the Kati Chrystal channel linking the eyes to the heart and central channel. Since light plays such an important role in their practices they differ in that sense with Indian Vajrayana. And might even share some commonalities with Daoist Inner cultivation practices. The origin of Dzogchen is disputed or at the least diverse, The Main Bön tradition (oldest Tibetan religion) speaks often of the Persian world, Tajik. And we know that Light and Illumination played an important part in Pre Islamic Iranian religions, who knows…..

We also have to acknowledge that it at the least also have absorbed many Buddhist notions, and the Buddhist ( Nyingmapa/old school) Dzogchen, claimed to have their Dzogchen from India, confusing. Most probably an interplay of Indian notions with Tibetan older notions and practices, with even communication between the West and East Asian world pretty early on.

Dzogchen is however a powerful meditation practice, which brings one in a non dual state, they use the Innate Nature but also Life Force, the body and subtle channels are important venues for the transformation in transcendence. It contains two aspects, 1) cutting through, all ordinary thoughts, projections, etc. by directly realizing the real empty but luminous nature in everything and 2) Thogyal, which uses light and a natural state as a tool to obtain a non dual awareness and a total opening of alll channels and the end result is believed to be a rainbow body.

At the least this tradition shares very interesting commonalities with Daoist Internal cultivation systems like Neidan.

Dzogchen Thögal
The Luminous Channel and the Brahmarandra are the Gateway for the Brilliant Visions to Manifestly Appear in front of the Practitioner Revealing Our Nature Made of Sounds, Rays, and Lights.

Illustration from RAINBOW BODY by Loel Guinness

24/11/2025

Enjoyed participating in the ASA-TCM congress in Zürich last Thursday and Friday. The Theme was Immortality. I kicked off the congress with a talk on the developments of ideas around immortality and long life related practices like Yangsheng and Neidan and the influences of these practices and ideas on Chinese medicine. In the lecture I gave a more general timeline, in the workshop next day I zoomed in on especially the ideas developed by Li Shizhen and later Imperial time physicians on the extraordinary vessels under influence of Neidan (Internal Alchemy ) combining ideas from Internal Alchemy and Medicine .

18/11/2025

I’ll revisit Li Shizhen’s Qi Jing Ba Mai Kao the coming days at the ASA TCM congress in Zurich. One interesting aspect of the QJBMK is that it contains excerpts of the Ba Mai Jing, attributed to Zhang Boduan, who wrote this text next to the Wu Zhen Pian and the Jin Dan Si Bai. This text was considered lost, but popped up in the Qi Jing Ba Mai Kao. Later we see it also appearing in a Neidan text, the Hui Ming Jing. The interesting aspect is that Li Shizhen revisited this text and claims that we as physicians should pay attention to the Internal Alchemy approaches of the Ba Mai. One idea is that the Ba Mai are closed and only divine transcendents can open them. Another interesting aspect in the Ba Mai Jing is the specific location of the Ba Mai described in this text and the fact than one needs to open the Yin Qiao first.

15/11/2025

In my talk coming week in Zurich, I ll zoom in on how ideas from Neidan influenced medicine, especially with regards to the Extraordinary Vessels. Next to zooming in on Li Shizhen, who was the first one to bridge Neidan en Medicine in that regard, I ll pay some attention to Luo Dong-Yi who was a fascinating physician, who developed the idea of the Tai Chong/Da Tong in relation to the Ba Mai. Luo Dong-Yi is relatively late (18 th century) but his remarks are quite profound and can help us in engaging with the Ba Mai in a more advanced way. The concept of Tai Chong/Da Tong harks back all the way to the Zhuangzi, but this innovative interpretation is worthwhile to take in account.

15/11/2025

This is a very nice course

Read the full article:https://immortalitystudy.substack.com/p/81-months-of-the-dao-de-jing-nanTake the course:https://immortalitystudy.gumroad.com/l/ddj1

11/11/2025

This Opening is not a common opening:
it is formed by the joining of Qian ☰ and Kun ☷.
It is called Cavity of Spirit and Breath,
and within there are the essences of Kan ☵ and Li ☲.

Commentary

“This Opening” means the Mysterious Opening mentioned above. It does not pertain to Being or Non-Being, and it does not fall into any category or rule; it lies outside and beyond the body and mind, and it emerges from the “vague and indistinct.” Therefore it says, “is not a common Opening.”

Spirit is the Mercury within the mind, Breath is the Lead within the body. The mind is the chamber of Spirit, the body is the seat of Breath. Therefore it says, “it is called Cavity of Spirit and Breath.”

Within the body there is a particle of Breath of True Yang; that Breath pertains to Li ☲. Within the mind there is a particle of Essence of True Yin; that Essence pertains to Kan ☵. Therefore it says, “within there are the essences of Kan ☵ and Li ☲.”

Zhang Boduan - Jindan sibai zi, (Four Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir).

Translation: Pregadio

10/11/2025

Next week I’ll give a lecture and a workshop in Zurich at the ASA- TCM Congress about Immortality. Since part of the audience is German in language , I have decided to give the lecture in German and it will be simultaneously translated in French.

The topic of the whole congress is Immortality and apparently this theme is fashionable these days in Chinese Medicine circles in the West. Whatever we might understand under this term.

I ll zoom in on some of the historical developments, how ideas about immortality were developed in ancient China and how these ideas have been changed and modified over time , for example under the influence of Buddhism towards more an idea of Enlightenment or Transcendence. In modern times , especially in Republican China and PRC there has been a shift towards emphasis on long life and good health. The birth of modern Qi Gong and other Yangsheng practices, developed out of older practices is a good example.

I will zoom in especially on how some of these ideas about cultivation of immortality and internal alchemy have influenced medical thinking. I ll focus especially on later imperial time physicians like Zhang Jiebin or Li Shizhen, who have been clearly influenced by ideas from Internal Alchemy and brought innovative ideas into medicine like the development of ideas around Ming Men and the Qi Jing Ba Mai.

In the following workshop, I ll especially will zoom in on the ideas of Li Shizhen regarding the Qi Jing Ba Mai and their clinical relevance.

My German is not so good, probably could do it even better in Turkish, but think it’s enough to give a more or less coherent talk. It will be fun.

My personal ideas about immortality don’t matter that much, but I tend to have a more secular view, and have not so much faith in a Daoist heaven and a heavenly bureaucracy with all Deities, where I could take place if I am able to shoot my Yuan Shen out of the Sky Gate.

Having said that, I believe some of the Neidan practices, can be very useful and to study the influence of Neidan on medicine is a very valuable and an under researched topic. In my own research over the last two decades, I have found more and more evidence how currents of thought like Neidan and Neo Confucianism (and they both influenced each other as well) have quite profoundly influenced Chinese medicine in the later imperial times.

And for sure life remains a mystery, who knows? I like to call myself a Skeptical Mystic, down to earth but open to the mystery of the Universe . 😄

08/11/2025

Even though covering another field of Alchemy, this might be interesting material for people interested in comparative study.

NEW!

Coming January 2026, The Elixir: A Posthumanist Approach to Alchemy in Akbarian Sufism and Islam unveils a world where metals pray, stones seek enlightenment, and alchemy becomes worship.

Rooted in the cosmology of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240)—the great Sufi metaphysician—this book dares to ask: what if the spiritual path is not exclusive to humans? What if every element in creation strives toward divine perfection?

Leaving behind both the laboratory and the legal text, The Elixir journeys into a theology of nature where minerals perform their own form of Sharia, slowly transmuting themselves into gold as acts of devotion.

Here, alchemy is no mere metaphor —it is the cosmic ritual of transformation, in which elixirs and human sorcery echo the innate longing of matter to reunite with its Creator.

Through the lens of Akbarian Sufism and posthumanist philosophy, this work reframes Islam’s mystical sciences as a dialogue between spirit and substance, revealing a vision of the universe alive with purpose, consciousness, and yearning.

Details:
https://substack.com//note/p-178145982