foreign

[Music]

in October of this year I was invited to

come across to the kingdom of Bhutan to

speak at the fourth International

vagriana Conference that was held there

in the capital city of timpu

um so I presented a talk on the the

nature of alchemy nadan to a lot of

practitioners of vajrayana Buddhism and

this is the presentation that I I gave

on that day but the problem is we were

going to share it publicly but the sound

quality was actually very very bad so

what I’ve done is I’ve put into this

video the slides that I used in that

presentation and then I’ve re-recorded

the talk and it’s actually a little bit

better because it gives me chance to go

into more detail because I’m not under

time pressures like I was at the

conference

and also I can cut out some of the Jokes

which had to be toned down a little bit

because I was talking to an audience of

monks as opposed to the people I usually

talk to

so the aim of this talk is not fully to

discuss the similarities between Tumo

and the firing process of daoist nadan

nor is it really to fully discuss the

the differences either it might sound

like a strange start to a talk with a

title such as this but really what I

want to do is
discuss Alchemy

um in detail especially the firing

process the start of the nadam process

and look at in the context of what it

does now

the reason I’m doing this I’m looking at

the alchemical process and the firing

process

um in detail like this is to allow the

person listening to this talk to draw

their own conclusions as to the

similarities or the differences between

tumor now the reason I’m doing this is

because whilst I have actually I have a

fairly good idea about tumor I’ve seen

different versions of it and tried

different versions of it I tried

versions of Tumo that are using a very

visualization based method to generate

the inner heat that the system is very

famous for and I’ve also practiced more

physical versions of tuba using

compressions and very specific ways of

breathing and sometimes locks in the

body and various other methods so I know

that tumor can take many different forms

but

what I would like to do is talk about

nadan and perhaps the person who is

familiar with Tumo can start to maybe

draw some Parallels for themselves and

maybe see their own differences between

Alchemy and and tumor

so Tumo as a practice just to make sure

we’re all on the same page it’s a

practice that sometimes in modern times

they talk about it being for inner heat

and that’s kind of what it’s focused

upon as if that’s the most important

thing you know I’ve even seen

contemporary writers or teachers talk

about turbo as if it’s only to keep

people warm because the Himalayan areas

are cold and things like this and the

idea is you build this heat and and

sometimes people take it further and say

that this heat that you build in Turbo

is for the body for its health and

physiological change which is partially

true but actually if we look at the kind

of deeper meaning of tumor which is

actually translated as kind of the

energy of a fierce woman a sort of

fierce feminine uh fire that blazes

through the body is the idea that’s in a

heat process is that it’s actually to

burn through uh blockages

um within the subtle body within the

channel system uh within tantric methods

to lead towards all kinds of things

um I mean it’s one of it’s the first of

the sixth armas of naropa which are a

set of six stages which incrementally

move someone through to subtler and

subtler levels of practice

some teachers will say they’re fully

sequential the sixth armor some are open

and I know other teachers

um actually when the badriana tradition

will talk about them being like a cycle

of wheel that will must be practiced

together but however you view them

linear or circular

it’s easy to see that tumor is the most

dense the most physical the most body

based level of the practice of these six

dharmas or these six yogas of naropa

now the reason that they start with the

physical body is they the idea is that

the body must be prepared for all of the

spiritual or higher work that is to come

afterwards okay using the channels on

the Nadi systems it also incorporates

this idea of working with the winds the

lung or the value sometimes within the

body and then also to start talking

about these drops these drops that can

activate the sense of bliss as it moves

through the body it also uses this heat

to move into the central channel of the

system to burn it open to create space

within the body and to enable the mind

to access the subtler Realms of of yogic

practice tantric practice

so with that introduction to Tumo

what I’m going to do is focus on the

Alchemy process within this talk this is

going to be the emphasis of what I’m

doing so now to give a little

introduction to nadan nadan is
translated as the internal Elixir Dan is

the Elixir a substance that is captured

or developed or cultivated within the

body which is seen as an internalized

version of the external pill the

Alchemists would have developed in the

past so for that reason nadan is also

known as inner Alchemy not a direct

translation but definitely a discussion

or a sort of conceptual idea of what

they’re doing they’re internalizing what

was an external Alchemy process to

develop this Elixir within the body

so nadan is commonly associated with

Taoism
and different Traditions have different

takes upon it and the version they’ll be

talking about is is very much linked to

the Dragon Gate sector transgen practice

rather than some of the more magical

um or religious versions of our

community that also exist I’ll be

talking about the very physical and

non-religious version of alchemy of

nadan

so nadan like the six yogas of naropa if

you like uh is really as a system is

divided into stages which again some

people say are sequential me personally

I tend to think the early stages need to

be sequential and then the later stages

can be a bit more cyclical but other

people will disagree and say it’s

cyclical from the beginning but these

stages are once again they have denser

stages such as the firing process and

then they have more subtle stages

working through the channel system and

subtle bodies through to development of

working with the Shen or with

consciousness

so for this lecture I’m going to focus

very much on the firing process which

even from the name firing process

already suggest is suggests maybe a

somatic similarity an experiential

similarity or parallel to what happens

when somebody is going through two more

practice because obviously with the name

fire a firing process it’s talking about

heat

firing process is not within all

versions of alchemy but certainly within

the Nader and I was taught it’s a major

foundational stage of the practice and

the idea of the firing process is that

it does the same thing essentially we

learn how to build and develop a kind of

internal heat within the body that is

cultivated as if um we are sort of an

external Alchemist concocting some kind

of formula but what I should do is we’re

building heat in the in the body and

then we’re sending that heat through the

channel system in a very specific

fashion

now before I go any further I want to

make clear that I’m not personally Pro

the combining of methods nor am I

usually Pro drawing parallels between

systems so as a kind of cop-out in order

to avoid that I’m only going to be

talking about firing process rather than

tumor but I’m you know obviously you can

understand the underlying ethos is that

my idea is actually there are some

crossovers certainly historically

there has been sharing between the

Traditions I mean Alchemy is known as a

and sort of eighth century is when the

first time we get

um writings about alchemy so it’s

normally dated to that age but you can’t

really I don’t really think you can

trust historical ages of practices

because remember what you’re not seeing

is when was a practice developed what

you’re seeing is when a practice was

written down or recorded which is not

quite the same thing okay there might

have been practiced for a long time

prior to that so sometimes when people

are trying to line up Alchemy and nadan

and Tumo or maybe even some Hindu

practice or yoga practice and they’re

trying to figure out

you know do they have the same origin

they use the dates to decide this but I

don’t really think you can do this

because

um as I said the dates are really

developed from when something is written

down so I don’t think they’re the most

reliable when they’re that far back

definitely not and also texts get lost

definitely the amount of books that have

been destroyed in the past as well as

lineages and traditions means that

history is quite difficult to pin down

and do accurately I think

only been in my opinion some sharing

some ideas have crossed over and they’ve

discussed things and I wouldn’t be

surprised if these things were from a

common route but of course within any

practice once it hits a different

tradition or a different culture it

absorbs and takes on some of that

cultural identity to create a change

okay so that therefore the practice can

adjust

but despite this despite me saying that

there is a

a shared link or a shared route I also

don’t believe that people should

practice multiple methods in order to

get a hang of the results really because

I think that sometimes methods can Clash

and to me sometimes Tumo especially some

of the more physical based methods of

tumor can be a little bit stimulating

um obviously that’s kind of the aim of

it right I mean it’s named a sort of

savage or wild feminine fire the name

implies something a bit extreme doesn’t

it or quite strong and then the firing

process or sometimes called the burning

process of alchemy is also a very

stimulating and strong process and

they’re not quite the actual mechanics

and methodology the way they develop

these fires is a little different

between the Traditions so therefore if

somebody is practicing both it can

actually be a little bit too strong so

for that reason what I’m saying is that

this discussion is purely intellectual

and for interests sake as much as

anything but I would advise that if

somebody has a very effective and

efficient version of Tumo or somebody

has a very efficient an effective

version of the firing process in nadan

then one or the other is good enough it

is adequate and it is probably safer to

just do that one method

but I will say that it’s quite hard to

find authentic Tumo to be perfectly

honest and it’s also quite hard to find

authentic inner Alchemy and definitely

the firing process is still a lot more

hidden than people might think

so with these two diagrams we can see

the processes that I’ve been talking

about on the left you’ll see a mural

from lukang Temple which shows various

stages of the six yogas of neuropolistic

starmas of naropa

especially on the the bottom left if you

can see closely on the diagram you have

a guy practicing the inner heat practice

of Tumo there’s fire being generated

going up through the central channel for

sure then on the top of his head you can

see something escaping and that’s a

demonstration of the Power Practice
about liberation of the Consciousness

from the form of the body

on the right you can see a carving from

bayonghuan uh White Cloud Temple which

is in Beijing

and this is a chart called the nadine2

it’s very very famous amongst Alchemy

practitioners I’ve done a couple of

lengthier talks on this chart in the

past and because of its importance it’s

dated to 1886 although that’s when the

carving was put onto the Wall in White

Cloud Temple there’s a long history to

this chart with this diagram was copied

by our chemical practitioners copied out

by hand so obviously it was a scroll or

paper version for a long time until

eventually it was carved onto the wall

in the white cloud Temple

so in a similar way both of these murals

or carving in in the case of the one on

the right from the from the temple wall

are showing uh processes processes that

the body will go through starting with a

very

um dense shall we say physical manifest

body level practice going through to

something more ethereal something more

subtle through to the channel system

through into work directly with the

elevation of consciousness okay so they

have this kind of gradation from denser

to subtle which is especially easy to

see on the right on the White Cloud

temporal diagram than aging two the the

inner practice chart because it’s

actually getting more subtle as it goes

up the diagram towards the top so the

bottom of the chart is the most dense

which also represents where we work in

the body very low down in the body when

we’re developing this heat or

cultivating the chi and then it becomes

more subtle as it moves up through this

diagram that’s depicting the body much

like a Mountaintop or Cliff face

so with regards to two more verses the

firing process I already said I wouldn’t

draw a lot of comparisons myself but I

do want to draw upon

um two I would say major factors for the

alchemical process for nadan that I

would say actually deficit quite greatly

from a lot of the tumor practices so the

first of these is that it’s not

religious

so if you’re not familiar with tumor

these days you get many contemporary

versions of it including sort of very

simplified and stripped down versions

for example the Wim Hof method was

sometimes tenuously be considered at

least two more like with regards to what

it’s doing but if you go back to sort of

uh Tumo especially with regards to the

the version shown on this chart it’s a

very religious practice there’s a lot of

incorporation of beliefs of tantric
Buddhism sometimes a lot of
visualization of deities and sacred

syllables and and things like this that

connect it very much to The Wider

religion of Buddhism I think it’s I

think sometimes people will say Buddhism

is not a religion I don’t think we can

really apply that to vajrayana quite so

well I think that it’s very clear that

that is a religious practice

um to me so Alchemy is a little

different is that in that it’s divorced

from religion

now some people disagree because there

are versions of alchemy that actually

talk about

um deities or Gods living in the body

and there’s certain charts that depict

that but I would argue that that is a

version of alchemy coming from a

slightly different line than the version

I’m talking about because for example

some traditions such as zhangi and

things like this with the taoism will

have more of a leaning towards that kind

of the side of the tradition but very

much what I would consider Dragon Gate

Northern sect transgen alchemical

training doesn’t really talk about

religion very much the deities and the

gods are really not very important

what’s important is the process that you

can work through within your own body

and so you’re working with the

substances within your own system

especially at the beginning when you’re

looking with the firing process and no

outside help is sought and no attempt to

align with either an external or an

internal deity

this brings me to the second key quality

for the firing process which actually I

know a lot of Dallas practitioners are

going to disagree with me on this but I

will state my case because that’s all I

do all I can do is that the firing

process aspect of nadan should not

include any visualization or imagination

that has been made very very clear to me

by the alchemical practitioners that I

worked with the visualization or

imagination has no part in traditional

Alchemy

now I know that a lot of people in the

west would have encountered versions of

alchemy or nadan that do include

visualizations for example visualizing a

fire in the abdomen visualizing the

color red in the hard visualizes the

color green and the liver or whatever

you know especially Fire and Water

mixing might be red at the top and blue

at the bottom and cycle around in the

body and all these kinds of things or

sometimes picturing trigrams in the body

but to me all of these are contemporary

adjustments of the Alchemy process

they’re a modernization of that process

and not really accurate because the key

quality for Alchemy is that if anything

does arise visually it arises from

inside you naturally you do not generate

it with your mind Alchemy is in line

with the Taoist view that the key

quality is release with regards to your

Consciousness so later on we’ll discuss

the correct quality of mind for

alchemical practice and you’ll see that

it does not include imagination or

visualization

now most of the alchemy that people will

encounter in the west is using

visualization or imagination but to me

that is an error and that is a

modernization I wouldn’t really count

that as nadan to be honest I would say

that is a a modern fabrication that’s

maybe based upon traditional alchemical
Concepts

as we go through this talk I will

discuss the processes involved in
actually initiating the firing process

and hopefully you’ll see that

visualization or imagination do not come

into it not at all we are using the body

in order to develop the heat that we’re

using this heat is developed from a

combination of gathering agents within

the system Gathering the ingredients to

initiate the foreign process along with

a series of compressions and ways of

using the breath in order to move the

body through the nadan

it’s clearly stated many times actually

by many practitioners in different
Traditions whether it be alchemical

Traditions or yogic Traditions that the

process that we’re going through with

regards to our spiritual Evolution must

be either begin in the body or sometimes

they will say it entirely takes place

within the body okay

so the whole path is to be found within

you within your form within your body

now with regards to Alchemy

this is especially true at the beginning

that the firing process is initiated

through the use of the physical body and

physical mechanical techniques it is not

a mental process at the beginning

now saying that to counter my to counter

myself argue with myself if you like

um your mind does also need to be in the

correct State for the practice to work

and we’ll look at what that is later but

that the mind is not the key factor it

we are simply ensuring by putting the

Mind into the right state or more

meditative state that we are not getting

in the way of the process that we are

doing with our body

so it is a somatic process based upon

very clear tangible results and this is

going to give us access to the

transformational process

while we’re working with the denser

level of our body

okay denser level of our form the denser

energies within the body we can use very

very physical techniques essentially to

draw all of the energies or the QI that

we require into the abdominal cavity

into what they call The Cauldron which

we’ll come to later and then to ignite

that Chi within that space low down in

the body using a combination of The

Perennial region and the abdominal

region to generate that fire or that

heat that’s going to move through our

system

now the other reason that it’s a somatic

process

it’s because one of the rules of taoism

is that if something happens on one

level it also happens on another so what

do I mean by that

if something happens to your body it’s

also going to affect the QI it’s also

going to affect the mind if something

happens in your mind it’s also going to

affect the teeth it’s going to affect

the body it’s like one is a reflection

or a shadow of the other

so it doesn’t really matter what level

we are tuning into or awareness is

paying attention to if you like it’s

it’s paying attention to one of these

different levels that are all being

affected at the same time
so there comes arguments within

um Alchemy and taoism you know

especially with regards to Qi I’ve seen

people say that Chi is uh moves within

the subtle channels of the body very

similar to the the nadis

um of uh tumor practice so within the

Jing law system uh of Chinese Arts

they’ll say there’s a subtle Pathways

and practitioners have even described

them as lines of light sometimes up to

half a thumbs thickness through the body

and when they have this sort of inner

perception not imagined but perceived at

these subtle levels and then other

people will say no no cheers just uh it

moves in your nerves in your in your

nervous system it’s a very physical

thing it was an old model for something

that is actually really tangible and

very very physical

now to myself and certainly to the

Alchemy practitioners that I’ve trained

with both of these things are true

because if she moves within the subtle

Channel system there is also a reflected

movement of energy within the nervous

system and vice versa

so at the beginning when we’re using

sensation to give us feedback because we

need some kind of feedback to our

process right perhaps feedback later on

in the process is much easier because

maybe there’s a transformation to our

body a transformation to our
Consciousness maybe City or abilities

arise or anything like this maybe there

are visual phenomena that show us where

we are lots of these things can come

later but at the beginning

what we are left with is what we can

feel what we can tangibly connect to the

somatic experience of our work

now in the early stages can you feel

your subtle channels probably not

some people can but they are definitely

exceptions to the norm most people

cannot feel their subtle Channel system

they cannot feel their Central Channel

they cannot feel these Pathways of light

and yin and yang energy that moves

through the system but what they can

feel is their nerves they can feel when

something is warm or hot or cold or

tingly or moving or something like this

in the system and essentially what you

are feeling is your nerves because if

you feel something in the standard sense

you are feeling it through your nerves

even if you
feel something large and energetic

moving through your body if you can feel

it tangibly then the feeling aspect of

it is in your nervous system even if

that’s just a reflection of what is

happening on a more subtle level in the

body

so we take that process within nadan

foreign process and on the dense level

we could really say that the dense level

of practice is the level of work working

with the energy that moves through the

nervous system

but do not make the mistake of thinking

that just because I’m saying it’s a

nervous system it’s not also moving in a

subtle body because it is but what

happens is when I work on the level of

the chi within the nerves the energy

moves into the nervous system work with

a sense of feeling and different

Sensations through the firing process

then gradually that will label guide my

mind through to subtler levels of

practice until I count encounter the

channels that encounter the subtle body

and then your your awareness is able to

transfer from the dense body across to

the subtle body and it’s a very natural

transition that I don’t need to force I

don’t need to visualize those channels I

simply go with a somatic experience in

my practice and allow my mind to be

guided across uh

to to the subtler realm when I’m good

and ready

so here are the two diagrams you have

well actually it’s one diagram and the

one on the right is a cutaway of it this

is a shojen 2 chart

the Shogun 2 chart is translated as the

card chart of cultivating perception

there’s various ways to translate it but

that’s probably one of the most common

ways the child of cultivating Perfection

What it shows is a map of the human body

there’s a lot it’s a lot clearer to see

that it’s human body than the than aging

2 right you can actually see it’s got a

head it’s got legs it’s a person’s sat

in a Lotus position isn’t it and what

you have is all kinds of depictions and

symbols and writings around the body one

of the major things is a discussion of

the organs and the channels and and

things like this within the system and

what it’s showing us the shojen 2. is

the connection uh between the quality

and the health of the body and

cultivation so there’s a lot of

teachings in here a lot of writings on

this chart that I don’t really have time

to go into that actually talk about

Chinese medical principles but at the

same time it also includes a lot of

cosmological or esoteric principles

especially with regards to how the

essence moves into the body and things

like this so it’s a little bit divorced

from Chinese medicine a little bit of

confusion has arisen from this chart in

my opinion I think this child is to

blame for a few errors because because

it has some connections to Chinese

medicine and some Chinese medicine

principles there I think sometimes if

people have kind of overly overlaid the

principles of Chinese medicine into

Alchemy so they’ve they’ve thought that

all of those things you learn in TCM or

other Chinese medical system apply to

Alchemy so they think that the

cultivation of the body is about making

sure that the lung function is okay and

the kidney function is okay and things

like this but to me that’s not actually

the case not really

they’re simply depicting within this

chart

amongst other things they’re showing

some of the different energies within

the body and how they interact but

they’re also showing that the body must

be ready for this practice it must be

ready for Alchemy and nadan so therefore

it must be harmonized and fairly

balanced if somebody is very very

unhealthy has a lot of blockages in the

system this harmonies in the organs

deficiencies excesses or anything like

this as we would understand it from a

Chinese medical point of view it means

they are not really ready for Alchemy

practice those things need to be

harmonized or regulated first only after

that process is gone through

and somebody is ready then they’re able

to practice the firing process safely

and I would argue that that probably

applies to tumor as well I don’t see

that as something that people should

begin with I think it should be

Preparatory work before they enter into

anything to do with developing fire or

heat in the body when we look at the

different types of fire there’s three

different types in Alchemy

we’ll see why that’s the case

so the Cutaway that I’ve shown you on

the right here with a a little man

depicted in black and he’s holding up a

water trigram because it’s in the lower

abdominal space and the water trigram is

very important for alchemy that it’s in

the abdominal space and underneath you

see a red circle and the red circle

sometimes people think that’s the Dan

Elixir

um and arguably that’s the case I’m not

so sure I think sometimes it’s because

that red circle can also in in older

charts depict the place of the essence

as well but you could use it to depict

either if you want it doesn’t really

matter it’s okay what’s more important

is underneath is you’ve got one two

three four six seven yeah you’ve got

nine nine in that fan you’ve got nine

yellow circles with nine sets of Chinese

writing underneath we show the nine

layers of Hell connected to the lower

regions of the body now I wanted to

highlight that because it’s quite

interesting

as I think the Shogun 2 chart is an

interesting one because it starts to

incorporate different beliefs between
different Taoist traditions because

although it’s a chart that is used by

the Tran gem practitioners

um and definitely when I have trained

with transgender or long memory

practitioners this chart has been quite

important and the reason that it’s quite

an interesting one is because it also

includes
influences from other Traditions

including the the Jung Yi sect and

things like this so these sort of Realms

of Hell quite uh quite an important

carryover from other Traditions but

they’re not something that really we

focus upon particularly within the

firing process that I work on okay

just out of Interest the the water

trigram that you see held up by the the

man depicted in Black the little demon

is actually but the water trigram is two

broken lines with a solid line in the

middle so you’ve got a yin yang Yin two

Yin lines for the Yang nine and the

reason that symbol is very very

important is because ultimately it’s a

Yin symbol

but it shows you at the center of that

Yin there is a potential for Yang

there’s a spark that can be drawn out of

that uh symbol okay that Yang line can

be extracted that’s an important part of

the alchemical process and that Yang

line that we’re extracting is the

initiator for the heat it’s showing us

right at the beginning this is the spark

we use to initiate the firing process so

really if we think about like that we

can understand that there’s two process

involved in initiating the the firing

process number one we have to gather the

chi to form that trigram if you want the

potential for water energy and the

second one is then we need to extract

Yang from it that central line and that

is very very important for initiating
the firing process

so here on the left we have a the lower

section of the naging 2 showing uh two

farmers working some water wheels and

you see there’s water at the base of the

body

um and then as you go up there’s four

Union symbols that are set on fire and

then water that is either running up or

running down people will have
disagreements on which direction the

water is Flowing to me it doesn’t matter

and that’s on the right hand side the

water is either flowing up or flowing

down honestly the arguments I’ve had

with people where they get very very

heated about which direction the water

is going it’s almost irrelevant because

in actual fact the water if you like as

we’ll see later is going to flow both

directions at different times it’s going

to go up the body and it’s also going to

come down the body so in that case I’m a

little bit of a fence sitter whatever

people prefer your direction of flow is

just fine

so on the right we have the ding and the

loo as they commonly depicted in alchemy

texts I’ve recreated it here on a you

know a computer paint program

um but it’s they’re recreated from very

old uh ways of drawing them okay

so on the left

um is the Lou or the the furnace shown

as a almost like a crescent moon laying

on its back with three points above it

and then on the right we have the ding

or The Cauldron not like a witch’s

cauldron more of an alchemist called you

a place where they’re cooking up their

concoctions now you’ll see that both

have the number three involved the Lou

has three circles above it the furnace

implying that three things need to come

together in order to generate the

activation of the the furnace that’s

very important there’s always a trinity

involved in every process and Alchemy

and the right hand symbol has three legs

okay the ding has three legs the Chinese

cordial noise has Three Lakes again

showing different components coming
together three ingredients to initiate
them
now the idea is

basically The Cauldron later on it’s the

whole body but right now at the

beginning with regards to the firing

process it’s specifically talking about

the abdominal region

now the furnace that sits underneath

this cauldron underneath the ding is

situated at the perineum and the lower

region of the body and a lot of our

foreign process is about filling The

Cauldron with CHI with energy and then

igniting that substance underneath it

igniting the furnace to cook or boil

that energy that’s been gathered inside

The Cauldron so very simple process

gather the QI inside The Cauldron ignite

it by igniting the furnace and this will

start to cook or process the chi within

the abdominal space

going back to the naging two on the left

this is kind of depicted by the

practitioners working with these wheels

in order to generate heat and then the

water underneath and represents the

essence that is an important part of the

Jing there’s an important part of the

firing process

now this is very very important because

it is possible to initiate the firing

process without filling The Cauldron

okay but if you initiate the firing

process without

filling The Cauldron you’re essentially

going to burn up a fuel that is not

there okay I would argue that in some

forms of Tumo just like in some forms of

alchemy this can be the case and this

can cause problems for practitioners

because if you start to try to burn a

fuel that isn’t there if you know

anything about Chinese medicine you’ll

know what’s going to happen you’re going

to burn the kidneys create a little bit

of adrenal burnout and you’ll become

what they call Yin deficient and it’ll

create a kind of empty heat which is

incorrect that will move up through the

body

which is layman’s terms Chinese medicine

people will have to excuse me for my

horrible bastardization of Chinese

medical Theory at this point but just in

layman’s terms you could probably think

of this as burnout adrenal fatigue and

uh sort of hot flush type heat that

moves up through the body creating

headaches and things like this and

insomnia and all kinds of symptoms as

well as sort of weakness of the bladder

and sexual dysfunction and weakness of

the lower back so this would be what

happens if we kind of burn

a substance that’s not there we don’t

want to initiate the firing process

until The Cauldron is full

so in order to fill The Cauldron this is

the stage of gathering chi in the

abdominal cavity now arguably this isn’t

really nadan although it is it’s not it

depends how you you define these terms I

suppose and different teachers would

find them different ways but you could

argue this is the Qigong or nagong stage

that comes prior to Nada and the

Gathering of chi the building of the

dantian

now within the abdomen that Anthony

we’re talking about here I’m not talking

about the elixir

I’m talking about the QI that moves into

the abdominal cavity okay we fill it up

with Qi now we must remember that people

do not have this maybe if you started

very young age four or age five maybe

you’d have this cheetah already nice and

solid but for most of us that have had a

semi-interesting life we’ve used up some

of this chair used up some of this

Essence in the pursuit of living a life

so therefore we have to regather or re

reconsolidate that energy into the

abdomen to take us back to a sort of

youthful levels of energy stories like

filling a battery and that battery that

would fill up that energy that we’re

putting into the abdominal cavity

becomes the fuel that is put into The

Cauldron to put into the ding and this

is later what we’re going to cook when

we can ignite the substance

now without that substance without that

Chi if the dantean is not full

abdominal cavity is not full of energy

then not only can it you know

potentially cause problems but even in a

best case scenario it’s going to make

your practice kind of weak you know

you’re not going to expect to uh get

good results from the body if the

battery is not full

but the dantian is not automatically

there I’ve never met anyone in all my

years of teaching where someone has a

dantian who hasn’t done some training to

develop that anti and it’s not there

sometimes people talk about it like it’s

a natural part of the body like it’s

your arm or your leg or whatever like

it’s there but it’s not it almost needs

uh installing almost like a bit of

software needs building into the body

so a lot of Qigong is focused on this

how to build this dantiana at the

beginning how to bring this Qi into the

body to give us the fuel for the firing

process

so to depart a little from

the firing process you’ll have to excuse

me I want to step back and look at the

process of getting the body ready for it

now first of all we need to understand

that Chi is divided into two types

now when I say yin and yang a lot of

people would jump to kind of comparative

Concepts day and night up and down black

and white men and female baby things

like this sort of Polar Opposites and

these are kind of the conceptual idea of

Yin and Yang but within uh Alchemy or

nigong or Qigong when we talk about yin

and yang with regards to CHI with

regards to Chi we’re talking about two

forms of energy

okay specifically when we apply you know

Yang to Chi this is yinchi yangti

yinchi is experienced as a form of

biomagnetism within the body okay that

forms in fields okay like a sphere think

of our magnetic field forms around a

point and then Yang Chi is a form of

electricity that moves in a current

through the nerves okay yin and yang Chi

now in order to build the dance here we

need two things we need a container the

outside of the cauldron or the outside

of the ding if you like and then we need

a substance to fill that container okay

this would be the fluid or the soup if

you want whatever it is that’s inside

that cauldron cooking

so the container the form is Yin okay

and that is the yinchi so what we have

to learn to do through various methods

including breathing postural work
various exercises mental work whatever

you like but not visualization and not

imagination they are not used okay our

mind is simply paying attention to the

process that we go through with our

exercises it is not generating these

things through visualization what we do

is we gather the yinchi until it starts

to form into a sphere a condensed sphere

a magnetic field is built inside the

abdominal cavity this becomes the

container remember one of the words

associated with Yin is to create form

okay

for Mr dantian okay the outside shell

formed by the yinchi

then we have a fairly lengthy process of

filling that magnetic field filling that

sphere with yangchi so we direct the

electrical energy from the nervous

system we build more and more of it and

we direct it down into the abdominal

cavity until it starts to fill the

dantean up with energy this is the Yang

Chi Yang Chi is not form it is action it

is life it is the energy within the

nerves and we pull it all down into the

dantean space
now remember

just because something happens on the

level of the nerves it does not mean

that it is only nerves definitely not

there is a more subtle level taking

place in the background there is a

purely energetic manifestation of the

dantian in the background there’s a

purely energetic or subtle manifestation

of the chi of the channels but we are

not worried about that too much because

we’re still on the firing process we’re

on the denser part of our training so

we’re trying to use the bodily energies

of this biomagnetism and this

bioelectricity to build it in the

abdominal space now one of the Hallmarks

of an authentic Qigong or negong system

or nadan system in my opinion is in the

early stages is that it does actually

teach you to work with these two forces

with the magnetism and the electricity

to build them in the abdominal space

where many modernize those stripped down

systems or systems that have lost

something

within their training uh have actually

kind of moved away from this idea and

they don’t really develop the Dan Tien

Unfortunately they kind of jump straight

to moving exercises or in the case of

nadan trying to create fire but they

miss out this important process of

filling The Cauldron up

now the three components that we can

talk about remember we have the Trinity

the three circles above the loo on that

diagram on the right or the three legs

of the ding are really the yinchy and

the Yankee which we’ve already discussed

and then the final thing will be the

quality of your essence the Jing which

is symbolized by the water at the bottom

of the naging 2 chart okay that the uh

that is depicted in the painting on the

left

now the essence your Jing has to be nice

and strong so a lot of people who know

much about Qigong or TCM will know this

is very closely related to the health of

your kidneys and sometimes your sexual

energy and things like this that’s a

discussion for another time but

essentially if that kidney energy or

that essence or that Jing is not nice

and strong if it’s not strong enough

it’s not going to Anchor the yin and

yangshi it’s like if the essence is weak

there’s no anchor so the in and the

ancient cannot descend it cannot move to

the abdomen so a lot of the primary

developmental processes for nadan are

getting the essence and The Jig nice and

strong as well as developing these yin

and yang Chi to a high level to build

this dantean within the lower part of

the body remember this is the fuel

now for a dedicated practitioner you’re

looking at a few years to build that

substance to build that fuel within the

body before we ignite it before we

change slides I just want to highlight

once again that this is the key point of

this part of the discussion that in

order for the firing process to work

healthily and effectively and
efficiently

we have to build the fuel because we

have to have something to ignite we

don’t just want to generate heat we

generate the heat to ignite the chi to

ignite that energy that’s built within

the cauldron and if we don’t have that

substance there we’ve got nothing to

ignite that’s very very important

so on the left of this slide we have a

diagram taken from the shin Ming guajier

17th century text that’s very important

to alchemy that really means uh the

principles of combining Shing and Ming

Shing being your nature and Ming being

your life path or your health some

people describe it as mind and body

coming together and but we’ll take it

apart in a minute in a little bit more

detail
so the chart
talks about washing the heart

to return to a hidden place and it’s a

very important principle because

essentially it’s really looking at what

we’re doing with the mind

we’re trying to calm the mind to clean

or wash the heart in alchemy heart and

mind are often interchangeable the word

Shin is not clear on whether we’re

talking about the physical heart or the

mind okay so we’re washing the heart to

return to a hidden place

which in the beginning and the early

stages simply means to go to a place

that is calmer and more centered but

we’ll see now that it actually goes a

little bit deeper than that because it’s

connected to this idea of burning the

Dust

so on the right you’ll see another one

from the lukang temple a diagram of a

yogi going through the firing process

there and he’s doing quite well there’s

a lot of heat coming off of his head as

you can see from the at the picture

so burning the Dust

essentially means to burn away some of

the let’s go with the body level first

it means to burn away some of the

impurities within the channel system

so they talk about the body and the

channels being as if they fill with dirt

or filled with dust they block and once

they become blocked and obstructed then

she cannot flow through them so on

something like Chinese medicine or not

like Chinese medicine but understand

that if somebody’s Channel system is

blocked by the dust if we use the

alchemical term and then they’re more

likely to become sick there will be

stagnation a lack of flow things will

block and then the body will become

unhealthy

now at the same time this dust is also

accumulating within the Mind within the

heart as well so dust is used as a kind

of a two-pronged term because not only

does it mean blockages in the channel

but it could also mean impurities or

Distortion in your mind in your

perception layers of emotional build up

layers of distortion on your mind

character traits built up from prior

experiences things we might call the

acquired mind that is a developed after

you were born this is the dust that

builds up on the mirror of your mind if

you like

now this becomes quite important for

Alchemy because in the same way that

dust is used interchangeably to mean

either the mind or blockages in the

channels the implication is that as I

clear out the channels I will also clear

out the qualities of my mind or as I

clear out the qualities of my mind I

will also clear out the dust within the

channels so in this way the body will

affect the mind or the mind will affect

the body

here we have one of the important

rationales for the firing process right

because what we’re learning to do is to

ignite this fire within the base of the

body these different types of fire

actually and move them through the

channel so they can burn the dust to

free it up not only does that okay warm

the body and improve the body’s

functioning and health that’s true it

can increase chi flow but as I burn this

dust out of the channel system to free

up the blockages it also burns the dust

off of the mind so it starts to free up

the Consciousness from some of the

accumulated debris of your required

nature so it leads you closer to a more

meditative state

now this diagram from the Xing

wash the heart to return to a hidden

place is really talking about the

importance of also incorporating your

mind into this as well because although

we have the firing process we’re

actually generating this fire to burn

away the dust we also want to hit the

practice from the other direction

Shing and Ming can mean nature or mind

the mental practice and Ming can be body

or physical practice so the Ming part of

this process would be to ignite the fire

to burn the dust the Shing or mind part

of this process would be to wash the

heart to return to a hidden place okay

and when the mind and the body come

together through the firing process then

what will happen is you will burn this

dust more effectively free up the

channels and move the Mind towards a

more Pure or uh congenital they call it

in taoism State an original state

so by washing the heart we return to a

hidden Place return is important because

the implication is you’re going back to

a state of mind before you accumulated

this debris this dust

and the hidden place means a part within

your Consciousness that we call Tiding

meaning great Stillness essentially very

akin to the buddhistone of samadhi okay

they would be related to one another the

Tiding or the hidden place is related to

samadhi okay this meditative quality

so this really brings forward one of the

great importances for no visualization

or imagination within the firing process

of alchemy at least I know that’s a

little different in Tumo but in alchemy

we wouldn’t do this because in order to

wash the heart the heart has to be free

or the mind has to be free rather of any

Fabrications because any fabrication

that it generates in the form of

visualization or intention

even with regards to trying to control

something using the mind is going to

produce more dust they would say it

would be impossible according to the

Alchemy process to return to a hidden

place or to move towards the meditative

state of samadhi or Tiding while the

heart was fabricating or generating

imagery or imagination because if it is

doing these things it is accumulating

dust

to clean the heart or to wash the heart

or wash the mind

we must train the mind to move towards

an equanimous state of pure awareness so

that it is simply paying attention to

the process that is unfolding within the

body so my Ming or bodily based practice

is to initiate this fire to burn the

dust and the nature or mental aspect of

my training is simply to pay attention

so the process is done physically

it is somatically experienced and then

the awareness simply pays attention to

this somatic experience taking place

within the vehicle of our body this is

how the firing process works

within any of these practices we have a

simple rule that can be applied Within

certainly within alchemical work but it

applies to other practices as well

that we have a cause which is the

practice the physical practice and then

this leads to an effect which in this

case would be to initiate the fire and

burn the dust the cause leads to the

effect the practice initiates the fire

but in order for the cause to lead to

the effect the conditions must be

correct it’s like the initial the

conditions are a middleman getting in

the way the condition in this case is

our mind is us so in order for the

conditions to be a correct correct we

apply our attention or our awareness to

the process

now this is where the firing process is

sustained in our practice because I can

initiate the fire in process with a

physical technique but then once

something is initiated like the strike

of a flame we have to keep that flame

burning it’s just like if you’re

lighting a fire sometimes if you’re out

and you’re camping and you light a fire

it just goes out and you have to relight

it several times and it can be quite

frustrating and then eventually the fire

will stay burning and it’s very similar

with the firing process in order to

generate this fire

what we have to do is sustain it we have

to sustain it with a fuel and in this

case this is our attention Okay not our

imagination not our visualization just
our equanimous

stable attention applied to what we are

doing okay this is what enables it to

fire

Jang bodwan within the Alchemy Classic

understanding reality another very
important one within alchemical

Traditions stated here those who consume

even a grain of the gold Elixir are

changed into a phoenix flying into the

pure realm of true yang so okay A little

bit of a melodramatic description but

essentially what we’re talking about is

one of the later stages of alchemy that

to consume means for the body or the

mind to absorb a grain of the gold

Elixir the highest part of this process

that it’s going to move into the body

and as this does is it’s going to turn

us into a phoenix if you like flying

into the pure realm of churiang it’s

going to initiate the highest levels of

the fire but all of that can only happen

if the mind is able to apply its

attention to this process of burning the

dust and initiating the fire

so going back to this idea of

uh
uh taking teachings from the

qingmingwayja let’s look at this idea of

shishin

retreat and purify the mind but once

again back to this washing the mind to

return to the hidden place

there’s a quote here by e-genren that

says novice practitioners base their

heart and bind it up too tightly which

inevitably leads to illnesses of
distress and agitation fire and
inflammation

the heart fire of the South is

temporarily concealed in the back water

of the north water and fire should say

should here should nurture each other

and naturally no thoughts and worries

should arise

so this line here from the qingmingway

Jurgen really discusses the importance

of the correct mental quality okay to

have a successfully washed the mind and

declared as much of our dust off of our

mind as we possibly can before we get

involved in this firing process because

as it says at the beginning novice

practitioners have based their heart and

bind it up too tightly remember heart

and mind are intertwined

so if the mind is too stressed it is too

tight then what’s going to happen is

going to lead to problems within your

practice so in order to relax the mind

this is why we move towards pure

attention Okay not intention that is the

opposite you can think of intention

meaning in a state of tension intention

we don’t want that okay

we also don’t use the imagination or the

visualization because this also creates

a kind of tension which as it says here

binds the mind up too tightly

this will cause the chi to construct and

lead to the problems it discusses here

with distress and agitation

what this means is if I’m too tense with

my mind or I am too focused when I

practice this process I’m not in a state

of stabilized awareness that I’m going

to become distressed and agitated

essentially are going to fire up your

adrenals and move into a state of vital

flight

then it says it will generate fire but

it’s not good fire this is negative fire

here pathological fire
which will generate inflammation and

this inflammation is the basis of the

kind of sicknesses that can be formed

from incorrect nadan or firing process

training and I would argue two more

practice can do exactly the same as well

so therefore people are going to get

potential for migraines and heat behind

the eyes pain in the kind of teeth and

the gums is quite important quite common

sorry quite commonly reported

tinnitus is quite normal as well panic

attacks and anxiety and perhaps Mania

and psychological disorders this would

be kind of this negative fire and

inflammation that’s generated because

the heart was not washed enough okay the

mind was not ready for the practice of

nadan

the next section talks about the basis

of how firing process works according to

um
metaphorical trigram Theory says the

heart fire of the South is temporarily

concealed in the back water of the North

so north and south are actually switched

around

the compass has switched around in in

alchemy so essentially the heart fire of

the South what it means is the South

relates to the the direction of sorry

the position of the heart and it means

that the

the fire that we need in order to burn

up the qualities of the mind okay we

need a certain fire to burn the dust off

the mind okay this is what we discussed

so far right the heart fire of the South

is concealed so the fire we need to burn

the dust off the Mind Is concealed it’s

hidden where is it hidden it’s

considered in the water of the back

water okay the Backwater of the north

this is the energy of the kidneys and

the essence

so if you remember the diagram from

earlier on of the symbol for water it

was two Yin lines okay with a Yang solid

line in the middle this is the can of

water trigram guaya

so we need to extract that Yang line

from the middle of the yin line so the

heart fire of the South can be extracted

from the back water of the north so what

this means essentially is as we calm our

mind if we take away all the metaphors

as we calm our mind down okay and we

bring it towards a state of being free

of dust it puts our mind in the right

state to then use our practice to

extract an energy from the base of the

body that will start to burn through the

channels to burn up the dust of the mind

that’s what it’s saying here so so far

this passage from the Ching Ming has

showed us that we need to relax our mind

to avoid errors in the practice and this

will enable us to draw a fire out that

will burn through the channels

if we manage this according to egnren

water and fire will nurture each other

and naturally no thoughts or worries

will arise essentially it will start to

calm and center the mind and move you

back to what we call the hidden place or

an original state yeah

so I wanted to highlight this because

again it shows that the firing process

or the alchemical process is not just

about creating warmth so that you can

you know melt snow on the ground or be

warm when you’re walking through the

Himalayas or the mountains of northern

China what it’s actually showing us is

it is a method in order to burn away the

blockages the mind to lead us towards a

more meditative State okay it’s a bodily

process to leads towards a high level of

meditation skill

the diagram I have here or the depiction

is hexagram 64 from the itching so if

you’re not used to itching Theory don’t

worry too much but if you are this is

called before completion hexagram 64 is

the last in the sequence and what it

shows is a symbol for water below the

symbol of fire so it’s before completion

because in this state the water has not

yet been or the central line has not yet

been extracted from the water to rise up

through the body so even the Ching is

showing us right at the end of the

itching that if you still haven’t

extracted that Yang line or the heart

fire of the south from its place within

the Backwater of the north then you have

not yet finished the process it is not

completed curiously the completed

version after completion is hexagram 63.

it’s kind of like uh you know because

logically in Western Minds it should be

the other way around 63 should be before

completion 64 should be completed but in

taoism they like to reverse things and

play with this idea of opposites and to

me and move away from logic

and uh I think very much they quite like

the idea of getting to the end of the

the cycle not quite Complete because it

implies that the cycle then continues

but that that’s just an aside

so I wanted to highlight this line

because it can show us an error and also

an importance with regards to the mind

to assist in the firing process

one thing I’d like to add here actually

I think is a little bit of a tangent is

let’s look at the title of this text

it’s the text of the principle of

combining shingaming so why are these

two important Xing and Ming like nature

and life force or nature and life path

nature and health sometimes it’s called

to me mentality and physicality these

two mean

really it’s because these are the two

ways that the body can actually generate

energy we have a shing or nature or mind

way of generating energy which is

essentially the longer remains that a

person remains in a state of emptiness

or shinyata then what will happen is

gradually the body will start to build

energy that is true that is the Shing

method so the mind can generate energy

by moving into a meditative estate and

the other way it can generate energy or

generate Qi is the Ming way the body way

essentially by training a somatic

process like building the dantean or the

firing process or even increasing the

efficiency of the body’s function this

can build Chi as well so really we have

two ways of accumulating energy which is

going to move us through into spiritual

cultivation one is with the mind or the

Shing and one is for the body or the

Ming nature and life path okay so this

is why this is important we combine

these two so that we have two sources of

energy that can come together Heaven and

Earth combining within the system

perhaps this section has been a little

bit or the slide has been a little bit

abstract for you I think maybe it’s more

relevant to people more familiar with

taoism or meditative training

so now that we’ve discussed uh how to

prepare the body for this process

through building the Dan Tien which

should always happen I should say after

a fair degree of Bodywork preparing the

body physically but we’ve looked at

building the dantiana okay this idea of

building the fuel we’ve looked at this

idea of something needs igniting and

then we’ve looked at the the mental

process involved you have to have a

certain mental quality okay so once we

have those ingredients in place

now we can look at what happens in the

firing process

this is something called the the rising

of the water or rising of the steam

sometimes you’ll see those terms kind of

interchange the idea is essentially that

through a particular breathing method

that you will learn if you’re studying

the firing process or nadan which is

based upon contraction uh often reverse

breathing sometimes breath retention but

not always and often control of the

muscles around the premium and the

abdomen it’s a very specific process and

different Traditions will have different

ways but it’s a very physical process

and once you start to work with this

then you condense and cook the

Chi within your body

until it starts to rise and then what

will happen is as we’ll discuss now

you’ll ex extract the Yang from inside

the essence and this will ignite and

start this fire moving through your body

so this is the firing process proper

really

now as we do this and you move through

this process you did we talk about three

types of fire that can occur within the

body okay three types of Fire

the first is called pathological fire

pathological fire so obviously

pathological fire is not what we want

the name kind of gives it away this

would be an error so we already kind of

discussed this in the previous slide

that if somebody is very stressed very

uptight using a lot of mental tension

maybe they’re too forceful with their

technique or maybe they haven’t built

the fuel to ignite within the base of

the body so they’re just kind of burning

an empty fire through the system that’s

very common then what happened is

they’ll produce a pathological fire

as pathological fire moves for the body

something will happen first you’ll get

hot

you’ll heat up your sweat more and the

body will feel warm and then you’ll feel

something Rising very strongly through

the body towards the head so the

pathological fire will produce symptoms

we’ve already talked about such as

anxiety Panic mood swings insomnia it

can give you dizziness that’s quite

common if there’s an error headaches

migraines tinnitus anything you would

associate eye pain with with lots of

energy Rising through the body and it’s

not very healthy and sometimes people

will accidentally think that this is

correct for the firing process so they

carry on but this is pathological fire

it simply means the body is not ready

sometimes it can occur because you don’t

have enough openness within your body

there’s not you haven’t done enough body

conditioning to stretch the tissues and

the nerves and the joints open so you

have to do a lot more work I would argue

that in tumor practice perhaps one of

the Preparatory practice might be Asana

or something like this body work to

stretch the joints whereas in alchemy

they might use Dao Yin training or

Qigong training or whatever or sometimes

martial arts to stretch and open the

spaces in the body to create enough

movement enough space for the energy to

move so that you don’t get pathological

fire so pathological fire is the one we

want to avoid hopefully you’ll never get

that

the second fire is called the force fire

okay the false fire or fake fire false

fire is a little bit of a misleading

name because we actually have to go

through the false fire in order to get

to the true fire so it doesn’t mean you

have an error in your practice if you

get the force fire it just means there’s

further work to do you’re at a certain

stage

so the force fire okay is Yang Chi

moving through your body what it means

is that I’ve cooked that energy within

the

cauldron within the ding the furnace is

heated it up enough that the Yang Chi

starts to move out of The Cauldron into

the rest of your body

what will happen is your body will get

warm it will heat up and it will start

to feel like the heat moves like a fluid

through your body sometimes it moves in

lines and sometimes it feels like steam

like it kind of Billows and moves in

spiral motions through your body for

some people if they’ve got a good

awareness of the subtler levels of the

body you can feel it move like a fluid

or liquid it’s almost like you’ve got a

boiler system in your body and that

water is moving through the pipes

now the force fire what it’s doing is

it’s moving energy through the nerves so

it’s a very somatic experience remember

if you are feeling it you’re probably

majority of us feeling it in our nervous

system

so think of it like this if you have a

cheap electrical

item a little device or whatever it

might be it doesn’t matter whatever hair

dryer or whatever whatever this device

is and you plug it in and the

electricity goes through too much then

as it hits resistance in the circus it

creates heat right it heats up so a

cheap electrical circuit will get a hot

cheap electrical device will warm up

right that’s the resistance of the

electricity moving through the circuit

now your body is no different

because as that Yankee that electrical

energy moves through my nerves if it

hits blockages or what we might call

dust okay or obstructions in your

nervous system then it’s going to hit

resistance so then that electrical

energy is going to heat up and it’s

going to warm you up so you’re warming

up like a cheap uh hair dryer plugged

into a too much of an electrical supply

so at the beginning almost all of our

nervous system is blocked to a certain

degree not necessarily to the same

degree across the whole body it might be

patchy might not but it’s quite normal

for the whole body to warm up and that

warmth will feel like it comes from the

dantean area the abdominal region and

spread through the body some regions

will get very hot your back your lower

abdomen sometimes are on the groin and

then that heat will move into the chest

and the arms and things like this and

start to warm us up now if any symptoms

arise such as headaches nausea dizziness
tinnitus blah blah blah palpitations

anything like that then we must be aware

because that means it’s not the false

fire it’s the pathological fire and we

must be able to differentiate between

the two the false fire does not cause

negative symptoms and it does not excite

you if you feel like you are buzzing

afterwards like you’ve had caffeine

that’s not the false fire that’s an

aspect of the pathological fire

affecting your adrenals the false fire

you can remain calm and attentive and

your awareness can remain centered and

settled you do not get excited but the

warmth moves through your nerves
most people have difficulty

differentiating between those two but if

you stick with the description I’ve just

given you whether you’re practicing

Alchemy training nadan or I would argue

possibly tumor to a certain extent you

will be able to uh see which of these

two fires you’re generating

now the false fire is moving through the

nerves now your nerves are an extension

of your mind so your thoughts affect

your nervous system right which is why

many of us can have unexplained mystery

somatic pain within the body that is

often connected to a thought or emotion

or a trauma or something like this so

when we have a thought and it moves

through the brain into the nerves

what will happen is it starts to

generate obstruction within the nervous

system sometimes called the dust within

the channels or something like this

right so as that heat moves into the

resistant area what the false heat will

start to do is it will start to burn

away the dust as they say alchemically

or free up the tension or the blockages

in the nervous system and as it does

this the nerves will relax and the

resistance will go away as the

resistance goes away the heat will die

down

so in the stages of the force fire

initially you can get hot all over then

you can get patchy areas of heat then

you can get heat that comes and goes as

it hits different areas of resistance

and then eventually the force fire will

end you will complete that process

this can take a while the force fire can

take you know for someone who’s a lay

practitioner shall we say could take a

few years to be honest two two to three

years for the force fire to move through

if you’re practicing regularly but

you’re not a recluse you’re not a

renunciate two or three years is not

unreasonable

um if you’re quite good at your practice

now as it’s burning away the dust or

clearing the blockages from your nerves

as we looked at in the previous slide

it’s also going to be taking traumas or

blockages out of your mind so it’s going

to start to settle your mind as well and

here’s a big difference right the

pathological fire will excite your mind

the force fire will actually come and

Center your mind it’s a very different

experience between these two fires a lot

of people in my opinion accidentally

working with a pathological fire and

exciting themselves and they don’t

realize

so once the force fire the movement of

the Yang Chi is completed

then you can start to get the true fire

arising now the true fire is very rare

not many people manage it and maybe some

of you practice Tumo can draw your own

conclusions as to similarities here but

I will not Point them out for you

I will simply State what happens in

alchemy because to be honest my

expertise lies mostly with the firing

process

the true fire is not Yang Yang Chi

moving through the nerves it’s not

electrical energy the true fire is

actually extracted from the essence it

is the as they said in the previous a

couple of slides ago wasn’t it obviously

the previous slide I think it was yeah

it is the heart fire of the South being

extracted from the Backwater of the

North

what they mean is is extracting a spark

of true Yang from your essence from your

kidney energy

now I’m actually to a certain extent

kind of restricted by rules of the

tradition of how much I can explain here

so I can’t talk too much publicly about

the method although I do share it with

people in person it’s probably not

something I could just sort of just

willingly

share in the public but I will talk

about a little bit about the results or

the ethos the principles behind it

the true fire

means that through your method because

there is now enough freeness within the

nerves and you start to add another

technique into your training you

actually extract the true Yang chunyang

pure Yang out of your essence and it

starts to move into your body what it

feels like initially is like an

electrical current around the kidneys

the perineum sometimes around the groin

it can be like a little sharp sensation

around the base of the body and what

this will do is it will start to move it

through your spine up into your brain

okay it will move up like little

electrical pulses but it’s not

comfortable sometimes it can almost feel

like um a little sort of a spark off of

a campfire or something touching your

skin you can see why they called it fire

it scorches you but not horribly painful

but you’ll feel it you know it’s quite

Sharp

it moves up and pulses through the

nerves and when it hits your brain up

through the nervous system into the

brain then what will happen is this fire

will generate what they call true water

okay true water the true fire moving

through the body produces true water

within the brain

what the true water means is that the

hormonal system essentially will start

producing a lot of chemicals that will

start to change the fluids in your body

one of the first things places you’ll

notice the fluids chaining changing will

be within your saliva which will start

to change in quality and taste it will

have a slightly electrical quality to it

even a slightly static quality and then

these fluids will start to drain down

through your body as you start to

swallow okay and then we’ll move back

down towards the DanTDM

now sometimes you will see people say in

Qigong swish your tongue around your

mouth 12 times 24 times whatever then

swallow your saliva it’s not true okay

people will say this is a common Qigong

practice it is common but it’s useless

it’s incorrect it’s it’s not

particularly helpful method what these

are are kind of reflections of old

methods from our chemical text texts

that people have simplified and brought

through into the Contemporary or modern

Arena and turned into a simple thing

like swish your tongue around and

swallow your saliva it’s not about that

the implication was from alchemy that

once the true Yang or true fire had been

extracted from the body a very high

level technique a very high level

technique I will highlight that again is

it will start to generate something

within your body true water okay true

water that goes into the saliva and the

fluids that will then rain down through

your body as you swallow to move down

towards the Dan Tien to start to fill it

with a new substance

so there’s two other terms for this

process one of them is it’s the highest

aspect or one of one now I shouldn’t say

that it’s one of the higher aspects of

the microcosmic orbit the child

and another name for it is it’s Fire and

Water mixing okay so Fire and Water

mixing will canonly mixing or canonly

reversing has all these different names

what they mean by this with an Alchemy

is they’ve extracted the true fire

towards the brain so that it generates

the true water that descends within the

body this is Fire and Water mixing

so it’s not a visual thing it’s not an

imagination thing I’m not picturing the

color red in the heart or blue in the

kidneys or anything like this I am

actually taking the body by the firing

process through a very clear somatic

process
combined with stabilized awareness over

a long period of time okay it takes many

many years of practice regularly to

achieve this and then it actually starts

to transform the body electrically
energetically and chemically

this is all going on at the same time as

the burning of the debris and the bus

from and the dust sorry from the channel

system and this is essentially what the

firing process is doing and as it takes

you through this process to transform

you physically energetically chemically

It prepares you and builds the

foundation for the more subtle levels of

alchemical training

now you can see from this that I believe

that it it’s easy to see here that these

are some quite

um actually high level techniques we’re

talking about they’re not something that

can be done in 10 minutes and they’re

not something that could be done on the

first time you do it the microcosmory is

not something you can start your process

with or do very quickly Fire and Water

mixing is not something beginners can do

definitely not we have to go through

this whole process of burning the false

fire through the body after we’ve

accumulated enough Chia mobilized it in

order to get the body prepared that

we’re ready to then learn the technique

to extract the true fire to generate the

true water to make the alchemical

process work for us

if I have more time I would go into it

but it’s already turned into a long talk

but the diagram on the right with the

dragon and the tiger and the trigrams of

fire water Heaven and Earth are

metaphorical discussions of this process
I just wanted to highlight

um that you’ll see this kind of hidden

imagery within alchemical text so

discussing the same thing I would say

for someone that wants a written version

of this process I prefer the charts like

in an aging too but maybe that’s just

because I’m a pictorial person

so for our final Slide the final part of

this discussion or this talk I just want

to kind of depart a little bit from the

firing process and Skip several stages

if you like and just kind of go to one

of the final stages of the nadan process

just to put it into the wider context of

why we’re trying to do this or why the

taoists were originally trying to do

this the Alchemists so again I want to

highlight that I’ve skipped several

stages here just look at the sort of far

end of the training

on the left you have another diagram

from lukang Templar or in fact it’s the

same diagram I had at the beginning

isn’t it and you can see the power

practitioner has their uh spirit rising

out of their head and on the right you

have a diagram from a Dallas classic uh

showing a very similar thing with a

gentleman meditating on a an animal skin

there isn’t he with a version of his

Spirit rising up out of the the top of

the head okay so I would say that

there’s definitely shared iconography

there sometimes people when they discuss

nadan or Alchemy especially charts like

this they think they’re kind of overly

metaphorical for Consciousness processes

so they say oh the red child in this

case or the immortal fetus is a symbol

for the enlightened State as if they’re

talking about sort of Buddhist

Meditation or or something like this but

that’s not actually the case

and within Alchemy they’re talking about

something quite tangible something quite

esoteric a little bit different from

just a state of mind okay they’re

talking about the same

um as I think that many Hindu or

vadriana practitioners have talked about

about actually sending their Spirit out

of the body as if they want to project

it into another realm of existence okay

spiritual immortality

so here within the laozza zhongjing the

classic of uh the central classic of La

Tzu which is a third Century text

we have this description of what they

call the red child

it says the red child or he resides

precisely in the ducts of the stomach

and the great Granary he sits facing Due

South on a couch of pearls and Jade and

a flowery canopy of yellow clouds covers

him he wears clothes with pearls of five

Hues he sits facing due south feeding on

the yellow Essence and the red breath

drinking and ingesting in the fount of

nectar

so these lines when you first read them

can sound poetic and
maybe overly metaphorical and people

can’t follow them but we can actually

sort of break them down a little bit and

see if we can understand them so it says

initially he resides the red child

resides precisely in the ducts of the

stomach and the great Granary

now the stomach is not literal because

we’re talking about the way that it was

viewed in ancient Chinese or alchemical

concepts now fully enough and this will

confuse Chinese medicine people listen

to this is when we talk about the

stomach or indeed the spleen what we

actually mean is the yellow court

or the solar plexus you might call it

the central region the Earth region of

the body the middle of the body and this

is the great Granary there’s a point on

an acupuncture called John Wan here

meaning Central Granary that sits right

in the middle of the Torso and this is

actually with an Alchemy what they mean

when they say the stomach or the great

Granary it’s like an energetic stomach

rather than the physical Sac of the

stomach sits around Ren 12 if you know

what that point is

so the red child or the potential for

the immortal Spirit sits here in the

center of the body

he sits fate in Jews South meaning

essentially due south South corresponds

to the fire and the heart so it means

that that essentially he’s generated

from the energy of the mind okay he sits

on a couch of pearls and Jade pearls and

Jade were considered spiritual
substances so essentially by sitting

facing Due South on a couch of pearls

and Jade what it is indicating is the

potential for the red child is developed

when the mind okay is moved into a

higher or more elevated spiritual State

okay so what they’re talking about here

is that within the center of the body

when the Shing or the nature is

perfected then you have the perspective

or the potential to encounter the red

child

he has a flowery canopy of yellow clouds

covering him

the yellow clouds above him indicate

essentially that he is fed with Chi okay

a flowery canopy often indicates the

lungs so essentially we have to breathe

and descend the chi down to the center

of the body once the spirit is in a

elevated state in order to feed this red

child

he wears clothes with pearls of five

Hues essentially representing the five

colors or the five elements sorry the

pearls indicates in a spiritual state so

when the five elements are in their

higher state and combined then this will

also feed this red child so so far let’s

take away the metaphorical language what

this line is saying is you have the

potential for an immortal Spirit sat

within the center of the body center of

the Torso okay you can encounter it when

your mind moves through into an elevated

spiritual State we feed it with the chi

of our breath from above and we

strengthen it by bringing together the

energy of the five elements

next section he sits facing Jew South as

we’ve already said feeding on the yellow

Essence and the red breath
so the yellow essence

means essentially the chi once again

connected to the element of Earth and

the red breath okay essentially this is

the elevated quality of the chi okay

moving down into this area and this is

the important bit he drinks and ingests

the fount of nectar

so the most important sustenance for the

red child is the fount of nectar

essentially what they’re discussing is

the true water so once we have the

meditative State okay and we’ve

descended our breath and sent our Chi

through to this area we then have to

generate the true water okay what they

call the Fountain of nectar by producing

this chemical within the body that rains

down through the fluids and as we start

carrying on with this process for the

through the act of mixing fire and water

then what will start to happen

is that you will feed an aspect of your

spirit that then a later stages of

training can be supposedly theoretically

expelled from your body to continue as a

spiritual immortal

now again I’ve missed several stages out

but I just wanted to end that

presentation by putting the firing

process into the wider context of

spiritual practice so that we weren’t

stuck at the level of thinking that it

was just about
um

health or developing heat so that you

can stay warm or something like this

okay it’s something much much deeper

it’s about a very high level spiritual

process

so thank you very much for listening to

my talk I just want to finish once again

by reiterating the fact that I’m

primarily an alchemist an a dam

practitioner not a Tumo practitioner

although I have practiced tumor in the

past and I do have some experience of it

definitely my expertise lies more with

Alchemy so I would say that any

comparisons you may draw may be your own

okay some of which I’ve highlighted my

own opinions through this talk but again

this talk was really primarily aimed at

two more practitioners out of vagriana

conference in Bhutan they were already

familiar with their own ideas of what

the the tantric tumor process was so I

was simply overlaying the process and

the theory of nadan on top of what they

already understood and I allowed them to

draw their own conclusions and their own

differences after the talk it was

actually very well received many of the

vagriana practitioners a mixture of

westerners that were were there to talk

or listen to the conference as well as

llamas from Bhutan and other parts of

Asia were

happy with the talk and excited to learn

more and I had a lot of people asking me

about alchemy and the Alchemy process

and that was really what I was aiming to

do just introduce the Alchemy process

and show perhaps where there were some

parallels

but I should reiterate once again like I

said at the start of the talk I’m not a

fan of mixing methods I do not believe

that two methods that have some

similarities are better than one I don’t

think that is the case sometimes methods

can Clash because although there may be

crossovers in some of the functioning

between Tumo and nadan my personal

conclusion is the methods themselves are

different the mechanics of the methods

are different so therefore if someone

has access to either one of these

processes that is efficient and

correctly taught and authentic then that

should be what they focus upon

I should also reiterate that both the

firing process and tumor in my opinion

are quite dangerous practices

potentially if people haven’t done the

Preparatory work in both their mind and

their body so they are ready for this

practice and I want to make that clear

because I don’t want to encourage people

to start trying these methods unless

they are ready for them because that

pathological heat can be a real bastard

if you start to develop that so thank

you