典藏书目

The vigorous days of youth and strength have passed; time waits for no one. Confucius said, "When one grows old, when blood and qi (vital energy) have declined, one must guard against greed." This is like a horse longing for a carriage, or a carriage longing for its cover (metaphor for escalating desires). Before obtaining something, one worries about getting it; once obtained, one worries about losing it. One hesitates, stammers, and cannot make a decision; in sleep and waking, one is startled and palpitated, unable to find peace.

The essence of heaven and earth (yin and yang), through wondrous combination and condensation, resides between the two kidneys, within the white membrane. There is a spark of moving qi, as large as the head of a chopstick. It stimulates and transforms, opening and closing the entire body, steaming the San Jiao (Triple Burner), digesting food and fluids, defending against the six excesses (pathogenic factors) externally, and bearing ten thousand thoughts internally. It never stops day or night, attacked from all sides. Consequently, the spirit changes with external objects and dissipates, and qi follows the spirit's consumption and diminishes. Ying and Wei (nutritive and defensive qi) declare their decline. The seven orifices function abnormally: crying without tears, laughing with tears flowing like rain, the nose runs snot without sneezing, and the ears hear no sound but buzz like cicadas. Eating causes dryness in the mouth, and saliva overflows during sleep. Urination is difficult yet sometimes incontinent; defecation is obstructed yet sometimes diarrheic. Thus, true yin wanders recklessly, and meridians become sparse and obstructed. During the day, one dozes in front of others; at night, one lies alone, awake and alert. Therefore, one should use Daoyin (guiding and pulling exercises) to unblock stagnation and solidity, massage to clear meridians, rinse the mouth to generate saliva, and swallow it to irrigate dried-up organs. If one clicks teeth and gathers the spirit but fails to concentrate the mind, or practices inconsistently ("one day in the sun, ten days in the cold"), one merely prolongs life in vain. Although it is said that the elderly cannot be full without meat, obesity generates wind pathogens; they cannot feel warm without silk, but excessive warmth leads to excessive lust. Relying on tonic medicines is like trimming the wick of an oil lamp that is running out of oil; the flame may rise high, but it extinguishes quickly. Laozi said, "Because one nourishes life excessively, one harms life." Moreover, some people cultivate politeness outwardly while harboring treachery inwardly; putrefying foods damage the intestines and stomach, while cosmetics bewitch the pure nature, causing solitary yang to flourish excessively and food to digest too easily (deficient fire). Trusting in one's ability to eat more than others, one recklessly commits sins against heaven. When past karma is exhausted, retribution arrives. Some people, disgusted by vice, indulge in drunkenness, living frugally in body but becoming increasingly greedy in ambition, gathering illusory things (like turtle hair felt), and suddenly dreaming of women (sexual hallucinations). Song Qiqiu's *Hua Shu* states: "The stingy and greedy transform into dogs; the violent and brave transform into tigers." Although the physical body has not yet migrated or decayed, karmic deeds have already taken shape. The sages' poem says: "If one does not practice self-restraint, one remains stingy, proud, and closed off like a snail. Try deep reflection in the quiet night; breaking through the fence makes one a great man." The sages warn: "Accumulating gold for descendants does not guarantee they can keep it; accumulating books for descendants does not guarantee they will read them. It is better to accumulate hidden virtue (Yin De) in the unseen world as an endless plan for descendants." Pang Ju's poem says: "North and south estates are not worth boasting about; good sons and daughters are like flowers before your eyes. Once the body dies and is buried in a mound, it belongs to Zhang San or Li Si." Zhang Ziyang's poem says: "Life requires a hundred-year span; longevity, shortness, poverty, or success should not be predicted. Yesterday one rode horses on the street; today the corpse sleeps in a coffin. Wife and wealth left behind do not belong to you; impending karmic retribution cannot deceive oneself. If one does not seek the Great Medicine, how can one meet it? Meeting it without refining it is even more foolish." Generally, the way of nurturing life in old age does not value seeking fullness; rather, one should wash away mental knots with the sages' poems on breaking illusions, not seek fame and profit rashly, not emit anger and joy arbitrarily, not linger on sensual pleasures, not indulge in rich flavors, and not entertain evil thoughts. Do not read useless books; do not labor on urgent matters. The Three Bonds and Five Constants are established patterns; accept wealth, poverty, safety, and danger as they are. Shao Kangjie said: "Drink fine wine until slightly drunk; look at beautiful flowers when they are half-open." He also said: "Too much refreshing food eventually causes illness; too much satisfaction inevitably brings disaster. Rather than seeking good medicine after illness, is it not better to prevent illness beforehand?" Another poem says: "Fewer worries lead to fewer dreams; fewer words lead to fewer faults. Lowering the curtain reveals the length of the day; still willows reveal the subtlety of the wind. Just watch flowers bloom and fall; do not speak of right and wrong. Why seek grotto-heavens? Even if one transcends the world, it should be slow." Pang Ju said: "May you empty all that exists; be careful not to fill what does not exist." I also have a poem: "People exhaust all schemes, only because of greed for life and fear of death. I have a Dharma gate of peace and joy; one must invert this here." In the Jin dynasty, Qi Kongbin was reading at night when he heard outside the window say: "Qi Kongbin, go into seclusion. Adorning worldly affairs is too painful to bear. What is gained is less than a hair's breadth; what is lost is as high as a cliff." Chao Wenyuan Gong's *Fazang Suijin* says: "What the masses love is empty fame and arrogant air, seeing profit and envying wealth. What I love is heavenly mechanism and Daoist insight, the essential Dharma door." It also says: "Observe the body as having no substance, arising from illusory conditions; observe the mind as having no substance, arising from inverted thoughts." It further says: "Safety and destruction of the body are the retribution of actions, visible in this life; elevation and downfall of nature are the retribution of conduct, unknown in future lives." Like form and sound having shadows and echoes, this is an inevitable principle. It also says: "Human suffering is often accidental. Not intentionally done, there is nothing to be done." Observing bodies subject to transformation, there are worse cases; understanding this logic is enough for self-awakening. It also says: "In officialdom, one secretly touches disaster mechanisms; in bedchambers, one secretly enters dangerous paths; in reincarnation, one wrongly enters various realms." The ancients said: "When the mind dies, the form lives; when the mind is strong, the body perishes." The *Diamond Sutra* asks: "How to subdue the mind?" The *Laozi Ode* says: "You like what I do not like; geese fly thinking of the northern frontier; orioles remember returning to old nests; autumn moon and spring flowers hold infinite meaning, known only to oneself." Xu Jing Tian Shi said: "The spiritual platform is bright and clean like an ice pot, allowing only the Primordial Spirit to reside within. If you leave one thing in this center, your whole life will not be pure and empty." Laozi said: "Empty the heart/mind, fill the belly." These are methods to fuse wisdom, discard cleverness, dwell in Heavenly Harmony, and repel all evils. How can they compare to the 3,600 heterodox small methods added to a mind tormented by ten thousand conditions, placing a head on top of a head, and feeding strong agents of metals, stones, herbs, and plants to a body depleted of fluids and dried up, seeking tonification? Observing predecessors, some established families through unrighteousness and preserved them through righteousness. Those who gained through unrighteousness and maintained it through unrighteousness face disaster shortly thereafter. The *Book of Jin* records: "Shi Jielong usurped the imperial title, conscripting 160,000 men and women from nearby commanderies, and 100,000 carts to transport earth to build the Hualin Garden. Yangzhou sent five young swans, each with a neck one zhang long, their voices heard ten li away, boating on Xuanwu Pool. He ordered his son Shi Xuan to pray to mountains and rivers, then went hunting, riding a large carriage with feathered canopy and imperial flags, leading sixteen armies with 180,000 soldiers, exiting the Jinming Gate. Shi Jielong watched from the Lingxiao Pavilion in the rear palace, sighing: 'My father and son are thus; unless heaven collapses and earth cracks, what else is there to worry about? Only holding children and playing with grandchildren is daily joy.' Shi Xuan passed through three provinces and fifteen commanderies, leaving no supplies behind. Shi Jielong then ordered his son Shi Tao to do the same. Exiting Bingzhou, touring Qin and Jin. Shi Xuan always hated Shi Tao's favor; on this trip, his jealousy grew deeper. Thus, plots against each other arose. Soon, Shi Xuan sent assassins to kill Shi Tao in a Buddhist temple, and planned rebellion. The plot was exposed, and Shi Jielong killed him. After Shi Jielong died, his lineage was exterminated. Alas! Shi Jielong's wealth and honor were not to be relied upon; how can the countless petty officials of today, with their paltry wealth, create power and sin?" Although I live in desolation and decay, my attire and conduct have never used rotten stories. Because Confucius's nature and the Way of Heaven are hard to hear, I entrust Buddhism to discuss nature. Buddha said: "All mountains, rivers, and earth flow from the Tathagata's nature. Thus, the word 'Buddha' is the awakening and spirit of all sentient beings. It is truly the primordial ancestral qi of the Great Luo Kalpa, which is Yuanshi Tianzun. Everyone holds this spirit but is unaware. Hence, Buddhist scriptures say: All sentient beings are originally Buddhas; due to non-awareness, they are called sentient beings; due to awareness, they are called Buddhas." The current depictions of hell transformations were commissioned by Emperor Taizong of Tang from his journey to the underworld, ordering Chancellor Yan Liben to paint them for display. In my youthful, frivolous days, I was often under ridicule. One day outdoors, exhausted by illness, what I saw in a trance was no different from the dreams of my family members on the same day regarding boundaries and causes. Thus, I stopped joking. Later, reading historical records and Zen texts, I learned that since modern times, princes and ministers who found great peace in Buddhist books are innumerable. Thus, Han Changli opposed them severely, yet ultimately received teachings from Mahayana; Ouyang Xiuzhong hated them like enemies, yet was called the Six-One Layman. Was it not because they had personal insights and changed their minds? Sad! People do not understand the Buddha's mind but drown in Buddhist rituals. Thus, the disaster of Emperor Wu of Liang arrived with Hou Jing, yet he did not know; Qin Shi Huang sought immortality, but Xu Fu left and never returned. How can trivial victories overcome karmic obstacles? The mind of karmic obstacles treats wine as water and delusion as normal, with thoughts constantly changing. Day and night, one breathes 13,500 times; each breath, pulse moves three cun, qi circulates the body, pulse travels 810 zhang. Temptations of cold and heat, confusion by objects, cause the spirit to flow far away. If health cultivators take this as primary, it is recognizing thieves as sons, is it not absurd? Thus, Qibo said: "If exit and entry cease, the spirit machine perishes; if ascent and descent stop, qi stands alone and in danger." The *I Ching* says: "Essence and qi form things; wandering souls transform." Once, two people came to me to debate the greatness of life and death. One said: "Humans are born, endowed with nature by heaven, sustaining life by earth. A hundred-year body is just benevolence and righteousness. At death, clear soul returns to heaven, turbid essence returns to earth. What doubt is there?" The other said: "Human birth takes life as 'self', gain as 'strength', and delusion as 'normal'. A warehouse of insect filth, a bag of sorrow and worry. Some yield to it, some rob for it, all striving diligently. One name is cruel, one is loyal. Restraining it makes eyes and mind external bandits; indulging it damages blood and qi internally. To hold the key, one does not know the advantage. Karmic consciousness is vast; when one breath stops, how to know where it goes?" I gave each a poem. One said: "Tracing origin and end, the logic is not false. Fear wasting time in solemn respect. Having never walked the path of the Mean, what to do with a farewell song?" The other said: "One sentence transcending the ordinary ends discussion. Explaining it makes you laugh until your intestines break. Everything follows life and death matters; do not let aversion and attachment become the king of the heart." If someone can do this, they see the Master of Life. Generally, the scenery of late years differs in labor and rest; those who labor with the mind suffer more than those who labor with the body. Those who manage the mind well, labor is like this, rest is like this; like fish drinking water, knowing cold and warmth themselves. For those aged fifty, vitality will decline; the major rule is to release semen once every twenty days. For those aged sixty, one should close and solidify without releasing; if unable to hold, release once a month. Beyond this is common sentiment, not worthy of being a model. For those who are fat, strong, and dense, from youth to old age, clothing, food, and medicine should all be light and refreshing. Though eating much meat, do not let it exceed the qi of food. Fruits should include dates, persimmons, and lotus root; vegetables should include leeks and radishes. When hungry, first eat hot items, then suitable warm and cool items in time. Do not recklessly eat sticky, slippery, roasted, fried, spicy, or dry-hot flavors, to prevent internal stagnation of wind-phlegm and external eruption of carbuncles and sores. Even those who are thin but constitutionally strong with phlegm symptoms follow this method. Those who are weak and deficient, from youth to old age, clothing and medicine should be warm and rich. Cold-natured foods injure the stomach; fishy, mutton, roasted, raw, cold, and greasy foods should be eaten sparingly. Those who are fat, constitutionally slippery, deficient-cold, and prone to infection follow this method. Other formulas for supporting decline and moistening dryness are classified below.