Written By Jun Heo(許浚, 1539~1615), Translated by Namil Kim, Wung Seok Cha et al., Published by Ministry of Health & Welfare (Korea)
: 『Dongui Bogam-Internal Bodily Elements(동의보감-내경편』 Ⅰ. Body(신형 身形)
Bai Yuchan (白玉蟾) said, “The person becomes one with Tao when one empties one’s mind and not when the mind is not emptied. The character meaning nothingness covers every presence, and it does not disappear even after giving birth to all things. The universe is big enough to control the tangibles, but not enough to control the intangibles.
Yin-yang is mysterious enough to control anything with qi; but not mysterious enough to control anything without qi. The five phases are made up of the very core essence; they can control anything with numbers, but not anything without numbers. All thoughts, even when all kinds come to mind dizzily, can control anything which can be realized, but not anything which cannot be realized. Of all the ways to train this logic, the best is to train the shape.
The subtlety of training the shape is gathering the spirit. The gathered spirit leads to gathered qi, and gathered qi leads to the formation of cinnabar; this cinnabar leads to hardening of the shape, and hardening of the shape leads to maintaining the spirit.
Therefore, Songqiqiu said ‘Forget shape to nurture qi, forget qi to nurture spirit, and forget spirit to nurture deficiency.’ ‘Forgetting’ here means that there is nothing. The saying “There was nothing in the beginning, how could there be anything?” is referring to the saying above.
