Wang Chongyang Neixiu Zhenjue — Ten Discourses attributed to Wang Chongyang, with commentary
This text presents itself as ten discourses (十論) of Wang Chongyang (王重陽, 1113–1170), founder of the Quanzhen school, framed by a preface and a closing testimony attributed to the immortal Zhang Sanfeng and set within a preface that speaks of Taiji boxing. Its base-text paragraphs, however — the sections here marked 【原文】, "original text" — correspond closely, in several discourses almost word for word, to the seven-stage meditation manual of the Tang Daoist master Sima Chengzhen (647–735), the Zuowang lun (坐忘論, "Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion"), and to its companion pieces the Zuowang shuyi (坐忘樞翼) and Zuowang ming (坐忘銘). Each discourse is followed by a second layer, marked 【釋義】, "explanation" — a vernacular commentary written in a very different, modern register, which cites the Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra, and a world population of "six billion," and closes by folding the whole into a frame of Taiji philosophy. We give the reader this honestly: whatever its stated attribution, this is not a Zhengtong Daozang scripture of Wang Chongyang's own century, but a modern compilation that reuses an earlier Tang text as its scriptural core and surrounds it with new instruction. We found no Daozang catalogue number for it and make no claim to one.
The work is prose throughout, alternating base text and commentary discourse by discourse, and closes with a short verse attributed to Zhang Sanfeng. It is meant as a practical manual: how to sit, how to empty the mind, how to meet illness and poverty, how to reach the stillness the text calls Supreme Stability and beyond it the attainment of the Way. One recurring device deserves a note: the commentary marks certain words with a small circle, ○, evidently the compiler's own symbol for emptiness or the void; this translation keeps the circle exactly where the source places it, untranslated, as part of the text's own idiom.
Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical and vernacular Chinese of the Daoist Canon supplement text as transmitted on Chinese Wikisource, printed in full below the translation. Because its base text draws heavily on the already-translated Zuowang lun, this is not the first English rendering of that underlying material — but to our knowledge no published English translation exists of this particular compilation, under this title and with this commentary, taken as a whole.
Translation
Preface
Wang Chongyang — disciple of Lü Chunyang, one of the Eight Immortals — was a man of Xianyang in Shaanxi, living at the turn from Song to Yuan. His own disciples, transmitted directly by him, were the Seven Realized Ones who established the Quanzhen school. Zhang Sanfeng took the Ten Discourses on Inner Cultivation as the root of Taiji; Patriarch Wang Chongyang's Ten Discourses rest on this same intent. A dweller in the mountains who obtains these instructions need seek no further for jasper herbs or gather any other immortal flower elsewhere — this alone is the elixir of long life, the pill that does not age.
Reverently recorded, to show it to later lovers of the Way. With spirit one lays the foundation, washing away defilement and stilling the thought of greed and desire, to return to the truth of clarity, stillness, and non-action. Spirit joins the Great Void; the qi of yin and yang and the five phases unites with the qi of yin and yang and the five phases of Heaven and Earth into a single body — this is the Taiji in which Heaven and humanity are one. Moved and transformed by spirit, it naturally rounds and links together; in its thousand changes and ten thousand transformations, spirit-like and beyond fathoming, this is Taiji boxing.
Its thousand changes and ten thousand transformations, made spirit-like and transformed, are like moving clouds and flowing water, wave upon wave without pause: rising with no fixed form, gathering with no fixed method. Free, spontaneous, at ease and untroubled — this is the true Taiji boxing that Heaven naturally bestows on humankind, transformed from one's own spirit. Let each person bring out their own native gift, so that blue surpasses the indigo it comes from. To cling to old rules and stand still is to have no new life. One should carry the true source forward, and meet the future with what is new.
One. Discourse on Sitting in Meditation
Original text. To sit for long tires the body; this is not only unreasonable, it turns instead into illness. But if the mind attaches to nothing, and is thereby unmoving — this is the true foundation of stability. Using this as stability, the mind's qi becomes harmonious, and with time one grows ever more clear and refreshed. Holding to this as one's guiding thought, the crooked and the correct become known of themselves. If one can extinguish every arising of the mind, cutting off awareness forever, one enters the stability of oblivion.
But if one simply lets the mind arise as it will, with no restraint at all, then one is no different from an ordinary person. And if one merely cuts off good and evil, with the mind having nowhere to turn, drifting and wandering at will, waiting for stillness to settle of itself — this is only to deceive oneself. And if one goes about every affair claiming that the mind is stained by nothing — in word this sounds very fine, but in practice it is entirely wrong; those who truly study should especially guard against this. The right way is to still delusive thought without extinguishing awareness, to be tranquil without clinging to emptiness. Practiced constantly, true insight comes of itself; where a matter is in doubt, one may still weigh it in thought.
Letting the matter be settled and the doubt resolved is itself the true root from which wisdom is born. Once understood, one should stop — there must be no further dwelling in thought. To keep on thinking is to harm one's nature with cleverness, to injure the root for the sake of the branch: though one gallops ahead brilliantly for a moment, in the end it damages the work of ten thousand generations. All vexing, deviant, and disordered thoughts should be removed the instant they are noticed. When one hears of praise or blame, good or ill, all such things should be swept away at once — do not let the mind take them in. To take them in fills the mind, and a filled mind leaves the Way no place to dwell.
Let everything seen and heard be as though unseen and unheard — this is to let no affair, no thing, enter the mind. When the mind does not admit what is outside, this is called an empty mind. When the mind does not chase after what is outside, this is called a settled mind. When the mind is settled and empty, the Way comes of itself to dwell there.
Explanation. To take sitting as mere sitting is to be a corpse-guarding ghost. The living sit and do not lie down; the dead lie down and do not sit. What is there to speak of, refining one's practice with a stinking pile of bones? [The riddle runs:] one, two, three, four, five — two people guard one earth. Unlock the meaning within this, and there is the Patriarch of the Western Paradise. (The riddle plays on the character for "sitting," 坐, which is written as two "people," 人人, standing above "earth," 土.) The "two people" are the spirit-pupils of the two eyes, not racing outward; the spirit sits at the center, guarding the earth-phases wu and ji — towering, unmoving, as steady as Mount Tai: this is what "sitting" means.
This is not a bodily exercise; it is the building of one's own foundation of spirit. Let bodily comfort determine how long one sits. The present is not the past; ancient and modern conditions differ. The method arises from the mind — that in itself is the Way. To sit with quiet thought, seeking principle and awakening to the true source, should be one's intent; to stop all thought and cut off all reflection, falling into stubborn emptiness, is the great taboo of practice. To let one more thought arise, so that illusory realms appear before one, is called entering demonic states. The mind may be likened to a mirror: a thousand forms and ten thousand appearances do not hinder its clarity.
Let a thousand thoughts and ten thousand threads come and go as they will; to remain thus, unmoved, is the true work of sitting. Like actors on a stage — joy, anger, grief, longing, sorrow, fear, alarm — the players display feeling and form on the outside while the inner world remains untouched. In stillness and non-action, wisdom arises of itself: the mind is not fixed on any object, one looks and does not see, listens and does not hear, eats and does not taste — and where there is sincerity there is numinous power, and where there is numinous power there is clarity. Washing one's own mind with one's own mind, turning the light within to observe within, one washes away defilement and stills thought, returning to emptiness. Hold to the One and the ten thousand affairs are finished — this surpasses ten thousand scrolls of alchemical scripture. This is sitting in its natural, effortless form.
Two. Discourse on Emptying the Mind
Original text. A scripture says: If a person can empty the mind — emptiness itself is not something to be desired as the Way, yet the Way returns to it of itself. When the inner mind has no dwelling, no attachment, outward conduct too has nothing that is done for its own sake. Being neither pure nor impure, praise and blame have no way to arise; being neither wise nor foolish, gain and loss have no way to trouble one. In substance, to follow the mean is the constant; in expedient use, one rises and falls with the times. To be freed from every entanglement in this way — that is true wisdom.
But if, out of season and out of place, one drives the mind and forces action, thinking oneself unattached, this in the end is not true study. Why is this so? The mind is like the eye: let the smallest speck enter the eye, and the eye is at once uneasy. Let some small matter touch the mind, and the mind must stir into disorder. Once there is disorder, it is hard to enter the gate of stability. The essential task of cultivating the Way is urgently to remove this sickness; if the sickness is not removed, stability can never be attained.
It is like good farmland: if brambles and thorns are not cleared, the fine grain will not flourish. Craving, desire, and idle thought are the brambles of the mind; if they are not cut away, stability and wisdom cannot be born. When the mind has nothing to rest on, it is hard for it to settle by itself. Even should one obtain a moment's peace, it soon scatters into disorder again. Let every arising be met by its own extinguishing, taking care that nothing moves; tempered long enough, one comes at last to ease of itself. Whether by day or by night, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, and in every dealing with affairs and things, one must set the intention to settle it.
If ease has not yet been obtained, one must nurture it, without any vexation or disturbance. Once a little ease is gained, one may already find joy in it; tamed by degrees, it only grows the more clear and far-reaching. Consider: the ox and horse are domestic animals — let them run loose and ungoverned, and they still turn stubborn and will not accept the rein; the hawk is a wild bird, yet kept in hand by a falconer all day, it naturally grows tame. The mind is the same: if let loose and uncollected, it only grows the coarser — how then could one observe the subtle?
Explanation. The mind is void, true emptiness ○ — a particle of the direct lineage ○ — called the mind of the Tathagata. Originally clear and still, originally empty, the one alone without a second ○ — called the single nature. When it receives and feels external objects and forms, and a single thought arises — that is feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness — this is called the human mind. One thought reflects the ten thousand forms; the ten thousand thoughts are born from the mind. The empty mind is of itself unmoving; it is only that consciousness moves within the mind. With more intention, emptiness does not increase; with no intention, emptiness does not decrease.
Neither increasing nor decreasing, it returns to its source ○. The ten thousand changes never leave the source ○; the source does not change, and a thousand thoughts and ten thousand ideas are its ordinary capacity. To think one's own mind is in disorder is already to have given rise to a second thing; for a thought to arise at all is already delusion; wherever there is a "second," there is no longer the real. To give rise to disordered consciousness is an obstruction within a single thought; not to give rise to that duality and disorder is still the single thought in its pure sincerity. A thousand thoughts, ten thousand threads, this one subsiding as that one rises — a thousand come, a thousand go; ten thousand come, ten thousand go.
The mind is like a mirror: the thousands upon thousands of thoughts are born from a single thought, and the thousands upon thousands of thoughts are extinguished within that single thought. The single thought of the empty mind is still a thought of sincerity. Let a thousand thoughts and ten thousand threads come and go as they will — not to give rise to a second thought is itself the single thought in its pure sincerity. Laozi embraced the origin and held to the One thought. Shakyamuni returned the ten thousand dharmas to the single nature, perfect and bright. Confucius threaded all through the single thought of pure sincerity. Great Shun, through the one essential, penetrated the ten thousand dharmas. If one returns the single thought to no-thought, this is the subtle awakening, perfect and bright, penetrating the ten thousand dharmas. The single thought returns to the void; the void returns to the great, subtle spirit-penetration.
Three. Discourse on Non-Attachment
Original text. Someone asked: One who practices the great Way is among things yet the mind is not stained; dwells in movement yet the spirit is not disordered. There is no affair he does not attend to, no moment he is not still. But here you alone avoid movement to seek peace, depart from movement to seek stability. Laboring at control, you thereby create movement and stillness as two things. The single mind, caught fast in dwelling and guarding, thus produces taking and rejecting — and neither sickness is even noticed. This external clinging, called the essential step of the Way — how mistaken it is!
The answer: To embrace all things and be called great, to penetrate all things and be called the Way, to be among things and not be stained, to dwell in affairs and not be disordered — this is truly great, truly subtle. But my friend's understanding has not yet reached this. Why? You see only the brilliance of the shell-patterned brocade, and do not know the plain silk thread from which it was drawn out. You have only heard the crane's cry soaring to heaven, without knowing that it was first nourished on grain in the valley. The trunk that shades the sun begins from a hair's tip; the spirit condensed to utmost sagehood is accumulated through practice. Today people only know how to speak of the sage's virtue, and do not know how the sage came to have that virtue.
Explanation. The awareness-nature behind seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing is called the mind of the Way. The mind of the Tathagata ○ is of itself free of stain. When one observes an external object and form, and afterward feels it, and a thought of consciousness arises — this is the human mind. The mind of the Way is of itself clear; the human mind is of itself still; but the human mind loves things, and is drawn along by things. When a greedy heart and a divided intention arise, this is called "three minds and two intentions." This is what is meant by staining. A single thought, pure and sincere, giving rise to no mind of greed and desire, is what is meant by non-attachment.
One level, two still: when thought and desire have subsided, and one returns to one's original mind of the Way ○ — this is to return to the wondrous being of the void, ever without desire so as to observe its subtlety. The empty, numinous, unclouded mind of the Way is the wondrous light of wisdom, the numinous brightness that is Heaven's own gift — called for short the light of wisdom. This light alone has the power to respond and resonate; it is called the numinous light shining alone. Sunlight and lamplight have no such power of resonance; they serve only for heat and illumination.
The lamp is substance; light is function. One can destroy the lamp, but light alone, taken by itself, cannot be destroyed by any force. The numinous light has no way to be destroyed, because in it substance and function are both light — one alone, without a second. Entering water it is not soaked; entering fire it is not burned; the blade cannot cut it, thunder cannot alter it, the fiercest wind cannot scatter it. Only when it is obscured by the appearance of things does it fail to shine. Break through appearances, remove attachment to things, and return to emptiness ○: it shines of itself. This is the single nature perfect and bright — this is washing away defilement and stilling thought, returning to emptiness ○. This is the true life ○ that Heaven naturally bestows on every human being, each on their own; with true faith and true sincerity, the numinous shines of itself, and subtle awakening, numinous and bright, attains full penetration.
Four. Discourse on Simplifying Affairs
Original text. For one who cultivates the Way, nothing is better than simplifying affairs. Know what is essential, discern what is weighty and what is light, and be clear about what to let go and what to take up. What is not essential and not weighty should all be cut off. It is like this: in food, people have wine and meat; in clothing, gauze and brocade; in their persons, rank and reputation; in wealth, gold and jade — all these are but the surplus indulgences of feeling and desire, not the good medicine that benefits life. Yet the multitude pursue them and thereby bring about their own ruin and downfall. How deep is this delusion!
Explanation. The mind is originally empty and still, clear, quiet, at ease of itself — one alone ○ without a second: this is simplicity. No feeling, perception, formation, or consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; no realm of the eye, no realm of consciousness — ○ this is simplicity. The Diamond Sutra says: all the sages and worthies differ from one another only in their degree of the unconditioned dharma. Avalokiteshvara's Heart Sutra — the true emptiness and subtle principle of the unconditioned dharma — is the guiding rule of the Buddha's teaching.
To seal the mind with nothing at all, observing with ease ○, the ten thousand dharmas are all empty; and thereby one attains great ease, entering the unconditioned where there is nothing that is not done — this is called the great and easy Bodhisattva. Observing the ten thousand appearances, ten thousand intentions arise; responding to the ten thousand affairs, ten thousand transformations arise. When they come, there is being; when they go, there is nothing — the mind has no attachment, no obstruction ○: this is simplicity. Dwelling amid the sea of humanity, riding its wind and waves, one is in the dust yet apart from the dust, in desire yet apart from desire, blending one's light with the common world; turning from the outer scene to observe the mind, the mind likened to a bright mirror ○: this is simplicity.
Five. Discourse on True Observation
Original text. True observation is the foresight of the wise, the discernment of the capable. Every meal, every sleep, is a source of gain or loss; every act, every word, may become the root of fortune or misfortune. To handle the branches skillfully is not as good as to guard the root clumsily. To observe the root and thereby know the branches is likewise not the temperament of the restless and contending. Gathering in the mind, simplifying affairs, one daily diminishes what is contrived. Only when the body is still and the mind at leisure can one observe the subtle.
Yet the body that cultivates the Way must still be provided with clothing and food. There are affairs that cannot be set aside, things that cannot be discarded; one must receive them with an open heart and face them with clear eyes. Do not let them seem a hindrance, so that the mind grows vexed and restless. If, on account of some affair, one becomes vexed and restless, the sickness of the mind has already stirred — how then could this be called a settled mind? Human affairs, clothing and food, are one's boat and raft; to cross the sea, one must depend on a boat and raft.
Why then, before even crossing over, should one abandon clothing and food? What is empty and illusory is truly not worth striving after, yet to leave the illusory behind cannot be done all at once. Though one still has need to strive and seek, let no mind of gain and loss arise from it. Whether there is an affair or not, let the mind stay always at peace: seek things together with others but do not covet them as they do; obtain things together with others but do not hoard them as they do. Not coveting, one has no anxiety; not hoarding, one has no loss. In outward traces, always the same as others; in mind, always different from the common run. This is the essential rule of word and deed — one may put one's strength into it.
Explanation. The eye sees what is in front, not what is behind; it sees the surface, not the inside. To observe everything — the one who observes, that is awareness. The eye is only a crystalline, transparent organ; seeing is the mind, not the eye. When the mind is not present, one looks and does not see — this is what is meant here by true observation. To be aware and awaken to the wondrous being within true emptiness is called observation — this is the Bodhisattva of Contemplative Ease in the Heart Sutra. The Daode jing says: "Ever without desire, thereby to observe its subtlety; ever with desire, thereby to observe its manifestations."
When the eye of wisdom observes the common world, it sees the mind and the surface at the same time — this is called penetrating observation. The Buddha, with his supreme and subtle wisdom, observes that all living beings possess the Buddha-nature. Common observation sees only form and appearance, without penetrating to the nature of mind — this is called observing appearances. True observation is to recognize one's own original mind, to know one's own original nature, and to awaken to who it is that observes. In the Bodhisattva of Contemplative Ease, the one who observes is the mind of the Tathagata ○, and that which is observed is likewise the mind of the Tathagata ○.
To observe the mind with the mind is to observe ○ with ○ — what then is there to hold in contemplation? With no feeling, perception, formation, or consciousness, no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind — what is there to observe? Turn the observation back to shine within; turn the hearing back to one's own nature — the hearer is precisely awareness itself. Investigating oneself, awakening oneself, aware of oneself, within one gives rise to no notion of observing, without one raises no mind that observes. The observer is ease itself, suchness itself — that is ○.
"Illuminating, one sees that the five aggregates are all empty" ○: thought gives rise to no appearance, mind gives rise to no dharma; unconditioned and at ease, this is the natural, empty Great Way. To give rise to the thought of contemplating is to produce an obstruction to the contemplation of the subtle. Where there is obstruction, what is there to observe? What obscures the observer is confusion. Not to give rise to the thought of contemplating is precisely to wash away defilement, still thought, and return to emptiness ○. The ten thousand affairs are finished, and clearly there is not one single thing. Observation without observing is true observation.
Six. Discourse on the Affliction of Desire
Original text. Though the preceding sections have dealt with severing connections and simplifying affairs, there remains a sickness hard to remove; one should observe it according to the method. If the sickness of desire is severe, one should know that attachment to form comes entirely from thought. If thought does not arise, in the end there is no matter of desire at all. One should know that the thought of form is empty outwardly, that the mind of desire is forgotten inwardly; when thought is forgotten, the mind is empty. Only the wise are able to observe this well and penetrate its understanding, delighting in Heaven and knowing their fate, and therefore they do not grieve over the suffering of poverty and sickness.
A scripture says: Heaven and Earth cannot change one's constancy, yin and yang cannot turn back one's karma. Speaking in this way, this is true destiny — what is there to resent in it? It is like a brave warrior meeting bandits: he raises his sword before him, and the mass of ruffians scatters in defeat; once his merit is established, he enjoys glory and reward for life. Today's poverty and sickness, troubling and disordering my body, are exactly such bandits. To set the mind right at once — that is the brave warrior.
To dissolve vexation and entanglement is to win the battle; to be tranquil and forever joyful is to hold glory and reward. Whenever some bitter matter comes to press upon my mind, if I do not oppose it with this method, anxiety and entanglement must arise — like a man who, meeting bandits, wins no merit, casts off his armor, deserts the army, flees, and is condemned. To leave joy behind and go to bitterness — how pitiable that is! If poverty and sickness assail one together, one should observe that this suffering comes from my having a body at all. A scripture says: "If I had no body, what suffering could I have?"
Explanation. The Limitless is true emptiness, pure and utterly still; when stillness reaches its extreme, the Supreme Ultimate is born. The Limitless is true emptiness ○. The Supreme Ultimate is the primal, undifferentiated qi prior to Heaven. The Two Modes are the qi by which Heaven and Earth change and transform. The Sovereign Ultimate's qi of exchange is the material world, human society. From the beginning of the primal, undifferentiated qi, all is together called "form"; form is born through the transformation of emptiness.
The painting is the white paper; the painter transforms it and a painting is born — the white paper is the painting, and the painting is the white paper. The Limitless transforms into the Supreme Ultimate; the Limitless is the Supreme Ultimate, and the Supreme Ultimate is the Limitless. A single, distinct stroke paints the ten thousand things. A single transformation transforms Heaven, Earth, and the ten thousand things. Heaven, Earth, and the ten thousand things are nurtured and brought forth because of emptiness, just as the white paper is transformed into a painting because of the painter. Heaven, Earth, and the ten thousand things originate and are born from emptiness — therefore emptiness is precisely form, and form is precisely emptiness.
Without emptiness, form would become water without a source, a tree without roots. Emptiness and form are one body: emptiness can give birth to being, and being returns to emptiness. Of the six billion people now living on this earth, a hundred years hence all will have turned to dust. Emptiness gives birth to illusory appearance, and appearance, once it changes in substance, returns to emptiness. The nature of awareness is originally empty, neither born nor destroyed. The Yellow Emperor said: "Heaven and Earth undergo change in substance; principle and qi are without beginning or end."
The six billion people of today's human society are, in substance, the ashes of a hundred years hence, walking about. Once principle and qi leave the body, extinction is immediate. Heaven, Earth, and the ten thousand things are all the material forms and appearances of true emptiness, transformed and impermanent, and their change of substance amounts to nothing at all. The six billion people on this earth eat away at the earth every day; the life of the earth itself is likewise an impermanent thing — when its resources are exhausted, it too will perish.
"All that has appearance is illusory and false." The human body is a temporarily preserved, illusory, transformed form. One wave goes down, another rises; on the Yangzi, the waves behind drive on the waves before — one wave of new people replaces the old. The tide of humanity never ceases: one tide of emperors, one tide of ministers; kings and generals, gifted men and beautiful women, are no more than a film upon a silver screen — when the moment has passed and the scene has shifted, even the image is gone.
Merit, fame, profit, and rank; wine, desire, wealth, and pride; the deep kindness of one's parents; the heavy love of husband, wife, and children — none of these enter the stream of true life ○. Letting go, it is thus; not letting go, it is also thus. At birth nothing is brought, at death nothing is carried away — why then suffer, sacrificing the true, bright life ○, for the sake of greed and desire? "All conditioned dharmas are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; like dew, and like lightning — thus should they be contemplated."
Seven. Discourse on Supreme Stability
Original text. Supreme Stability is the utmost point of departing from the common world, the first foundation for arriving at the Way, the accomplishment of practicing stillness, the completed task of holding to peace. The form is like withered wood, the mind like dead ashes; there is nothing taken, nothing rejected — the very extreme of tranquil extinction. Without mind, one is stable, and there is nothing that is not stable. Hence it is called: Supreme Stability.
Zhuangzi said: "One whose dwelling is in supreme stability sends forth Heaven's own light." "Dwelling" means the mind; "Heaven's light" means wisdom. The mind is the dwelling-place of the Way; when emptiness and stillness reach their utmost, the Way comes to reside there and wisdom is born. Wisdom is born out of one's original nature — it is not something a person possesses of himself — hence it is called "Heaven's light." But through greed, craving, turbidity, and disorder, one comes to darkness and confusion; when the nature is confused, wisdom is not born. Once wisdom is born, treasure it and hold it close — do not, through much knowing, harm one's stability. It is not the birth of wisdom that is hard; it is having wisdom and not using it that is hard. Since antiquity, those who forget the body have been many; those who forget fame have been few. To have wisdom and not use it is to forget fame — few in the world attain to it, and so it is hard. Being honored, to be able not to grow proud; being wealthy, to be able not to grow extravagant — free of the common faults, one thereby keeps honor and wealth constantly. Stable and unmoving, wise and yet not using it — thereby one attains deep verification of the true constant.
Zhuangzi said: "To know the Way is easy; not to speak of it is hard. To know and not speak is the way of Heaven; to know and speak of it is the way of man. The men of old belonged to Heaven, and not to man." He also said: "Those of old who governed the Way nourished wisdom through calm repose. Wisdom was born, yet they did not act by means of wisdom — this is called nourishing calm repose by means of wisdom. Wisdom and calm repose nourished each other in turn, and harmony and order came forth from their original nature. Calm repose and wisdom are stability and wisdom; harmony and order are the Way and its virtue. Having wisdom and not using it, being at peace and calm — accumulated over long enough, one naturally completes the Way and its virtue." Naturally, thunder that splits the mountain does not startle such a one; the bright blade crossed before him does not frighten him; he looks on fame and profit as a shadow passing a crack in the wall, and knows life and death as he knows a swelling that will burst. When the will is not divided, it condenses into spirit — and the emptiness and subtlety of the mind cannot be conceived in thought.
Explanation. The empty, numinous, and bright whole body of the self is of itself unmoving ○ — one alone, without a second. It is only the notions of consciousness born of the substance of the Way that pursue, in headlong chase, the thousand-hued, ten-thousand-fold desires, clinging to them and never letting go. Once one thoroughly awakens to life as illusion, wine, desire, wealth, and pride are only pleasures before the eyes — close both eyes once, and all being is empty.
To sacrifice the true, bright life for the sake of this stinking sack of skin, enjoying a moment's false happiness and suffering ten thousand years of true pain — one thinks it is the stinking sack of skin that is enjoying itself, but in fact it is the nature of awareness that feels it. Does one not know that what is obstructed and obscured is the wondrous, bright light! In stability, stillness, peace, and reflection, wisdom shines of itself; suddenly awakening that there is no true joy in the human world, one sees that joy carried to its height always turns to sorrow.
Only the substance of the Way ○ is peaceful, at ease, and eternally radiant. Knowing true joy, one casts off false joy; seeking principle, one awakens to the true source, and understands that all is naturally empty. Everything passes beneath the eye, and the body itself leaves no trace at last. Without understanding the true principle of the Way, how could the state of mind be settled? Once one thoroughly awakens that society and human life are illusion, one knows that the unborn and undying is true emptiness. Say a thousand things, speak ten thousand words — it comes to this: when one's own mind awakens, the ten thousand dharmas are penetrated.
From ancient times to now, weighing it with the mind: kings and generals, gifted men and beautiful women, all stood above the common people, glorious among the ten thousand folk. But look at the outcome, traced to its root — all become the likeness of ash, earth, and mud. Stable, it is thus; unstable, it is also thus — why not, naturally and at ease, awaken to the true constant?
Eight. Discourse on Attaining the Way
Original text. The Way is a matter of spirit-like marvel: numinous, and possessed of nature; empty, and without form; following and meeting it, one cannot fathom it; its shadow and echo cannot be sought for. One does not know how it is so, and yet it is so. The utmost sages attained it in antiquity; its subtle method has been transmitted down to the present. The Way has deep power: slowly it transforms form and spirit, until form, following the Way, penetrates and unites with spirit — this is called the spirit-man. The nature of spirit is empty and fused; its substance undergoes no change or extinction; form, through the Way, is penetrated, and therefore knows no birth or death.
Hidden, its form is the same as spirit; manifest, its spirit is the same as qi. Hence one may tread on water and fire without harm, stand before sun and moon and cast no shadow. Existence and disappearance rest with oneself; going out and coming in, there is no gap. The body, though a substance of marsh and moisture, is yet utterly subtle and empty — how much more so its numinous wisdom, ever deeper and further-reaching! The Scripture on the Engendering of Spirit says: "When body and spirit are joined as one, this is the true body." And the Scripture of the Western Ascension says: "When form and spirit are united together, one can therefore endure long."
Yet in the empty and formless Way, the power attained has degrees of shallow and deep. When deep, it extends to cover the form as well; when shallow, it reaches only to the mind. One whose form is covered by it is the spirit-man; one who reaches only to the mind attains merely awakened wisdom, and the body still cannot escape its decline. Why is this? Wisdom is a function of the mind; used too much, the mind grows weary. Having newly gained a little wisdom, delighted, one talks and argues too much, and spirit and qi leak away; with no numinous light to moisten the body, one comes at last to an early end, and the Way is therefore hard to complete. What the scriptures call "release by the corpse" refers to this.
For this reason the great person sets aside brightness and hides splendor, and by this means becomes wholly complete. Condensing the spirit, treasuring the qi, studying the Way with no mind of his own, spirit unites with the Way — this is called attaining the Way. A scripture says: "One who is the same as the Way, the Way likewise attains him." Where a mountain holds jade, the grasses and trees upon it do not wither; where a person holds the Way within, the physical frame is thereby made forever firm. Nourished by long steeping, its substance is transformed and becomes one with spirit; refining form to its subtlest point, one becomes hidden-one with the Way. Wisdom's illumination has no boundary, and form transcends every limit. Gathering form and emptiness together into a single function, setting aside creation and transformation, one accomplishes the work. The true response has no fixed direction — it is the Way and its virtue alone.
Explanation. The Way is fundamentally without gain and without loss; it is only that people of the world do not know its true meaning. The substance of the Way is the awareness-nature that the empty, formless Great Way bestows upon humankind. Laozi said that the nature of awareness is the one great spirit among all things of nature, Heaven, and Earth. Confucius spoke of a subtly aware, numinously penetrating rational nature. Shakyamuni said that the mind of supreme, perfect, complete enlightenment bestowed by Heaven upon all living beings is a heaven-given, vastly spirit-penetrating, mysteriously boundless nature of awareness.
Above, reaching to all the Buddhas; below, reaching to every living being — all contain the Buddha's wisdom. Those confined by the endowment of their qi, and obscured by desire for things, are called sentient beings. Those whose Buddha-nature is not clouded, who are not turned about by every form and hue of the human world, who suddenly awaken that human life is entirely a matter of illusion and impermanence, and who neither seek nor covet — these are called the awakened. The deluded seem to have lost something, yet in truth have lost nothing. The awakened make it clear, and seem to have gained something, yet have gained nothing.
Its mysterious, subtle profundity is a native ability given by Heaven, the same in every person, and not something achieved by building up cultivation and adding merit. It was originally the golden elixir, the treasure-pearl, and only because it fell into the connections of the dust-world was it buried under the defilement of dust and the grime of desire. By means of one's own subtle and bright wisdom, one grinds away the defilement of dust and removes the grime of desire, and at once brightness is restored. It is like an eye disease: remove the obstruction, and brightness returns — this brightness was there from the beginning; the physician does not add to it.
The substance of the Way is gold within ore: once the ore is removed and the pure gold obtained, it can never again become ore, just as wood, once turned to ash, can never again become wood. The single nature, perfect and bright, within the eternal and the natural, is called supreme bliss — the great, awakened immortal who never, ever perishes. Because a human being is the seed of gods and Buddhas, one who cultivates bears the fruit. To obtain the true fruit is called attaining the Way; Laozi said: "Supreme virtue does not regard itself as gaining anything."
Nine. Discourse on the Pivot and Wings of Sitting in Oblivion
Original text. One who wishes to cultivate the Way and become a Realized one must first put away deviant and crooked conduct. Let outward affairs be entirely cut off, so that nothing intrudes upon the mind; only then observe within, with correct awareness. When one is aware that a single thought has arisen, it must at once be extinguished — each arising met at once by its extinguishing, so as to bring about peace and quiet. Beyond this, even thoughts that are not clung to with greed, but merely drift and wander in disorder, should also all be extinguished and removed. Practiced diligently day and night, without a moment's relaxation.
Extinguish only the moving mind, do not extinguish the illuminating mind; condense only the empty mind, do not condense a fixed, dwelling mind. Relying on no single method, yet the mind constantly abides. This method is mysterious and subtle, and its benefit runs very deep. Unless one already has an affinity for the Way from a former life, and a faith undivided in two, one cannot accomplish it. If one's heart inclines toward the utmost Way, and one's faith is firm and earnest, let one first receive the Three Precepts, and cultivate practice according to these precepts, reverent to the end as at the beginning — only then does one attain the true Way.
The three precepts are these: first, to simplify one's connections; second, to remove desire; third, to still the mind. Diligently practicing these three precepts, without slackening or retreating, one seeks the Way with no mind of seeking, and the Way comes of itself. A scripture says: "If a person can be ever clear and still, Heaven and Earth will both return to him." Speaking in this way, can one fail to trust in so essential and simple a method! And yet the ordinary mind's restless contention has been with us for a very long time indeed, and to still the mind by means of the precepts is a very difficult thing.
Sometimes one seeks to still it and cannot; sometimes it pauses only to be lost again at once; going and staying fight each other, until every limb runs with sweat. Practiced and held to for a long, long time, one at last attains a settled ripeness. Do not, because one cannot gather it in for the moment, abandon the great work of a thousand lifetimes. Once one has attained a little stillness of self, then whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, or amid affairs and clamorous places, one must in every case set the intention to settle it. Whether there is an affair or not, let the mind always be as if it had none. In stillness or in clamor, let the will be single alone.
But if one binds the mind too tightly, this in turn becomes a sickness of qi — madness and delirium are its symptoms. If the mind will not move, one must again let go, finding the mean between the slack and the tight, and constantly adjusting oneself. Restrain it, yet without clinging; release it, yet without indulgence. To be in clamor and feel no aversion, to be amid affairs and feel no vexation — this is true stability. But do not, because one feels no vexation amid affairs, therefore go seeking out more affairs; do not, because outer clamor cannot move one, therefore go seeking out clamor.
Take having no affairs as the true dwelling, and having affairs as the trace of one's response. Like water, or like a mirror, meeting a thing, one shows its form. With skillful means and expedient methods, one is thereby able to enter stability. Whether wisdom is brought forth slowly or swiftly is not for a person to determine. Do not, in the midst of stability, seek wisdom in urgent haste. To seek wisdom in this way harms one's nature, and to harm one's nature is to have no wisdom. Not seeking wisdom, and having wisdom arise of itself — this is true wisdom. To have wisdom and not use it: true wisdom appears as foolishness.
Ever nourishing stability and wisdom, their two excellences are without limit. But if, within stability, thought and imagining occur, one will often draw a host of deviant spirits and hundred demons, appearing in response to the mind — whereas now, above the settled mind, there is openness with nothing covering it, and below the settled mind, there is vastness with no foundation to it; old karma daily dissolves, new karma is not created; nothing entangles or obstructs, and one is far removed, freed from the net of dust. Practiced for a long time in this way, one naturally attains the Way. Now, a person who has attained the Way has, in mind and body, Five Periods and Seven Stages.
The mind has Five Periods: first, movement is much and stillness is little; second, movement and stillness are equal; third, stillness is much and movement is little; fourth, when there is no affair, one is still, but on meeting an affair one still moves; fifth, the mind is united with the Way, and though touched, does not move. When the mind reaches this stage, it first attains peace and joy: the defilement of transgression is entirely dissolved, and vexation returns no more.
The body has Seven Stages: first, every movement follows the season, and one's countenance is harmonious and glad; second, long-standing illnesses are all dissolved, and body and mind are clear and refreshed; third, injuries and untimely harm are filled and repaired, and one returns to the origin and restores one's allotted life; fourth, one's years are extended by thousands, and one is called an Immortal Man; fifth, form is refined into qi, and one is called a Realized Man; sixth, qi is refined into spirit, and one is called a Spirit Man; seventh, spirit is refined and united with the Way, and one is called an Utmost Man. If one has long studied the stilling of the mind, yet the body shows none of these Five Periods or Seven Stages, then the numinous is hastened while the substance remains impure; the outward form fades away and returns to emptiness, and though one claims wisdom and awakening and calls it the completion of the Way, in truth it has not yet come to pass.
Explanation. A person's eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, toward the objective seeing, hearing, awareness, and thought of consciousness, either like or dislike them, and the memories that result naturally differ. The ten thousand images are engraved within, so that in recalling one's childhood, every detail stands clear before the eyes. To forget or not to forget is a natural thing. Stillness is an inborn faculty of life; there is no need to use consciousness to make it happen — of itself, numinous brightness and wisdom are born, and folly and confusion vanish of themselves.
Laozi said that what is natural is the Way, and that non-action is the method, because it is of itself clear and still. Not clinging, not insisting one is right, letting things flow of themselves — the natural state of mind has no intention either of forgetting or of not forgetting. Natural non-action pays no heed at all to any thought or consciousness. It is like a host who does not welcome a guest: the guest, finding no favor, withdraws of himself. If he does not withdraw, the host grows troubled and the guest uneasy. Clinging in intention and not forgetting, the mind is not at ease; in the state of forgetting, consciousness gains its release.
Wild, disordered thinking, ranging as wide as sea and sky, fanciful ideas without limit, a wild crane wandering at leisure, a loose horse roaming the borderlands, letting things flow of themselves, untouched within — disorder carried to its extreme, movement carried to its extreme, is itself the natural state of stability and stillness. Under Heaven there is fundamentally no trouble; it is the mediocre man who goes looking for it himself. If the mind does not stir into disorder, from where would disorder be born? When the mind wishes to seek stillness, the very seeking is itself disorder. Not thinking of movement, not thinking of stillness — what, then, is thought? To be as one is, of itself, is the method; to be natural is the Way. One who does not recognize his own original mind and know his own original nature has difficulty entering the unconditioned; but the awareness-nature behind seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, thought after thought, being as it is of itself, causes delusion to vanish of its own accord.
Ten. Discourse on the Inscription on Sitting in Oblivion
Original text.
Ever silent, the primal qi takes no harm;
thinking little, wisdom's candle lights within.
Not angry, the hundred spirits are calm and at ease;
not vexed, the ground of the mind is cool and clear.
Seeking nothing, there is no flattery, no fawning;
holding to nothing, one may be round or may be square.
Not covetous — this alone is wealth and honor;
not careless — then why fear any prince?
When taste is cut off, the numinous spring descends of itself;
when qi is stilled, the true breath lengthens day by day.
Touched, the form dies and the spirit wanders;
imagining, dreams depart and the corpse lies stiff.
When qi leaks away, the form returns to the burial mound;
when thought leaks away, the spirit hastens to the land of death.
Only when the mind dies is the spirit brought to life;
only when the earthly soul is extinguished does the heavenly soul grow strong.
To range widely over things can never exhaust the subtle principle;
responding and transforming, one never departs from the true constant.
The utmost essence hides within the dim and hazy;
the great image blends into the vast and boundless.
The transformation of the Way is like the transformation of things;
ghosts and spirits cannot fathom its going and its hiding.
Not drinking, not eating, not sleeping —
this is called the Realized Man's sitting in oblivion.
When the mind forgets thought and reflection, one transcends the Realm of Desire. When the mind forgets its objects and conditions, one transcends the Realm of Form. When the mind does not cling even to emptiness, one transcends the Formless Realm. Free of these Three Realms, the spirit dwells in the land of immortals and sages, and the nature abides in the region of clarity and emptiness.
Zhang Sanfeng said: These are the Ten Discourses of Patriarch Wang Chongyang. The Limitless Great Way is entirely lodged within them. In the Grotto-Heaven of Empty Blue, many realized immortals have long come to roam; those who have left behind the elixir-instructions and words of the Way in departing did so also out of the intention to deliver people and awaken the world. Patriarch Chongyang's Ten Discourses rest on this same intent. A dweller in the mountains who obtains these instructions need seek no further for jasper herbs or gather any other immortal flower elsewhere — this alone is the elixir of long life, the pill that does not age. Reverently recorded, to show it to later lovers of the Way.
Explanation. Patriarch Lü said: My nature has always been of itself natural; from the beginning it rests with me, not with Heaven. At dead of night the iron-willed man reflects alone: long life and no death is made by the person himself. A human life of a hundred years is a dream beneath the southern bough; the awakened strike, for themselves, the morning bell. The Way is transmitted by the sages, but cultivation rests with oneself. Virtue is accumulated by the person, but one's allotted span rests with Heaven. Clouds lie across the vast blue sea, obscuring the way ahead — but for the awakened, without moving a single step, that is already the Western Paradise.
Joy, anger, grief, and longing are settled by one's own mind; the seed of gods, sages, immortals, and Buddhas is in the field of one's own mind; the numinous sprout is born within one's own mind — seek it outside, a hundred thousand leagues away, and there is nowhere to find it. Observing within, embracing the origin and holding to the One, the single nature perfect and bright is one's own home. To seek is to be a guest outside the mind; to have a method at all is not to be at home in oneself. A single body and mind gives birth to the ten thousand dharmas. The Way is fundamentally empty and formless — what use, then, is any method?
The mind is gold within the ore; the method is the fire that refines the gold. When the gold is complete, there is no fire, no ore, and no "gold" either. Matter fundamentally has no nature of its own; the sign, the name, is what is called gold. True gold is fundamentally without stain; it is only because the ore mixes with the gold that it seems otherwise. One's own mind has the fire of wisdom; remove the ore, and the gold refines itself. Every contrived, effortful fire is a false fire; the true fire comes of itself from the root of wisdom. Without burning, the ore vanishes of itself; without refining, it was gold to begin with.
"Cultivation and refinement" is only a provisional name; to take up a method is to obscure one's own mind. To discard the method without knowing its meaning is likewise wrong; neither taking it up nor discarding it — that is one's own truth. Sunlight is an inborn faculty; cloud and mist arise from without. One's own mind is fundamentally clear and still; the objective world is an outer cause. When the moon shines, cloud and mist scatter; when the mind is clear, outer causes are removed. Using no contrived, effortful method, in non-action I am true of myself.
Concluding Verse to the Ten Discourses on Inner Cultivation
Sanfeng's Taiji holds its true purpose;
in a thousand, ten thousand changes, it never leaves the root.
A wave of the hand, one strike — the palms of yin and yang;
a turn of the body, one movement — the frame of the five phases.
Long or short, level or steep, at ease and free;
walking, standing, sitting, lying — the foundation laid deep.
Rain and lightning, wind and thunder, the spirit's own weather;
the primal unity in one body — Taiji, true and whole.
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Meditation and Inner Alchemy shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the Chinese text printed below, discourse by discourse: each numbered section's 【原文】, "original text," rendered as prose (with the tenth discourse's verse portion kept as verse lines), followed by its 【釋義】, "explanation," likewise as prose, keeping the two layers visibly distinct as the source presents them.
Before the claim below was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed. The two local reference bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western translation were searched under 王重陽, Chongyang, and Neixiu, and under this compilation's own title; neither records a translation of this specific work. They do, however, record that the base-text material embedded in this compilation's 【原文】 sections corresponds closely to Sima Chengzhen's Tang-dynasty Zuowang lun (坐忘論, DZ 1036) and its companion pieces, which Livia Kohn translated in full as Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhen's Zuowang Lun (1987). Two bounded web searches (for the Chinese title and for "Wang Chongyang inner cultivation true instructions" in English) turned up no published English translation of this compilation under any title. We therefore give a partial verdict: the underlying scriptural material has an existing English translation (not consulted here, and not the text before you, since this compilation reframes, retitles, and adds an entirely new layer of vernacular commentary around it), but to our knowledge no published English translation exists of this particular ten-discourse compilation, under this title, taken whole with its commentary. We state this as the limit of our search, not as a certainty.
A note on the text's own honesty. Its preface and closing testimony present it as a work of Wang Chongyang (1113–1170) transmitted through Zhang Sanfeng, but internal evidence — a cited world population of six billion, quotations from the Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra folded into the commentary in a distinctly modern voice, and the framing of the whole as the philosophical basis of Taiji boxing — places the compilation's commentary layer, and very likely its final redaction as a whole, no earlier than the twentieth century. We report this plainly rather than pass the attribution on silently. The circle ○ that recurs through the commentary appears to be the compiler's own mark for emptiness or the void; it is kept untranslated at each place the source uses it. One phrase resisted confident rendering: the heading of the sixth discourse, 論色跡惡, is translated here by its evident sense ("Discourse on the Affliction of Desire") rather than word for word, as its four characters do not parse as a standard classical Chinese phrase.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.
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Source Text: 王重陽內修真訣
Classical and vernacular Chinese text as transmitted in the Chinese Wikisource digital edition of the Daoist Canon supplement. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. 【 】marks the source's own division between base text (原文) and explanation (釋義); ○ is the compiler's own mark, kept as in the source.
序
八仙呂純陽之弟子--王重陽，宋末元初，陝西咸陽人。親傳弟子七真人立全真派。張三丰以《內修十論》為太極根基。王重陽祖師之十論，亦本斯旨也。山中人得此訓言，又何必另尋瑤草，別采仙花。即此是長生藥。不老丹也。
恭錄之，以示后之好道者。以神筑基，去污除垢平息貪欲之念，復清靜無為之真。神合太虛，陰陽五行之氣，合于天地陰陽五行之氣為一體，即天人合一之太極。以神化之動，自然圓合連貫，千變萬化，神妙莫測，是為太極拳。
千變萬化之式，神而化之，如行云流水、濤濤不斷，起無定式，收無定法。自由、自如、自在安然，是自然天賦人類自神所化之真太極拳。發揮人人自我之天賦，青出于藍，勝于藍。固守陳規、停滯不前，無新生命。應續真宗，創新迎未來。
一、論打坐
【原文】
坐久則身勞，既不合理，又反成病。但心不著物，又得不動，此是真定正基。用此為定，心氣調和，久益清爽。以此為念，則邪正可知。若能心起皆滅，永斷覺知，入于忘定。
倘任心所起，一無收制，則與凡夫不別。若惟斷善惡，心無指歸，肆意浮游，待自定者，徒自誤耳。若遍行諸事，言心無所染，于言甚善，于行極非，真學之流，特宜戒此。今則息妄而不滅照，寧靜而不著空，行之有常，自得真見，事或有疑，且任思量。
令事得濟，所疑復悟。此亦生慧正根。悟已則止，必莫有思。思則以智害性，為子傷本。雖騁一時之俊，終虧萬代之業。一切煩邪亂想，隨覺即除。若聞毀譽善惡等事，皆即撥去，莫將心受。受之則心滿，心滿則道無所居。
所有見聞，如不見聞，即是諸事萬物不入于心。心不受外，名曰虛心。心不遂外，名曰安心。心安而虛，道自來居。
【釋義】
以坐為坐是守尸鬼。活人坐不臥，死人臥不坐。一具臭骨頭，談什么煉功課。一二三四五，二人守一土。解開此中意，便是西天祖。二人者即二目瞳神不外馳，神坐中央戍己土，巍巍不動穩如泰山即是坐。
非肉體之功，是筑自我神基。以身體舒適來定時間。今非昔比，今古條件不一，法由心生，自然是道。坐以靜思求理悟真宗為念，停思斷想入頑空是練功之大忌。別生一念，幻境現前名為入魔。心喻鏡，千形萬相不礙明。
千思萬縷任來去，如如不動是坐功。舞台角色，喜怒哀思悲恐驚，演員意表形相，內心世界無動于衷。定靜無為自然智慧生，心不在焉、視而弗見、聽而弗聞，食而不知其味，即誠則靈，靈則明。以自心洗自心，返觀內照，去污除垢，止念還虛，守一萬事畢，勝似丹經萬卷。此自然無為之坐。
二、論虛心
【原文】
經曰：人能虛心，虛非欲道，道自歸之。內心既無住著，外行亦無所為。非淨非穢，故毀譽無從生。非智非愚，故利害無由撓。實則順中為常，權則與時消息。苟免諸累，是其智也。
若非時非事，役思強為者，自為不著，終非真學。何耶？心如眼，纖毫入眼，眼即不安。小事關心，心必動亂。既有動亂，難入定門。修道之要，急在除病，病若不除，終難得定。
猶如良田，荊棘不除，嘉禾不茂。愛欲思慮，是心荊棘，若不剪除，定慧不生。此心無所托，難以自安。縱得暫安，還復散亂。隨起隨滅，務令不動，久久調熟，自得安閑。無論晝夜，行住坐臥，及應事接物，當須作意安之。
若未得安，即須安養，莫有惱觸。少得安閑，即堪自樂，漸漸馴狎，惟益清遠。且牛馬家畜也，放縱不收，猶自生梗，不受駕御﹔鷹野鳥，為人把戲，終日在手，自然調熟。心亦如是，若縱任不收，惟益粗疏，何能觀妙。
【釋義】
心是虛無真空○直系化分子○謂如來心。本自清靜、本來空、唯獨無偶○謂一性。感受客觀物相，生一念即受想行識，謂之人心。一念映萬相，萬想由心生。虛心本自不動，只是意識在心內行。意多，虛不增，無意，虛不減。
不增不減宗歸○。萬變不離宗○，宗不變，千思萬想正常能。認為自心亂，即是有二生，起心即是妄，有二即非真。生亂意識是一念之障，不生二亂，還是一念純誠。千思萬縷、此伏彼起，來一千，去一千。來一萬、去一萬。
心如鏡如，千萬之念是從一念生。千萬之念滅在一念中。虛心之一念還是念誠。千思萬縷任來去，別生二念，即是一念純誠。老子抱元守一念。釋迦萬法歸一性圓明。孔子貫一念純誠。大舜精一萬法通。若將一念歸無念，即是妙覺圓明萬法通。一念還虛無，虛無還妙大神通。
三、論不染
【原文】
或曰：夫為大道者，在物而心不染，處動而神不亂。無事而不為，無時而不寂。今獨避動而取安，離動而求定。勞于控制，乃有動靜。一心滯于住守，是成取舍，兩病都未覺。其外執，而謂道之階要，何其謬耶？
答曰：總物而稱大，通物之謂道，在物而不染，處事而不亂，真為大矣，實為妙矣。然吾子之見有所未明，何者？子徒見貝錦之輝煌，未曉如抽之素絲。才聞鶴鳴之沖天，詎識先資于谷食。蔽日之干，起于毫末。神凝至聖，積習而成。今徒知言聖人之德，而不知聖人之所以德也。
【釋義】
見聞覺知之覺性謂之道心。如來心○本自無染。觀客觀物相，感受而后，意識一念生即人心。道心本自清，人心本自靜，人心愛物，被物所牽。貪心二意生，這是三心二意。此謂染，一念純誠，不生貪欲之心謂不染。
一平二靜，念欲平息，復我本來道心○，即是返虛無妙有之道，常無欲以觀其妙，虛靈不昧之道心，即天賦靈明之妙智慧光，簡稱慧光。光俱感應功能，謂靈光獨耀。日光、燈光無感應功能，只有熱、照明之用。
燈是體，光是用。燈能破，單獨的破壞光，是無能為力的。靈光無法能破壞。因體用皆光，唯獨無偶。入水不浸，入火不焚，刀砍不斷、雷打不變，罡風吹不散。被物相所蔽，不明。破相、除物，還虛○自明，即一性圓明，即去污除垢，止念還虛○。此人類人人自我之自然天賦之真生命○，真信真誠靈自明，妙覺靈明獲圓通。
四、論簡事
【原文】
修道之人，莫若簡事。知其閉要，識其輕重，明其去取。非要非重，皆應絕之。猶人食有酒肉，衣有羅綺，身有名位，財有金玉，此皆情欲之余好，非益生之良藥。眾皆徇之而自致亡敗。何迷之甚也。
【釋義】
心本空寂、清靜自如、唯獨○無偶，簡。無受想行識，無眼耳鼻舌身意，無色聲香味觸法，無眼界無意識界，○簡。《金剛經》云，一切聖賢皆以無為法而有差別。觀世音心經，真空妙理無為法是佛綱。
以無印心，觀自在○，萬法皆空。而獲大自在，入無為無所不為，謂大自在菩薩。觀萬象，生萬意，應萬事，生萬變。來則有，去則無，心無挂礙○簡。居人海乘風浪，在塵離塵，在欲離欲，和光混俗，背境觀心，心喻鏡明○簡。
五、論真觀
【原文】
夫真觀者，智士之先覺，能人之善察也。一食一寐，俱為損益之源﹔一行一言，堪作禍福之本。巧持其末，不若拙守其本。觀本知末，又非躁競之情。收心簡事，日損有為。體靜心閑，方可觀妙。
然修道之身，必資衣食。事有不可廢，物有不可棄者，須當虛襟以受之，明目而當之。勿以為妨，心生煩躁。若因事煩躁，心病已動，何名安心。夫人事衣食，我之船舫也，欲渡于海，必資船舫。
因何未度，先廢衣食。虛幻實不足營為，然出離虛幻，未能遽絕。雖有營求，莫生得失之心。有事無事，心常安泰，與物同求不同貪，同得而不同積。不貪故無憂，不積故無失。跡每同人，心常異俗。此言行之宗要，可力為之。
【釋義】
眼見前，不見后，見表不見內，視察一切，視者，覺也。眼只是晶體透明之器官，見是心，非眼。心不在焉，視而弗見，此處指真觀。覺竩悟真空之妙有謂之觀。即心經觀自在菩薩。道德經常無欲以觀其妙，常有欲以觀其竅。
慧眼觀俗，見心同時也見表，謂之通觀。佛以無上妙智慧，觀一切眾生皆有佛性。俗觀只見色相，不透心性，謂之觀相。真觀，認自本心，識自本性，在悟觀者是誰。觀自在菩薩的觀者是如來心○，被觀者也是如來心○。
以心觀心即以○觀○，作何觀想？無受想行識、無眼耳鼻舌身意，觀何？返觀內照，返聞自性，聞者即是覺。自參自悟自覺，內不生觀念，外不起觀心。觀者，自在自如如即○。
照見五蘊皆空○，念不生相，心不生法，無為自在，即是自然虛無○大道。起觀想之念，生觀妙之障。有障觀何，蔽觀者昧。不生觀想之念，即去污除垢、止念還虛○。萬事畢了然無一物。不觀之觀即真觀。
六、論色跡惡
【原文】
前節雖斷緣簡事，病有難除者，但依法觀之。若色病重者，當知染色都由想耳。想若不生，終無色事。當知色想外空，色心內忘，忘想心空。惟有智者，善觀而達識之，樂天知命，故不憂貧病之苦也。
經云：天地不能改其操，陰陽不能回其孽。由此言之，真命也，又何怨焉。譬如勇士逢賊，揮劍當前，群凶奔潰，功勛一立，榮祿終身。今之貧病惱亂我身而寇賊也。立刻正心，則勇士也。
惱累消除，則戰勝也，湛然常樂，則榮祿也。凡有苦事來迫我心，不以此敵之，必生憂累，如人逢賊，不立功勛，棄甲背軍，逃亡獲罪。去樂就苦，何可憫哉。若貧病交侵，當觀此苦由我有身。經曰：及吾無身，吾何有患。
【釋義】
無極真空純至靜，靜到極點太極生。無極真空○。太極先天混元一氣。兩儀，天地變易之氣。皇極交易之氣，即物質世界，人類社會。由混元一氣開始統稱為色，色由空轉化而生。
畫是白紙，畫家化而生畫，白紙即畫，畫即白紙。無極化太極，無極即太極，太極即無極。不同的一畫，畫萬物。一化，化天地萬物。天地萬物因空而育化，白紙因畫家而化成畫。天地萬物源生于空，所以空即是色，色即是空。
無空，色就成為無源之水，無本之木。空色一體，空能生有，有歸空。當今地球上六十億人，百年后皆化灰塵。空生幻相，相質變歸于空。覺性本空，不生不滅。黃帝曰：天地有質變，理氣了無終始。
當今人類社會之六十億人，實質是一百年后的骨灰在活動。理氣離體，當即立滅。天地萬物皆真空幻化無常的物質色相，質變皆無。大地上六十億人每天在吃地球，大地的生命也是無常之物，資源盡則亡。
凡所有相皆是虛妄。人的軀體是暫存體幻化身。一波下去一波上來，長江后浪推前浪，一波新人換舊人。人潮永無了休，一潮天子一潮臣，帝王將相、才子佳人只不過是銀幕電影，時過境遷影也無。
功名利祿、酒色財氣、父母深恩、夫妻兒女之重愛，不入真生命○之流。放手如是，不放手也如是。生不帶來，死不帶去，何苦為了貪欲犧牲了真明命○。一切有為法，如夢幻泡影。如露亦如電，應作如是觀。
七、論泰定
【原文】
泰定者出俗之極也，致道之初基，習靜之成功，持安之畢事。形如槁木，心若死灰，無取無舍，寂滅之至。無心以定，而無所不定。故曰：泰定。庄子曰：「宇泰定者，發乎天光。」宇，心也，天光，慧也。心為道之區宇，虛靜至極，則道居而慧生。慧生出本性，非是人有，故曰「天光」。但以貪愛濁亂，遂至昏迷。性迷則慧不生。慧既生矣，寶而懷之，勿以多知而傷于定。非生慧難，慧而不用難。自古忘形者眾，忘名者寡。慧而不用，是忘名也，天下希及之，故為難。貴能不驕，富能不奢，為無俗過，故得常守富貴。定而不動，慧而不用，故得深証真常。庄子曰：「知道易，勿言難。知而不言所以天。知而言之所以人。古之人天而不人。」又曰：「古之治道者，以恬養智。智生而無以智為也，謂之以智養恬。智與恬交相養，而和理出其本性也。恬智則定慧也，和理則道德也。有智不用而安且恬，積而久之，自成道德。」自然震雷破山而不驚，白刃交前而不懼，視名利如過隙，知生死如潰瘤。用志不分，乃凝于神，心之虛妙，不可思議。
【釋義】
自我虛無靈明之通體，本自不動○唯獨無偶。只是道體所生之意識觀念，對萬紫千紅千般欲念，窮追猛趕，貪之不舍。悟透人生如幻，酒色財氣眼前樂，兩眼一閉萬有空。
為這個臭皮囊犧牲真明命，享一時的假歡樂，受萬年的真痛苦。認為是臭皮囊在享樂，其實是覺性感受。豈不知障蔽的是妙明光！定靜安慮慧自明，頓悟人間無真樂，樂極都傷悲。
只有道體○，安然自在永放光明，知真樂棄假樂，求理悟真宗，明了自然空。一切眼底過，身軀永無蹤。不明真道理，心態如何定。悟透社會人生如幻，不生不滅是真空。說一千道一萬，自心竩悟萬法通。
從古至今用心量，帝王將相，才子佳人，都在平民上，萬民之中好榮光。歸根到底看結果，都是灰土泥巴像。泰也如是，不泰也如是，何不自然自在悟真常。
八、論得道
【原文】
夫道者神異之事，靈而有性，虛而無象，隨迎不測，影響莫求，不知其然而然。至聖得之于古，妙法傳之于今。道有深力，徐易形神，形隨道通，與神合一，謂之神人。神性虛融，體無變滅，形以道通，故無生死。
隱則形同于神，顯則神同于氣。所以踏水火而無害，對日月而無影。存亡在己，出入無間。身為澤質，猶至虛妙，況其靈智益深益遠乎。生神經云：身神并一，則為真身。又西升經云：形神合同，故能長久。
然虛無之道，力有淺深，深則兼被于形，淺則惟及于心。被形者神人也。及心者但得慧覺，而身不免謝。何者？慧是心用，用多則心勞。初得小慧，悅而多辯神氣漏泄，無靈光潤身，遂至早終，道故難備。經云尸解，此之謂也。
是故大人舍光藏輝，以斯全備。凝神寶氣，學道無心，神與道合，謂之得道。經云：同于道者，道亦得之。山有玉，草木以之不凋。人懷道，形骸以之永固。資熏日久，變質同神。煉形入微，與道冥一。智照無邊，形超靡極。總色空而為用，舍造化以成功。真應無方，其惟道德。
【釋義】
道本無得無失，只因世人不知其真諦。道體是虛無大道賦予人類之覺性。老子說覺性是自然天地萬物中唯一之大神。孔子說妙覺靈通之理性。釋迦說天賦于眾生之無上正等正覺之心，是天賦的神通廣大，玄妙無邊之覺性。
上至諸佛，下至一切蒼生，皆含佛智。被氣稟所拘，物欲蒙蔽者謂之眾生。佛性不昧，不被人間一切形形色色所轉，頓悟人生，一切皆幻化無常之物，不求不貪謂之覺者。迷者若失，實無失。悟者明之，若得無得。
其神秘妙玄是天賦本能，人人如此，非筑修加功而成。原是金丹寶珠，因落塵緣，被塵污欲垢所埋。憑自妙明智慧，磨去塵污，除其欲垢，當即復明。如眼疾，去障復明，是本明，醫不增明。
道體礦中金，去礦精金，永不成礦，木若成灰，永不成木。一性圓明，永恆自然中，謂之極樂，千千不滅大覺仙，因人是神佛之種子，修者結果。得其正果謂得道，老子說上德無得。
九、論坐忘樞翼
【原文】
夫欲修道成真，先去邪僻之行。外事都絕，無以干心。然后內觀正覺。覺一念起，即須除滅。隨起隨滅，務令安靜。其次，雖非有貪著，浮游亂想，亦盡滅除。晝夜勤行，須臾不替。
惟滅動心，不滅照心，但凝空心，不凝住心。不依一法，而心常住。此法玄妙，利益甚深。自非夙有道緣，信心無二者不能。若有心傾至道，信心堅切，先受三戒，依戒修行，敬終如始，乃得真道。
其三戒者：一曰簡緣﹔二曰除欲﹔三曰靜心。勤行此三戒，而無懈退者，則無心求道，而道自來。經曰：人能常清淨，天地悉皆歸。由此言之，簡要之法，可不信哉！然則凡心躁競，其來固久，依戒息心，其事甚難。
或息之而不得，或暫停而旋失，去留交戰，百體流汗。久久行持，乃得調熟。莫以暫收不得，遂廢千生之業。少得靜己，則于行住坐臥之時，涉事喧鬧之所，皆須作意安之。有事無事，常若無心。處靜處喧，其志惟一。
如束心太急，則又成疾氣，發狂痴，是其候也。心若不動，又須放任寬急得中，常自調適。制而無著，放而不逸。處喧無惡，涉事無惱，此真定也。不以涉事無惱，故求多事。不以外喧無動。故來就喧。
以無事為真宅，以有事為應跡。若水與鏡，遇物見形。善巧方便，惟能入定。發慧遲速，則不由人。勿于定中急急求慧。求慧則傷性，傷性則無慧。不求慧而慧自生，此真慧也。慧而不用，實智若愚。
益資定慧，雙美無極。若定中念想，則多感眾邪百魅，隨心應現，惟今定心之上，豁然無覆﹔定心之下，曠然無基﹔舊孽日消，新業不造﹔無所纏礙，迥脫塵網，行而久之，自然得道。夫得道之人，心身有五時七候。
心有五時者：一、動多靜少﹔二、動靜相半﹔三、靜多動少﹔四、無事則靜，遇事仍動﹔五、心與道合，觸而不動。心至此地，始得安樂。罪垢滅盡，無復煩惱。
身有七候者：一、舉動順時，容色和悅﹔二、宿疾普消，身心清爽﹔三、填補夭傷，還元復命﹔四、延數千歲，名曰仙人﹔五、煉形為氣，名曰真人﹔六、煉氣成神，名曰神人﹔七、煉神合道，名曰至人。若久學定心，身無五時七候者，促靈穢質，色謝歸空，自云慧覺，復稱成道，實所未然。
【釋義】
人的眼耳鼻舌身意，對客觀的見聞覺知思想意識，好之惡之，記憶自然不同。萬象銘刻于衷，回憶童年歷歷在目。忘與不忘是自然的。靜是生命本能，無需用意識去作為，本自靈明智慧生，愚昧自滅。
老子說自然是道，無為是法，因本自清靜。不執著，不以為然，放任自流，自然心態無忘無不忘之意。自然無為對一切思想意識置之不理。比喻主不喜客，客無顏自退。不退主煩客不安。意執不忘心不安，忘心態意識得解放。
胡思亂想、海闊天空，異想天開，野鶴閑游，信馬游疆、放任自流、無動于衷。亂之極，動之極，即是定靜之自然。天下本無事，庸人自找之，心不起亂，亂從何生？心欲求靜，求者是亂。不思動不思靜，思想是何？自如是法，自然是道。不認自本心識自本性者，難入無為，見聞覺知之覺性，念念自如妄自消。
十、論坐忘銘
【原文】
常默元氣不傷，少思慧燭內光。不怒百神和暢，不惱心地清涼。不求無諂無媚，不執可圓可方。不貪便是富貴，不苟何懼君王。味絕靈泉自降，氣定真息日長。觸則形斃神游，想則夢離尸僵。氣漏形歸壟上，念漏神趨死鄉。
心死方得神活，魄滅然后魂強。博物難窮妙理，應化不離真常。至精潛于恍惚，大象混于渺茫。道化有如物化，鬼神莫測行藏。不飲不食不寐，是謂真人坐忘。
心忘念慮。即超欲界。心忘緣境，即超色界。心不著空，即超無色界。離此三界，神居仙聖之鄉，性在清虛之境矣。
張三丰曰：此王重陽祖師十論也。無極大道，盡寓其中。空青洞天，向多有仙真來游。遺留丹訣道言以去者，此亦度人覺世之心。重陽祖師之十論，亦本斯旨也。山中人得此訓言，又何必另尋瑤草，別采仙花。即此是長生藥、不老丹也。恭錄之，以示后之好道者。
【釋義】
呂祖說我性從來本自然，本來由我不由天。夜半鐵漢自思量，長生不死由人作。人生百年南柯夢，覺者自我撞晨鐘。道在聖傳修在己。德在人積命由天。蒼海云橫迷去路，悟者一步不離即西天。
喜怒哀思自心定，神聖仙佛種子自心田，靈苗生在自心內，外尋十萬八千無覓處。內觀抱元守一，一性圓明是自家。有求心外客，有法非自家。一個身心生萬法。道本虛無用法作什么？
心是礦中金，法是煉金火，金成，無火、無礦、也無金。物質本無性，符號名是金。真金本無染，皆因礦混金。自心有慧火，除礦金自精。有為皆假火，真火自慧根。不燒礦自滅，不煉本是金。
修煉是假名，取法昧自心。舍法不知義，不取不舍自家真。陽光是本能，云霧是外生。自心本清靜，客觀是外因。月照云霧散，心清除外因。不用有為法，無為我自真。
內修十論結語
三丰太極宗旨真， 千變萬化不離根。
揮手一劈陰陽掌， 轉身一動五行身。
長短平高低自如， 行站坐臥筑基深。
雨電風雷神氣象， 混元一體太極真。
Source Colophon
The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of this text (article 王重陽內修真訣, revision of 18 January 2024), inspected from a witness copy captured on 8 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the underlying source material this compilation draws upon is ancient and in the public domain, while the compilation's own commentary layer, as discussed in the colophon above, is of recent authorship. The wiki header and license templates have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.
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