Nei-tan

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Nei-tan. Interior alchemy or inner elixir. Contrasted with Wai-tan (exterior alchemy), or techniques of concocting the elixir of immortal transcendency by cooking certain substances in a cauldron. In Nei-tan the ‘substances’ are the basic elements of life—chʾi (vital breath), ching (generative essence), and shen (spirit)—and the ‘cauldron’ is the practitioner's own body. Important in the development of Nei-tan was Chang Po-tuan (984–1082), who shifted the emphasis away from chemical transmutation to interior achievement of immortality (see his Wu-chen pʾien, Essay on the Awakening to the Truth).

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