The Internal Alchemy Dao De Jing Month 1: Chapter 1
Do you know that Neidan founder Zhang Boduan said the two most important Daoist documents are Dao De Jing and Yin Fu Jing?
Over the years many people have asked me what the most authoritative translation of the Dao De Jing is, but I always find it difficult to answer since the text has different meanings depending how it is applied. This is certainly true of the internal alchemy school, since the Dao De Jing is a root text of the entire tradition. I don't know about you, but my dream is to really master Daoist Internal Alchemy, in fact I would say it is my calling.
As such, between 2020 and 2024 a small group of us read the Dao De Jing and Dao De Jing Chan Wei, the only complete Neidan annotation of the famous Daoist text.
We met every week and broke the Dao De Jing down from an etymological perspective, using the help of ancient texts like Shuo Wen Jie Zi (an etymology document from early dynastic China which explains many warring states period and earlier characters) as well as other relevant modern resources such as popular current day commentaries on the Dao De Jing.
We also painstakingly studied and translated every chapter of Dao De Jing Chan Wei, a full length book that uses the Dao De Jing is the basis for Neidan practice and belongs to the famous Middle School of Huang Yuanji.
You might say that the Dao De Jing is a big deal to me and I want everyone to benefit from its timeless teachings and understand it as well as possible.
To that end I've decided to offer monthly courses for the next 81 months to review the full text in as much detail as possible, especially through the Neidan lens.
This November I launch month one of the program where we will read the first chapter in the following ways:
Week 1: Dao De Jing Chapter 1, character and meaning breakdown:
This week we will look at the essential meaning of chapter 1 including the precise meanings of all the characters, their construction, and etymology. We will bias our discussion towared internal alchemy practice and view the characters through the lens of meditation and the cultivation of nature and life doctirne.
Week 2: Dao De Jing Chapter 1 Wang Bi Annotation:
The Wang Bi Annotation is one of the most pouplar versions of the Dao De Jing and explains its key meaning in terms of the metaphysics that were popular in early dynastic China. Wang Bi is source material for many later Daoists, so it is useful to understand what he said about the text. Over the past several months we have been studying his version of the Book of Changes, so this section might be useful for students taking that course, or contemplating it in the future.
Week 3: Dao De Jing Chan Wei Chapter 1:
We will read and analyze Huang Yuanji's unique Neidan take on the Dao De Jing and how to apply it in practice.
Week 4: Modern Chinese Interpretations:
We will use modern literary interpretations of the Dao De Jing to clarify what present day researchers in China believe the text says. Daoist is a project, it doesn't only belong to Daoist priests and ancient people, in fact many universities have programs which focus on Daoist literature and greatly contribute to the overall body of Daoism, so modern views must not be excluded. For this week we will use various compiled resources to understand what modern scholars are thinking about the Dao De Jing in order to have a more complete and informed worldview.
That's the ad, I'm not going to hype it up any more than that since I'm satisfied that this will be a great program and if it speaks to you, you are genuinely interested in the Dao De Jing, and you like the study of meditation, I know this will be good for you.
Here is the information you need to know:
When: Sunday mornings at 10 AM in November starting Nov 2,
Where: ZOOM classroom,
What's included: Weekly PDF documents and lecture, as well as recorded version available for review or those who can't make it to class.
How much: $100 USD for the program.