How Fabrizio Pregadio errs on Taoist Neidan alchemy training: Why Wuji is Taiji

UPDATE: I think I have figured out the secret - Pregadio states the "hub" is actually the New Moon. I have since figured out how this enables "lining up" the essence of the solar and lunar energy as he claims the New Moon does in Daoist alchemy literature.  https://elixirfield.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-moon-as-logoshermesyin-qi.html

Hello,

All I can say at the moment is:

(1) Wuji is a stage above Taiji. It is, as you say, a "static" timeless Emptiness.

(2) Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 does not discuss this stage. He only says it is the root of Taiji.

(3) In the Daoist interpretation of the “old” Taiji picture, the empty circle at the center is the Wuji.

(4) The purpose is to show that, at the center of Yin and Yang, there is Emptiness.

(5) This means that Yin and Yang allow Emptiness to operate (用) in space and time.

(6) Unlike Neo-Confucianism, Daoism says that Wuji and Taiji are ultimately equivalent.

I completely agree with you that there is a connection between cosmology and music.

Fabrizio Pregadio <fabrizio.pregadio@fau.de>	4:53 PM (56 minutes ago)
to me

From the point of view of Wuji, there is no difference with Taiji. — From the point of view of Taiji, it is lower than Wuji.

This is the mystery about which all traditions speak about.

Fabrizio

Fabrizio Pregadio	5:14 PM (37 minutes ago)
to me

Fabrizio Pregadio

5:16 PM (35 minutes ago)

I don’t know why Zong Mi shows the Taiji without the “empty circle” Maybe he wanted to show something else.

...................................................................................................

Pregadio referenced this image of the Tai Chi in his Cantong Qi: The Seal of the Unity of the Three analysis
 

 
He stated that the "hub" was the Emptiness and the yin-yang then revolved around that hub.
 
But that is not the oldest image of the Tai Chi - it is a later Song derivation.
 

 
So here is the oldest image of the Tai Chi.
 
Notice the difference.
 
NO HUB OF EMPTINESS.
 
It's yin-yang all the way down.
 
Eternally.
 
https://chinesemedicalclassics.wordpress.com/tag/tai-chi/
 
Now last night I posted the discussion of the "later" image of the  Tai Chi with the supposed hub.
 
The author who made that image spent his life clarifying that Wuji IS Taichi.
 

  Quote

"The Emptiness from which existence comes forth is the central hub." p. 5

 
Wrong.
 
http://www.academia.edu/8144785/Creation_and_Its_Inversion_Cosmos_Human_Being_and_Elixir_in_the_Cantong_qi_The_Seal_of_the_Unity_of_the_Three_
 
Pregadio is relying on the wrong meaning of the original Tai Chi symbol.

So then Buddhists cling to Pregadio using terms that lead Buddhists to incorrectly claim Taoism is based on a static timeless origin of reality - and that immortality means a person exists in this timeless realm and then interacts from this static timeless realm into the "illusion" of spacetime.

I have explained in great detail why this is not accurate but the above image difference simplifies the argument and clarifies the error that Pregadio made. See the side bar of this blog for more details on why wuji is Taiji.

Dr. Pregadio: Thank you for sharing your responses. In the book "Foundations on Internal Alchemy" it states this: "The whole process is ruled by Spirit....It's movement in 'non-doing' is called Original Spirit." I would like to explain that secret to you, in my opinion. Do you know this book in Chinese? "Theory on Yuan Qi of Taiji"

In the Theory on Yuan Qi of Taiji: "Taiji refers to the state of integrated yuan qi before the separation of heaven and earth. It is the great beginning and the great one." The state before the "separation of heaven and earth" is "wuji" which is mixed and blurry, when qi is generated and distributed to make "yuan qi integrated as one," namely "taiji."

The Mind Inside Tai Chi: Sustaining a Joyful Heart

By Henry Zhuang
2015, YMAA 

If you read the essay I referred to (Zhu Xi's Metaphysical System and the Role of the Taji (Great Ultimate) by Kim Han-Sang, 2013) it is quite clear Zhu Xi is emphatic that Taiji is wuji - at the same time. Not "prior." For me this completely is understandable in terms of noncommutative phase. As you state, in alchemy there is "forward" and "backward" processes at the same time as continual processes. That is noncommutative phase.

You have agreed about music theory and taoism which is my specialty. There is a very amazing cover-up of noncommutative phase in music theory. So I tried to explain this to you. But Louis de Broglie rediscovered this with his Law of Phase Harmony. So if shen is light, then when shen is turned around, then time is zero but, as de Broglie discovered, there is still noncommutative phase that is from the future - as quantum entanglement and also as reverse entropy energy.

So Zong Mi emphasized that qi, from the Zhou Dynasty character, qi means to put shen under jing or fire under water to create steam. So when the light is turned around, the shen is put under jing to create steam as reverse entropy - or qi energy that is what Master Yan Xin calls a "virtual information field." So it is the secret of reversing aging, bigu, levitation, precognition, yang shen, etc.

Sorry I realize that is not very clear - but I hope you read that 2013 essay on Zhu Xi about his emphasize on how the Taiji is the wuji - and the wuji is the Taiji. I think the "hub" metaphor too easily becomes a static sense of space that is actually from a Western classical physics view point.

So in science it is now stated EPR=ER which means that 4D spacetime arises from micro quantum virtual black holes, as Noble physicist Gerard t'Hooft states (Feb. 2017). So the neidan (qigong) masters can leave their bodies at will by turning the light around, so their individual spirit merges with universal spirit, as zero time of light. Again light has no rest mass but does have a 'Hidden momentum" that is reverse entropy phonon energy - and so this is why it is stated Yuan Qi is formless and the Taiji. In  other words there is continual motion of qi energy as the Taiji that is wuji at the same time. There are two time clocks - one from the future that then changes the past to harmonize the present.

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions,

thanks,

drew hempel, M.A.