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Joint Functions of Spirit and Breath

Spirit is fire and breath is wind. If you want to understand the subtle workings of wind and fire, you must calm the spirit and regulate the breath. The spirit needs to be still before it can embody the light, and the breath must be regulated before it can receive the true vapor. While the spirit should be stilled, it must also be able to move and follow the breath naturally. We can compare this to stoking a fire in a furnace. When we pump the bellows, air is turned into wind, and with each pumping, the fire gets hotter. When the fire is hot, it can transform metal. In the tempering of metal, it is the wind that fans the fire, not the fire that fans the wind.

There is one important key to this process. If you want to pump the air in bursts, you must position the bellows close to the furnace, so that there is little time between when air is being pushed in and when it is sucked through the bellows. Only then can the fire of the furnace turn blue and burn hot. The activities of focusing the spirit and gathering the vapor are similar to tempering metal. The breath needs to be directed at kan; this means that you must position the bellows close to the furnace in order to help the wind fan the fire. When the fire in the furnace is ignited and the bright flames are dancing about, the spirit will become vapor. This vapor is the medicine. When the fire tempers the iron, the iron will become one with the fire. This is what the sage Qingguan meant when he said that the fire is the medicine and the medicine is the fire. When fire and medicine interact and merge, the golden pill will materialize. However, if the breath is not directed deep inside but instead is routed through the throat, mouth, or nostrils, nothing will happen: It is equivalent to positioning the bellows far from the furnace. We can only pity those who make this terrible mistake.