金蓋山=Jinggeishan School; 黃中直透=the direct method of the Yellow Path; 《天仙心傳》=the book of tianxian xinchaun; 天仙= tianxian; 玄關一竅= the aperture of xuanguan the mysterious gate
The main task of this paper is to elucidate and to analyze the manual entitled tianxian xinchaun, an esoteric transmission of the way to become celestial immortals. It also intends to reconstruct the conception of the cultivation of becoming celestial immortals, tianxian, of the Jinggeishan School, a sect of Longmen School and Mm Yide was the fourth patriarch of the Sect of Jinggeishan, as well as the eleventh Longmen patriarch. The manual tianxian xinchuan which consists of an oral transmission of the ways to achieve the transformation of men into celestial immortals, is kept secret outside the teacher-student lineage in the sense that certain esoteric techniques only occur directly from teacher to student. On the ground of the secrecy and its esoteric character, a theoretical and contextual hermeneutics is necessary. The dandao conception of the Jinggeishan School diverged obviously from the traditional neidan-dao. Instead of the model of sancheng (the three Vehicles), which consists of the so called the transformation of jing (which means created and uncreated human essence) into qi, the transformation of qi into shen (spirit), and the transformation of the spirit into spatial comos, the Jinggeishan School emphasizes the direct way to identify the practitioner's spirit with dao, which is called tianxian by Mm Yide by means of the elimination of desires and volition on the one hand, and the cultivation of undifferentiated openness and equality within all beings (hunhua) on the other. At the stage of the transformation offing into qi, the traditional neidan-dao draws attention to xianming shuangxiu, a doctrine for human nature and longevity , which is based on the nourishing the small orbit of the rendu channeling (xiao zhoutian) as well as the big orbit (da zhoutian), while the Jinggeishan School lays great emphasis on refinement of the yellow path (huadao) which is called central channel or sushumna by the Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism and runs from muladhara chakra at the bottom to ajna chakra at the top. Since the Jinggeishan School has not provided us a description of the yellow path in detail, the author suggest that it is not only good for the dandao practitioners to know the Vajrayana model of central channel, but also can take advantage of it if the practitioners try to practice the so-called celestial immortals or the so-called tianxian in Chinese, The Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, properly speaking, refers basically to Dzogchen and Chagehen, The central practice of Dzogchen teaching, for example, involves manipulating the vital force through concentration upon the the lower chakra, and by means of intense visualization, one can activate the internal qi (winds) drawn into the central channel where real tumo (heat) is produced. As the result of the heat, the drops flow in the central channel and the practitioners achieve the stage of great bliss.
