20. In Chan Buddhism this experience is described in terms of "melting" or
"unlocking" to indicate a transition from bondage to freedom.
21.-25. The six senses are the faculties of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling,
feeling, and thinking. Not using the six senses is believed to be the most
excellent form of hygiene, both mental and physical, practiced by Taoists
to restore and preserve spirit and energy. Paragraphs 21 to 23 describe
three levels of profundity in experience of the same exercise; paragraph
25 illustrates their interpenetration. This scheme of three stages, each
also containing three, or a total of nine, stages, derives from the teaching
of the ninth-century Chan master Linji, who was regarded as the founder
of virtually all the lines of Chan Buddhism extant at the time of the
writing of The Secret of the Golden Flower.
26. The three and nine stages are spoken of in relation to the subjective
experience of the practitioner, but all are objectively of the same source.
The "interval of a world cycle" means the interval between stirring of mind
and return to quiescence.
27. "Action caused by momentum is random action, not essential action."
This means that one should learn to act objectively, first quieting the mind
so as to be able to act from a state of cool clarity rather than by impulse.
Wilhelm translates, "One moves the movement and forgets the movement;
this is not movement in itself" It is not clear what he thought this might
have meant.
