The Fifth day of the Fifth Lunar month
Right after the New Moon of the Fifth Month of the Chinese traditional calendar, students gathered from the Ten Directions at the Five Immortals Temple to attend the Internal Alchemy course.
The course is extremely intensive, with deep mind-blowing content.
Sitting meditation is the fundamental practice of Internal Alchemy, and as such a lot of time is dedicated every day to offer guidance to students in their practice and answer their many questions.
During the first theory classes, students were introduced to the meaning of Internal Alchemy, its differences with Yoga and other spiritual methods, and its history from its origins to its present condition. They then studied the steps of the process of the Way of the Elixir (丹道 Dan Dao), including the Five refinements and transformations; as well as the profound Theory of Point Zero.
The Fifth day of the Fifth Lunar month is a special day in China. It is a cultural festival that celebrates the birthday of the Medicine King (药王 Yao Wang). On that day, the rising Yang Qi of summer is reaching a high peak, and all over China people pick Mugwort, also called Artemisia (艾叶 Ai Ye), a powerful Chinese medicinal herb used for moxibustion. Furthermore, on that day, all herbs are blessed by the Medicine King and are considered to hold more healing power.
At the temple, all the students of the temple gathered at dawn to go pick Artemisia and many other medicinal herbs, so as to dry them and store them for later use. Bathing in the fragrance of the medicinal herbs, students worked wholeheartedly in the morning sunlight, before returning to their intensive study of the deepest topics of Daoist cultivation.
