True earth arrests true lead;
True lead controls true mercury.
Lead and mercury return to true earth;
Body and mind are tranquil and still.
— Zhang Boduan, Four-Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir

This little verse contains everything one needs to know to awaken. However, understanding the meaning is not an easy task and requires a conscious teacher. And then one needs to practice it. 

The Parable of the Sower in the Bible (Matthew 13:1-23) speaks about a sower (the steward or the mind ruler) who sows seeds. A seed represents the impulse to start self-awareness, when one notices one is asleep and not aware of oneself.  Some seeds fell on a path with no soil and the birds ate them; some fell on rocky ground with little soil. And some fell on thorns and the thorns choked them.

The different places where seeds fall represent the psychological places where seeds cannot find soil to grow roots. This means the impulse to start self-awareness cannot sustain itself and is quickly squashed.  Birds represent I’s engaged in external activity. These I’s are not interested in self-awareness; because of identification, the external activity at hand is more important. The parable then continues with seeds that fell on good soil. 

Through continuous prayer, the words of the psalms are brought down into the heart, and then the heart, like good soil, begins to produce by itself divine flowers. — Philokalia, Ilias the Presbyter

Sustaining self-awareness is like praying to one’s inner god and asking it to be present. When the seed falls on good soil–meaning the heart–it can take root and grow into a flower. 

Deep within the cave of the heart, there is a lotus in bud. – Uddhava Gita

Earth, the good soil, is an anagram for heart. In the Fourth Way teaching, the ‘heart’ lies within the emotional center. It has three parts: a mechanical, emotional, and intellectual part. Speaking in this way about the heart refers to the intellectual part of the emotional center.  

The true earth is not material earth; it is the true intent.  True intent controls the vital spirit, and occupies and guards the center of the being. — Liu Yiming, Commentary on Four-Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir

The Chinese ideograph for ‘intent’ is yi- 意. It comprises  心 – heart, 日 – sun, and立 – rise.

True intent means the intent to make one’s inner sun rise in one’s heart: to awaken one’s Real I. In contrast, errant intent refers to all other impulses in one’s heart. These impulses enter from outside, through the senses, and always only relate to a small part of one’s being.

Perhaps I see something in a shopping window and want to buy it, or I hear a piece of music and want to learn how to play it. Because it happens in a state of sleep, it is ‘errant.’  When Real I is awake, the same impulses or activities are no longer errant, because one no longer identifies with them. They no longer create a false identity, because one’s true identity is present. True intent aims to awaken one’s true identity, the spirit that exists beyond the body. 

True lead is not ordinary material lead, but spiritual lead, referring to true awareness; also true sense. Normally, people sense the world through the five senses and the human mind. What one perceives through the five senses stimulates thoughts and emotions that create a veil that blocks Real I from entering the present.  

True lead is not ordinary material lead, but the formless, immaterial, true sense of the awareness of reality. This true sense is strong and unbending, able to ward off external affliction and able to stop aberrations. Because its light illumines myriad things, we call it the golden flower. Because it conceals light within darkness (the trigram Water ☵), we call it metal in water.  –– Liu Yiming, Commentary on Four-Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir

True lead is the yang line in the trigram Water ☵. This true sense of the awareness of reality begins when one sweeps away the many I’s and keeps warding them off so they can’t interrupt self-awareness. This requires true earth. When the seed of self-awareness has good soil, it takes root and grows into a golden flower.  When the heart supports self-awareness, bringing forth true intent and love and gratitude for the gift of self-awareness, one is able to sustain it. That’s why the quote says, “True earth arrests true lead.” 

True mercury is not ordinary material mercury, but the formless immaterial spiritual essence of conscious awareness in the human body. Because it is yang outside and yin inside (the trigram Fire  ☲), we call it the beautiful girl. Because its light is penetrating, we also call it the flowing pearl.  — Liu Yiming, Commentary on Four-Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir

True mercury is the yin line in the hexagram Fire ☲. Material mercury is something lively, active and buoyant. It easily runs off.  At 20°, it is liquid, and starts to evaporate. Therefore it is a symbol for the awareness of Real I, the original spirit in Taoist alchemy.  

The awareness of Real I is very difficult to stabilize and requires the firmness of the steward, represented as true lead. That’s why the quote says, “True lead controls true mercury.”  As soon as one pays attention to an incoming thought, this interrupts the effort of the steward and true mercury flies off again.

True intent, true sense, and spiritual essence are the three jewels in our bodies–represented by  true earth, true lead, and true mercury. These three jewels have a primordial, whole, unified energy. This energy is complete, without any defect. This cannot be called intent, sense, or essence – it is all one reality. But when it mixes with temporally acquired conditioning, the single energy divides into three. — Liu Yiming, Commentary on Four-Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir

Walther Sell is the author of a website on Oriental esoteric teachings and the Fourth Way. For more, see his page, Inner Journey to the West.
See other articles by Walther for the FourthWayToday.org.