The Secret Teachings of Western Alchemy are Basically Eastern Cultivation Teachings in Disguise … An Analysis of Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens According to Zen, Taoism, Buddhism and Esoteric Teachings by Master Nan Huai-Chin A Workbook to Accompany the Audio Course by William Bodri www.MeditationExpert.com Atalanta Fugiens The Secret Teachings of Western Alchemy are Basically Eastern Cultivation Teachings in Disguise An Analysis of Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens, According to Zen, Taoism, Buddhism and Esoteric Teachings by Master Nan Huai-Chin As Related to William Bodri Copyright © 2005, William Bodri All Rights reserved in all media First edition 2005 Top Shape Publishing, LLC 1135 Terminal Way Suite 209 Reno, Nevada 89502 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, digital copying, printing, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the authors. www.MeditationExpert.com 2 Atalanta Fugiens Thanks Thanks go to the many people who made this work possible: Master Nan Huai-Chin for agreeing to give the lectures on these emblems. Zhao Hai-ying for her work in translating his teachings. Neil Tarvin for his ebook production of this text. John Newtson for editing this ebook. And finally, Nicholas-Hays for their kind permission to reprint the English translations of the Emblems found in Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens: Sources of an Alchemical Book of Emblems by H. M. E. de Jong. 3 Atalanta Fugiens Introduction Michael Maier was one of the few Renaissance alchemists who actually revealed genuine spiritual cultivation teachings in his writings. When you examine the alchemical works of various other alchemical authors, for a large majority of these works it’s quite doubtful whether their contents even reflect any true spiritual teachings or any stage of true spiritual accomplishment at all. In fact, many alchemy texts can be labeled as just useless flights of fancy which don’t correspond to any real ranks of spiritual progress. Some are just nonsense - pure spiritual fiction. Michael Maier’s work Atalanta Fugiens (1617) is a definite exception to this trend, as it contains proven cultivation (meditation or spiritual training) teachings that match perfectly with those commonly found in Eastern cultivation schools. The Atalanta Fugiens reveals many of the basic cultivation teachings of the East (found in Hinduism, yoga, Buddhism, Esoteric Buddhism, Zen, Tantra and Taoism), and itself proves that the same Eastern teachings have been independently rediscovered in the West … or were somehow passed to the West and incorporated into its various mystery schools. Because my personal goal has always been to prove the non- denominationality of the spiritual path and its common stages of spiritual accomplishment -- including the non-denominational teachings one must follow to achieve genuine spiritual progress -- I once asked Master Nan Huai-Chin to please interpret the prints of Michael Maier in order to glean from them their true cultivation content, if any. I asked this of Master Nan because he is widely recognized as an enlightened master by several traditions, which is rare indeed. These include the schools of Zen, Esoteric Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. If anyone could provide an authoritative commentary on the Atalanta Fugiens, surely he would know the meaning of this work if anyone would. As the Source Mirror states, an enlightened master can readily interpret and comment on most any genuine spiritual text. So while others would stare at some of these pictures trying to glean their meaning, in our conversations he was immediately able to tell what each picture was talking about with just one glance in conjunction with hearing the text. 4 Atalanta Fugiens Here’s what we know about the author of the alchemical work we will discuss, Michael Maier. Educated as a physician, Michael Maier was born at Rendsburg, Germany in 1568. He was educated at the University of Rostock in 1587, and later received his doctorate of medicine at Basel. He served as physician to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, and traveled extensively on diplomatic missions, making contacts with influential people interested in alchemy and Rosicrucianism. One of his friends was the Rosicrucian, Robert Fludd of Britain. Both Fludd and Maier used the same publishing house (DeBry) and same engraver and equally wished the spiritual revitalization of science and medicine. A classical scholar and writer, Maier was the author of numerous alchemical and Rosicrucian works, many illustrated with symbolic engravings of great beauty. These include Arcana Arcanissima (1614), Lusus Serius (1616), De Circulo Physico Quadrato (1616), Atalanta Fugiens (1617), Examen Fucorum Pseudo-Chymicum (1617), Jocus Severus (1617), Silentium Post Clamores (1617), Symbola Aurea Mensae Duodecim Nationum (1617), Themis Aurea (1618), Tripus Aureus (1618), Viatorum (1618), Tractatus de Volucri Arborea (1619), Verum Inventum (1619), Septimana Philosophica (1620), Civitas Corporis Humani (1621), Cantilenae Intellectuales de Phoenice Redivivo (1622), Ulysses (posth., 1624) and Subtilis Allegoria super Secreta Chymiae (posth., 1749). Maier's most celebrated work is Atalanta Fugiens, which is the one we will be studying. It was first published in Latin and contains 50 engravings called “emblems,” which you’ll see reproduced in this free ebook. This ebook was produced to accompany a set of audio tapes I’ve recorded (available at http://www.meditationexpert.com/) that contain extensive discussions on the meanings of the emblems as well as related spiritual teachings that correspond to the emblems. Through these audio lessons you’ll not only learn the meaning of the emblems, but also basic cultivation teachings that would take years to learn. It’s quite interesting to learn the basic teachings of yoga, Buddhism, Taoism or the Esoteric school by looking at pictures made by a Western medieval alchemist who, as evidenced by his pictures, had definitely attained some degree of spiritual accomplishment. Now let’s get to the symbols themselves, which you can see in this ebook. 5 Atalanta Fugiens Each individual emblem in the Atalanta Fugiens has a verse and epigram associated with it. In this book, sometimes two different translations of the verse are given. Each emblem is also accompanied by a short discourse on its symbolism that contains classical mythological allusions. While the meaning of these verses and their longer stanzas has stumped people for centuries, the meaning becomes perfectly clear when one matches the pictures and their verses with standard cultivation teachings. Hence, the information provided in these audio tapes will clear up many misconceptions on alchemy and spiritual transformation that have been around for centuries. To give an example of the interpretation of the pictures, go now to see the first emblem which shows a bearded man composed of wind. The man is carrying a fetus, or gestating child, within his belly. According to Zen Master Nan Huai Chin, the image is a symbol of the fact that devoted meditation or spiritual practice cultivates the chi (also known as qi, prana, wind element or vital energy) of our physical body, and because of this cultivation our physical body can experience a rebirth or renewal. That’s one of the meanings of the baby, but there’s a second one as well. Our physical body, as it transforms due to the purifying practices of spiritual cultivation (meditation), can also develop an inner chi body that in time can leave our physical shell and travel the universe at will. This capability of the body is based on its chi, or life energies, and the interplay of those energies with consciousness. You can find out more about these things in How to Measure and Deepen Your Spiritual Realization. The big thing to remember is that we can cultivate our life force and its capabilities, and most spiritual traditions agree on this fact. Unfortunately, the accomplishment of this feat is usually only achieved by devoted spiritual cultivators -- call them what you want … adepts, initiates, prophets, gurus, masters, saints, immortals, sages or whatever. This chi body is also what Western mysticism commonly refers to as an astral body, though there are many types of chi bodies with varying capabilities that are dependent upon someone’s level of spiritual cultivation. At the earliest stages of spiritual practice, this chi body is invisible whenever its owner projects it, and Taoism calls it a “yin shen” because of its invisibility. At a much higher stage of spiritual cultivation, the “yin shen” is able to assume a visible, palpable, tangible form you can 6 Atalanta Fugiens actually touch or feel, and thereupon becomes known as a “yang shen projection body,” or “yang shen emanation body.” This “yang shen” emanation body refers to the “double” often seen of Eastern spiritual saints, or the bilocution paranormal phenomenon catalogued by Roman Catholicism. So whether this chi body is visible or not determines whether it is a “yin shen” or “yang shen.” There are even varying levels, or degrees of accomplishment, for yin shen and yang shen attainments, such as whether a yang shen can transport physical objects from one place to another and places where they can or cannot travel. To succeed in spiritually cultivating the yin shen or yang shen, which requires three years of devoted meditation practice according to Taoism, involves cultivating one’s chi, prana or vital energies by resting the mind from thoughts and abiding in “mental emptiness without clinging.” This is why we see the symbolism of the wind in this first emblem. The wind simply refers to the cultivation of chi, which is known by all sorts of etheric names in various spiritual traditions. Remember that cultivating your chi is the most rudimentary stage of spiritual progress. Afterwards comes the cultivation of shen, or “spirit,” whereas cultivation of chi refers to cultivation of the “soul” and coarse consciousness. The cultivation of chi, or the “wind element” of the body, is the grossest physical-spiritual essence one cultivates at the very lowest stages of the spiritual path. When cultivating your chi you are usually cultivating your chi channels, chakras and cleansing your mind of mental pollutants. There is a definite series of requirements and general sequence to the transformations that occur from this process; if you cultivate them correctly then you will achieve this kung-fu and if you don’t cultivate meditation correctly then you won’t. It’s as simple as that. Regardless of your spiritual tradition, the very earliest stages of the spiritual path always involve purifying the body and cultivating your chi, or life force, through one form of spiritual exercise or another, most of which involve one-pointed concentration or the emptying of thoughts. Whether you involve yourself with concentrating on a religious figure to achieve one-pointedness, listening to mantras or prayers (japa practice) to tire the mind, watching your mind dispassionately so that your thoughts naturally subside, or using other cultivation methods, they all involve quieting, pacifying, stilling or emptying the mind of excessive wandering thoughts and discursive thinking. You can use all sorts of meditation methods to accomplish this, but they all rely on the practice of cessation-contemplation (watching 7 Atalanta Fugiens thoughts until they subside) in one form or another, if you practice correctly and according to the correct meditation principles. If you practice your spiritual exercises incorrectly - no matter what your tradition - then all your meditation work and other forms of religious practice will basically be in vain. In that case, they’ll only amount to a little bit of merit-making and of course, if you don’t engage in any sort of advanced spiritual practice that involves the principles of meditation, then you will not attain any higher states of spiritual development, despite what religious authorities (without kung-fu) may promise you. That’s what’s called a “wasted life” if you are truly inclined to make spiritual progress. Now anyone can develop the yin shen attainment if they cultivate correctly. It’s a common capability of the human body, and privy to no single tradition, race, sex or any sort of denomination whatever. To do so, however, requires proper meditation practice (along the lines usually provided by most spiritual traditions, when interpreted correctly) and the discipline of non-leakage, which means not losing one’s sexual energies. You can find more information on the website (http://www.meditationexpert.com/articles.html) that discusses this topic in depth. Basically your seminal or generative energies, called jing, must transform into chi but if you let them keep leaking away, you cannot transform your sexual energies into the spiritual energies required for the spiritual path. They’re required for opening up your chi channels and for the formation of your inner chi body, among other things. Taoism describes this cultivation process in detail, including the stages of “laying the foundation,” “pregnancy” and “suckling the baby” that correspond to generating a yang shen emanation body from beginning to end. In Tibetan Buddhism, this is the generation of a coarse and then purified illusory body. In Buddhism this involves “cultivation of the five elements” … This is the sort of short synopsis revealed in the audio tapes for Atalanta Fugiens, though the audios contain much more information. In the audio set, each of the fifty emblems is discussed in turn using an interpretation that was supplied by Master Nan and supplemented with extra commentary to make things more clear. Basically, the printed emblem images of the Atalanta Fugiens are some of the most useful alchemical images found anywhere as they retell of the principles, story, stages and practices of spiritual cultivation, though 8 Atalanta Fugiens in no particular sequential order. They retell the same transformative lessons taught by yoga, Taoism, Buddhism and Tantra (Esoteric Buddhism) for anyone on the spiritual path of true cultivation practice. With this book you’ve now got them in front of you for free and if you know enough about spiritual cultivation, you’ll be able to interpret quite a few of them correctly. Why not try it and see how many you can get right according to the teachings of dependable cultivation schools? Go ahead … it’s fun! If you’ve read How to Measure and Deepen Your Spiritual Realization, Tao and Longevity, or The Insider’s Guide to the World’s Best and Worst Spiritual Paths and Practices, then some of these stages will become immediately apparent. The emblems of the Atalanta Fugiens are widely known to students of alchemy, but their interpretations along the lines we’ve just discussed are practically unknown. Check the literature and you won’t find anything like these audio lessons. Nevertheless if you are a Christian and cultivate correctly, as did Padre Pio, you will pass through the very same stages and attain the very same states of kung-fu accomplishments as shown in these emblems. If you are Jewish and cultivate correctly, as have many Kabbalists, you will also attain the same states of spiritual kung-fu. If you are a Moslem and cultivate correctly, you will experience these same states of attainment yourself. And so on it goes…spiritual progress is non-denominational, no one holds a patent on the process, no one tradition holds a monopoly, no one group is “saved” or “liberated” or “chosen.’ You choose yourself, and you either succeed in cultivation due to your own efforts, or just let the winds of karma and reincarnation keep controlling you according to a perfect cause-and-effect process. Hence, you have to wipe away the thought that only your religious path is the correct one in the world. In fact, your own path might even be deficient. Anyone can succeed at cultivation if they meditate correctly, so no matter what religion, school, or sect you follow, you can use Michael Maier’s symbols to help guide you through the bottom rung, rudimentary and middle level teachings of the cultivation process. From these emblems you’ll see that even Western alchemy has discovered the very same spiritual processes that have been catalogued in the East and for good reason--because it’s human being science. It’s because they do exist and because the highest calling of a human being is to cultivate so as to realize one’s original nature, and 9 Atalanta Fugiens through that process you will naturally achieve these phenomena and stages without effort. This workbook and associated set of audio lessons is the first reliable study of alchemical emblems along the lines of Buddhism, Taoism, and other Eastern cultivation schools ever compiled. You won’t find these materials elsewhere. Once again, the teachings come from the highly accomplished Zen, Taoist and Esoteric master Nan Huai-Chin -- author of Tao and Longevity and some thirty other Chinese works -- rather than from a scholar with just intellectual understanding. Scholars are rarely good guides to cultivation texts because being dependent on intellectualization as a career, they hardly ever achieve any stage of spiritual realization or even low stage kung-fu themselves. Intellectualization and dependence on coarse discriminative thinking are the very antithesis of the path. They are the very opposite of the genuine stages of spiritual cultivation which involve wordless knowing. As admirable and honorable as they may be for their studies and understanding, scholars and intellectuals have often destroyed an understanding of the true cultivation contents of many traditions, interjecting strange ideas where there were no such original intentions. Chu Hsi, for instance, destroyed the cultivation content of Confucianism due to his intellectual interpretations of Confucius. Various preachers, pastors and theologians - without any spiritual attainments whatsoever- - have invented strange interpretations to shape Christian dogma that have gone on to influence politics for the worse. Talmud scholars have wasted lives studying laws and creating interpretations that have deviated farther and farther from teaching the true path of spiritual cultivation. Buddhism and Taoism have been destroyed by scholars arguing over the meaning of this or that rather than spending their time cultivating to reach the higher spiritual states championed by their saints. And once again, so on it goes as you need merit and wisdom to spiritually cultivate correctly … Despite all this, a purity of non-denominational transformation teachings and sequences of spiritual cultivation are surprisingly revealed through the pictures in Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens, but few people know of these secrets. Having seen them, I felt this was a rare chance to once again prove the commonality of true spiritual training teachings across traditions. It’s the same old common set of principles and teachings, but simply passed around in a different bottle. 10