百日筑基
hundred days basic practice:
初节炼精化气功夫，名日小成筑基。
The beginning stage of changing essence to qi is called “small achievement basic practice”
夫筑基之功，调药补精，炼精化气。
This basic practice is how to adjust the medicine and repair the essence, refine the essence and change it to Qi.
收心以还虚，即收神固精养气之诀也。
It is the method of concealing your mind and return it to emptiness, and then conceal your spirit so that the essence is nurtured and becomes Qi.
身内精气充实，骨髓坚强，方可入室下功，而求返还之道也。
Inside the body, essence and Qi when full enough will make the bones and marrow hard and strong, then you can enter the room and begin your work, and summon turning over into the Dao.
养气固精，及止念方敬， 观心存诚之功。
To Nurture the Qi and make the essence strong you must stop your thoughts and focus on reverence. It is the work of observing the mind and maintaining sincerity.
从晨至暮，涤滤洗心，退藏于密，回风混合，心目内观，主静立极，不使有一毫之累，留于方寸。
From morning to night, purify the thoughts and wash the mind, withdraw and hide in mystery. Return the wind so it mixes chaotically together. The mind’s eye looks within, command quiet and maintain this to the utmost. Do not allow even a thread of action to affect you, and remain firm in place.
涵养于不有不无之中。
Nurturing in concealment meets in the centre of “not present” and “not void.”
外无所着，内无所思，空空 洞洞，虚虚灵灵，心不得随缘而放驰也。
The outside affects nothing, the inside contains no thoughts, most empty, and wide open, utterly void, and completely illuminated, the mind does not follow its destiny and must stop from galloping away.
昔日逢师传口诀，只教凝神入气穴，正谓此也。
In ancient times, the teachers passed on these poems, and taught how to collect the spirit in the “Qi cave.” This is the correct way:
气穴即命门，正在脊骨第七节之下，脐后肾前，前七分，后三分，两肾中 间，左属水，右属火。
The “Cave of qi” is also the “life gate.” It is under the seventh vertebrae of the spine, behind the navel and in front of the kidneys. In front by seven measures and behind by three measures, in the centre between the two kidneys. Left represents water, right represents fire.
其中空悬一穴，上通泥丸，下贯涌泉，为先天大道之祖，逐日生气之根，产铅之地。
In the centre there is one cavity hanging in emptiness which connects above to the brain and below passes to the “eternal spring.” It is the ancestor of the way of Pre heaven. It chases the sun and is the root from which energy is born. It is the earth from which lead is born.
而千变万化之道，神妙莫测之机，尽从此出。
And the thousand changes and ten thousand transformations of the Dao, the subtle mechanism of the spirit which cannot be fathomed, come completely from this place.
故日：此窍 非凡窍，乾坤共合成，名为神气穴，内有坎离精。道家曰气穴，
医家曰命门。
It is said: this oracle is not a normal oracle, it is where heaven and earth both come from and harmonize with one another. It is called the “Spirit energy cavity.” Inside it has the essence of water and fire. Daoism refers to this as the “Qi xue,” and Chinese medicine calls it “the life gate.”
命门旺，十二经皆旺。命门衰，十二经皆衰。命门生，则人生。命门绝，则人死矣。
The life gate illuminated, illuminates the twelve channels. If the life gate collapses, the twelve channels also collapse. The life gate born gives rise to the birth of people. Losing the life gate means you will perish.