Bai zi bei: Hundred Character Tablet
呂祖百字碑
To nourish the vital breath, keep watch in silence;
In order to subdue the mind, act with non-action.
Of movement and stillness, be aware of their origin;
There is no work to do, much less someone to seek.
The true and constant must respond to phenomena;
Responding to phenomena, you must be unconfused.
When unconfused, the nature will stabilize by itself;
When the nature stabilizes, energy returns by itself.
When energy returns, the elixir crystallizes by itself;
Within the pot, the trigrams of water and fire are joined.
Yin and yang arise, alternating over and over again;
Every transformation comes like a clap of thunder.
White clouds form and come to assemble at the peak;
Sweet nectar sprinkles down Mount Sumeru.
Swallowing for yourself this wine of immortality,
You wander so freely—who is able to know you?
Sit and listen to the tune played without strings,
Clearly understanding the mechanism of creation.
It comes entirely from these twenty lines—
A true ladder going straight to Heaven!