ABSTRACT
The religious scene was as colourful as could be wished, but it took time to discover the remnants of beauty and wisdom that lay behind a facade of all-too-human gods and laughably ugly demons. There were a few Taoists who employed the ‘alchemy’ with the intention of becoming so immersed in the Tao that the last remnants of duality between the transient individual and the Ultimate Source would vanish. And some Taoists are wonderfully skilful in teaching how to achieve a joyous and vigorous old age. Each of the Three Teachings – Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism – is admirable in its way. In Taoist hermitages could still be found recluses who cultivated the Tao by seeking, through a process known as the ‘internal alchemy’, to create within themselves the embryo of a spirit body into which they could pass at death.
