At one point a crisis was ignited within me: did I need to learn Chinese in order to truly plumb the depths of daoist alchemy? Was this alchemical world of transmuting elements and pulsating currents of energy, at its deepest levels, an exclusive club for the Chinese speaking, as some Chinese claim? Was daoist alchemy a product of Chinese culture? Or was it the other way around, that Chinese language and culture were somehow shaped by an alchemical process imbedded within the deep language of Nature? I chose to spend my time practicing alchemy rather than learning classical chinese; better to rely on scholars fully dedicated to translation. But would it lessen my mastery of alchemy?

I learned enough Chinese to see their pictographs are visually richer in association than western alphabets and thus facilitate grasping the multiple meanings of obscure daoist terms. But they are still intermediary written images, interpreted by the mind's visual functions, and don't by themselves open communication with the deep language patterns underlying them. If speaking Chinese did this automatically, everyone in China would be enlightened. Alchemy also uses an intermediary language, but it is mostly not spoken nor written. This language consists of qi channels in the body and in nature, resonating spheres of sensation, feeling, and perceived spiritual qualities. It requires observation of natural processes within one's body and in physical nature, and sometimes employs these natural images as language symbols. Together these evoke and shape silent language patterns within an omnipresent qi field. The written symbols of the I Ching are used by many adepts as a concise shorthand for describing alchemical processes, but it is not necessary to study the I Ching to practice the seven formulas of One Cloud.

A separate, but related question: is Chinese a sacred or initiatic language, with its four tonal inflections suggesting a resonance to the four elements (fire, water, metal, wood) and the central fifth element earth, the tone or voice of the speaker giving it mind intent (yi)? Speaking such an initiatic language in Five Phase (wu xing) tones might in ancient times have been viewed as a way to shape shift the local qi field or energetically manage the forces of human culture. For nei dan initiates speech can be a shortcut to activating directional qi flow or summoning ancestral spirits. But could not English be used for such a purpose if imbued with correct intent?

Biology is a factor in language, both spoken and deep. A fascinating study suggests one's spoken language may control brain hemisphere dominance. This study, conducted in Japan, showed that Japanese speakers processed vowel sounds and intuitive feelings in their left brain, the opposite of westerners. But westerners raised from an early age with Japanese language shifted to left brain intuition. (8) This raises the question whether Chinese speaking nei dan adepts might also have a different pattern of resonance with nature than westerners, reflected in the dominant qualities they resonate with, i.e. sun vs. moon, water vs. fire. Daoism is described as the "watercourse way". Daoist cultures appear more intuitive than western culture, which may facilitate introspection and sensing inner body space. This may be an example of how one's surface language biologically "wires" one into the deep language.

I finally concluded that the only language I needed to learn daoist alchemy would arise spontaenously through my heartfelt and sincere meditation practice of the seven alchemical formulas of Immortality. Due to the organized teaching of One Cloud's formulas in the west since 1981, many tens of thousands of non chinese speaking westerners have learned to practice some part of these nei dan formulas, perhaps more than are practicing similar meditations in China (due to communist policies). This is not to imply that One Cloud's nei dan formulas are the definitive description of Nature's deep language. To the contrary, I see the numerous expressions of nei dan in China, which often vary from mountain to mountain, as different formulations of the same deep language. Each may use different meditation methods, or vary in the use of language, myth, deities or images. But they all seem to share a common underlying deep grammar of a jing-qi-shen-wu (essence-energy-spirit-emptiness) continuum on a pulsating yin-yang-yuan (negative-positve-neutral) energy grid extending to five cardinal sacred directions or spiritual qualities.