The integration or reconstitution of the human being may be described in terms of the assembly of the five elements. This process refers to the progressive interrelationship of conscious knowledge, real knowledge, sense, essence and intent (normally symbolized by fire, water, metal, wood and earth). Through this process the essence of conscious knowledge is united with the sense of real knowledge, this unification being accomplished through the medium of intent. Concentrated attention is used to bridge the habitual gap between conscious and unconscious. Associated with this process is the recognition of the manner in which each element habitually conditions another to maintain a circular pattern of conditioning. The work of assembling is thus a matter of extracting the five elements in their primordial or unconditioned form (in which they foster one another) from their conditioned form (in which they overcome one another). This conditioning cycle may be reversed through practice so that essence produces real knowledge, which produces true sense, producing true intent, producing open consciousness, producing essence. When the five elements foster each other in this way, they are integrated within the celestial design and act as a single energy. Through such reversals the world is used for self-refinement rather than self-indulgence.
This process may also be understood as the integration of the five "eyes" potentially available to humans: the physical eye (as the ordinary organ of sight); the celestial eye (as the power of clairvoyance); the wisdom eye (as the power of intuitive insight); the objective eye (as the power to see things as they are in reality); and the enlightened eye (as the power to see both absolute and relative truth, encompassing all other eyes).
It may also be understood as five energies "returning to their origin" as a result of a state of mental and physical collection through which the primordial energy is recovered. The body is experienced as unmoving, the mind unstirring, the nature tranquil, feelings are forgotten, and the physical elements are in harmony.
The fourth of seven stages of the Taoist alchemical firing process through which reality is cultivated and the self is restored.
