Merging of yin and yang (Taoism)

Following the assembly of the five elements, yin and yang may be merged into one (such that within yin there is yang, and within yang there is yin). This is equivalent to a recovery of child-like (in contrast with childish) awareness. Acquired conditioning is now strongly governed by primordial insight and no longer acts in a harmful manner. Although this merging process is symbolized by sexual intercourse (and by other combinations of polarized energies), the "gold elixir", as the primordial energy of life, cannot be formed other than through the crystallization of the energy of primordial nothingness.

This elixir is a metaphor of the essence of true consciousness, which is fundamentally complete and illumined. It is the unique energy of primordial nothingness and in the darkness of profound abstraction. Although neither matter nor emptiness, it is both material and empty at the same time. It is the border of the mind of Tao and the human mind, the root of real knowledge and of conscious knowledge, the place where distinctions are born. It is the innate knowledge and capacity fundamental to human life. It is a combination of polar energies, with firmness and flexibility in proper balance, engendering the vitality of real unity. Under temporal conditioning, this awareness recedes and distinctions predominate. When the valley spirit is stable, the mind of Tao is always there, and the human mind is guided by it. Real knowledge and conscious knowledge then unite. Innate knowledge and capacity integrate with the celestial design. The gold elixir is the energy of true unity, or primordial nothingness. In connection with the root of consciousness, when chaos first becomes differentiated, it acts as the generative energy which produces beings.

The fifth of seven stages of the Taoist alchemical firing process through which reality is cultivated and the self is restored.