The Dual Cultivation of Xing 性 and Ming 命

Before the big bang, there is a nebulous and undifferentiated soup that might be called the absolute of nothingness, or Wu Ji. Even spirit has not become spiritual, and yet there is Xing, an original nature.

Something shifts within nothing, and yin and yang coalesce from within it, creating the clarity and turbidity of heaven and earth's yang-ness and yin-ness. Xing's original nature emerges into something and knows spontaneity. This is Yuan's origination, and is found in the principle of Wood's sprouting and expanding and the light force ⚎. This birth of the differentiation of Heaven and Earth, Yang and Yin, is known as the absolute of greatness, or Tai Ji.

As Heaven and Earth's yang-ness and yin-ness mix, Xing's original nature interacts with the beingness that has come of non-beingness, and further, becomes a part of it, merging into various wholes as the 10,000 things come into being. In this development and maturation, the phenomena of soul is born, as what is spontaneous leads to things happening and this creates cause and effect. The effect creates Xing's counterpart, Ming. We call Ming life-destiny. This is Heng's development and maturation, and is found in the principle of Fire's pervasive radiance that spreads through every crack, nook and cranny. This is the principle of the strong force ⚌.

Having Ming's life-destiny, so too do we have a purpose - to merge back again this Ming and Xing such that the body and spirit are become one. This resolves the polarity of living and dying and relates to attaining unity and overturning the mandate of heaven. This neutralizes cause and effect and one's destiny becomes one's own. This relates to the golden elixir, and is Li's Advantageous Culmination and Metal's golden-white color, and the heavy force ⚍. Notably, another character pronounced Ming 明 represents brightness and clarity, and represents the merging of the sun and the moon together. The accomplishment here depends upon 'perceiving the Great Person', for in this connection one is able to work the bellows of the true breath of unity. Then, in stillness one refines the work within the great fire until it is complete.

However, within this are numerous other possibilities where the balance is not fully accomplished. And Xing and Ming have the places where they are easily disconnected with. This is why Liu Yiming calls them True and False, however they are one continuum:

The Ming that is the destiny granted by heaven is the doorway to the return. When one follows along with accomplishing the destiny granted by heaven, spirit becomes pleased and begins to gather within. This happens because one has begun to fulfill the spiritual curriculum of this lifetime. As spirit gathers, one begins working with Xing and one's character develops and refines. However, these are still only the False Ming and False Xing if one is unable to bridge the gap and reconnect with what makes them True. This is refinement within the 'civil fire.'
When one is able to truly surrender to merging with the destiny granted by heaven, one becomes empty of ego and as this emptiness culminates, one perceives the Great Person, the True Xing, one's True Self. In reconnecting with the True Xing, now the True Ming responds as it breathes it in and receives it as a respiration leading to true unity.
Now the operation of the True can commence as one unifies with what is True and dissolves what is False until only what is True remains. Having reconnected with the True Self using the principle of emptiness and the SW, now it needs to be steeped within stillness so that it may be forged via the 'martial fire' from something that is yin into something that is yang.

Thus:

If one is able to accomplish the destiny given by heaven out in the world, but unable to use its work to concentrate the spirit within, it is like creating a property without an owner, for one has not rekindled the connection with one's True Self and refined it through one's work.
If one is able to reconnect with one's True Self, yet only operates within emptiness and never works to deeply neutralize the yin of the body through he reforging process, some yin part of one's spiritual curriculum will be shed and abandoned for countless eons of cycling in this realm, even as one's yang is able to transcend the cycles of transmigration and go beyond. To varying degrees, many who transcend tend to leave something behind, even when their work goes incredibly deep and neutralizes almost everything. And with what is left behind comes a loss of leverage in the subtler realms until there is a decision to return. There are many subtle layers to this.
Finally, to acknowledge the relationship between the metal phase and death, requires to acknowledge how in dying without achieving this in its full potential, we remain bound between the gravities of our Xing and Ming and thus fall into the cycle of transmigration as our lighter soul (Hun) and heavier soul (Po) separate. Upon our death the imprinted memories from our Yin Wei vessel flash before our eyes and our spiritual soul is witness - thus creating the spiritual curriculum - and consequently the conditions required - for the next stage of migration in another recombination of Xing and Ming.

The vow of those who in compassion help others to return is found within this - and too, the potential to root in assisting the merging of the Xing and Ming of the universe until all returns. The various principles of the many realms from dense to extremely subtle are found within this. The foundation of being able to dissolve and reform at will is found within this. The various levels of daoist immortality are found within this. The potential for the ever expanding universe to culminate with an eventual contraction and return is found within this.

This work of merging Xing and Ming and neutralizing it completely through a reforging process enters the next stage, the return. This is the operation of Wu Wei's movement from within constancy of stillness. Having reclaimed the operation of True Xing and True Ming from Heaven and Earth and made it one, we then take our reforged unity and steep it in emptiness, so that we can bring it back into the completed state that it originally emerged from. This is how Xing returns to Wu Ji, where the Dao abides in emptiness. This is Zhen's divining to align toward completion, and involves the feminine's deeply receptive intuition and the abiding/yielding force of ⚏. In the principle of Water, the seed of the previous cycle is contained within, to emerge again.

The subtle ⚊ within the ⚏ of ☵ reveals how the enlightened slip through to the subtler realms. That which is separated from on this side reveals why those in the subtler realms choose to come back: For the leverage to become more complete, and for the leverage to help the universe to return.

It is said that in the past the heavens were present upon Earth, but over time due to violence and destruction here things became more unrefined energetically and the subtler realms drifted apart. Just as we refine ourselves, so too are we an extension of the planet's refinement. Working with the planet's refinement, we may re-anchor the heavens upon the Earth and help our planet find its own way to the completion of Xing and Ming. This is only the edge of the beginning of the universe's returning. And, this is a very long scope relative to a human life.

This is why the destiny regulated by Heaven is important. This is why not going beyond the measure set by Heavenly Descending is considered one of the sage's three treasures. Every cycling with its own spiritual curriculum, the firing process spontaneous and natural, small completions leading to great completions, never forcing anything, using the mare's Zhen - the feminine intuition.

Before the Dao De Jing, there was the Zhou Yi.

The Zhou Yi tells us about 元 Yuan, 亨 Heng, 利 Li, and 貞 Zhen. And emphasizes that it is the feminine's Zhen that is key to bringing things to completion. Yang-ness opens, Yin-ness completes. They follow a process.

Thus, there is circulation within the whole.

Thus, when one part moves, all parts move.

Thus, to find completion is to reside at the very root, completely dissolved, one with all and nothing.

Dao De Jing 28:

知其雄，守其雌，為天下谿。
為天下谿，常德不離，復歸於嬰兒。
知其白，守其黑，為天下式。
為天下式，常德不忒，復歸於無極。
知其榮，守其辱，為天下谷。
為天下谷，常德乃足，復歸於樸。
樸散則為器，聖人用之，則為官長，故大制不割。

Acknowledging their masculinity, abiding by their femininity, for the sake of channeling the heavenly falling.

For the sake of channeling the heavenly falling, constant virtue is never parted from, retracing the path to the original state, as though a just born babe.

Acknowledging their white, abiding by their black, serving the design descending from heaven.

Serving the design descending from heaven, constantly virtuous and never erring, retracing the path to the original state as though the utmost of nothingness.

Acknowledging their flourishing, abiding by their unworthiness, serving as the valley for that which descends from heaven.

Serving as the valley for that which descends from heaven, constantly virtuous therefore completely sufficient, retracing the path to the original state as though in the original condition before being influenced or affected by anything else.

Circulating and dispersing this original state of purity and simplicity and only then capable of carrying out spiritual capacity, the sage person applies this standard and assumes the role of a senior functionary, and therefore can manifest great tailoring without cutting.