《元始天尊说生天得道经》

At that time, the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning was on Jade Capital Mountain in the Daluo Heaven (the highest heaven spoken of in Daoism), expounding to the many celestial immortals this True Scripture (Jing) of Being Born in Heaven and Attaining the Dao (the Way). He told the immortals: “I now briefly open your bodies and minds and set forth the essentials of cultivating the Dao. The divine immortals of the ten directions who have attained the Dao have all practiced according to this scripture, and only thereby have they penetrated its subtle and profound principles.

Good men and good women should cultivate in accordance with fasting and the precepts, taking this as a bridge toward the Great Dao. All purposeful, conditioned affairs of the world can thereby reveal a path leading to the true Dao. Only by realizing the principles of the teaching set forth in this scripture can one receive them and put them into practice.

If one can cast aside every entanglement, forever cut off defilement and attachment, so that distracting thoughts from outside do not intrude and delusive thoughts within do not arise, and cultivate within right mindfulness, the five viscera will become cool and clear and the six bowels harmonious and at ease. The obstructions among the three hundred and sixty joints of the body, together with the karma of the ten evils, the karma of the one hundred and eighty kinds of affliction, and the roots of all suffering and transgression, can all be eliminated at once.

One then draws in the true Qi (vital energy) of Great Harmony—the harmonized and pure breath of life—to infuse and nourish the body-field (in Daoist internal cultivation, a metaphor for the places of refinement within the body). With the mind and Shen (spirit) one inwardly contemplates the five viscera and six bowels and discerns the true Qi, so that body and mind become pure, still, and luminous, empty and brightly shining. One enters a realm of profound seclusion and stillness, with nothing clinging or obstructing within or without. In dim obscurity and silent stillness, one truly penetrates the Dao of Wuwei (non-action). This Dao has ever abided from antiquity to the present. With pure right mindfulness one gathers and governs body and mind, and thereby awakens to understanding, aided by the power of the Dao and assisted by the medicine of the teaching.

One must also moderate food and drink, drive out the ghost-corpses (in the language of Daoist practice, the yin stagnations within the body), settle the six roots (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) in quiet stillness, purely contemplate the eight consciousnesses (a Buddhist term for the classification of mental consciousness), return the five aggregates (the five factors that constitute the human person and experience) to empty stillness, and realize the Three Origins (in Daoism, a designation for heaven, earth, and the human person, or for related levels of primordial source). In this way one can attain the Dao and become realized, ascending and being delivered of one’s own accord.”

At that time the celestial immortals addressed the Celestial Worthy, saying: “From the beginningless past until this very day, we have never heard a Great Vehicle scripture such as this. We are fortunate to have encountered this scripture. May it broadly benefit all living beings, so that the fruit of the Dao may be perfect and luminously clear.” They then chanted:

Profound seclusion and stillness—this is the Dao of purity and stillness; dim and silent, it reveals the traces of the Great Void. The substance of the Dao is limpid, clear, and at rest, abiding nowhere; form and color, together with mental thought, all return to stillness. This is the root of pure, unitary reality.

The Sheng Tian Jing Song Jie is another commentary or transmitted version of this scripture (Jing). Recorded below are the differences in wording between the two texts. One collation note states that “zuo shi” (作是) reads “shi zuo” (是作) in the Sheng Tian Jing Song Jie, and another note repeats this same entry. “Lu” (路) reads “lu” (露). The four characters “yu zheng nian zhong” (於正念中) do not appear in the Sheng Tian Jing Song Jie. “Jie” (皆) reads “nai” (乃); “run” (润) reads “xiang” (想); “lang” (朗) reads “huang” (晃); “ji” (寂) reads “jing” (静); and “zheng” (证) reads “zheng” (正). Before the character “bai” (白), the Sheng Tian Jing Song Jie has an additional character “shang” (上).