《太上元始天尊说续命妙经》

At that time, the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun) said to the Most High Lord of the Dao (Taishang Daojun): “The beings of the Three Realms (Sanjie) drift in the sea of suffering and cannot find liberation. How could I bear to leave them to their pain? You should cultivate diligently, uphold my teaching, and extend salvation to them all.”

After receiving the Celestial Worthy’s command, the Most High Lord of the Dao proclaimed all that he knew: “If living beings meet with danger or illness, they should recite this scripture (Jing) and call upon the ‘Greatly Compassionate and Greatly Merciful Perfected of Great Beneficence’ (Daci Dabei Dahui Zhenren) and the ‘Greatly Compassionate and Greatly Merciful Perfected Who Saves from Suffering’ (Daci Dabei Jiuku Zhenren). In this way they can leave suffering behind, obtain lasting liberation, forever escape the grip of illness, lengthen their years, extend a life that is nearly spent, and dispel every calamity.”

The Most High Lord of the Dao then proclaimed these verses:

The two greatly compassionate Perfected (Zhenren) can save the suffering beings of the Three Realms. They send forth light that illumines the world and brings the punishments of hell to a stop.

The Mountain of Knives towers high, and the boiling cauldron (an infernal punishment of ancient legend, in which guilty souls are cast into scalding liquid) seethes with raging flames. If one sincerely invokes the two Perfected, souls under punishment can be released from the enmities formed in the past.

Illness brings many pains and calamities, and the suffering is beyond words. Sickness injures the Five Spirits (Wushen; the deities associated with body and mind in Daoism), and the Perfected pity the sorrow of living beings.

Devout men and women of sincere faith should entrust themselves with a single mind and earnestly invoke the two Perfected. By often keeping them in mind, one can leave suffering behind and avoid sinking into grief.

Illness and every kind of calamity will disperse, and malevolent demons will not dare to intrude. If day and night the heart never departs from the two Perfected, the whole body can obtain liberation.

With courageous and vigorous effort one makes the vow and dedicates the merit (transferring the merit of cultivation to living beings, or directing it toward a shared aspiration), and all together proceed to the Forest of Seven Treasures (Qibaolin; the sublime and pure realm spoken of in the scripture).