《太上洞玄济众经》

The Most High Lord of the Dao (Taishang Daojun) told the Perfected Person of Universal Light: Five formless factors intertwine with one another and thus give rise to a state of undivided chaos; stirred further by the force of karma, physical form then comes into being. Once form has taken shape, it can continue to transform. A person’s original nature is thereby brought under its sway, and the spirit-consciousness (Shen) is in turn defiled—what fault, then, does the spirit-consciousness itself bear?

After hearing this, the Perfected Person of Universal Light still did not understand, and earnestly begged the Lord of the Dao to explain it out of compassion. If this doubt could be resolved, the causal conditions of living beings across successive lives would all be benefited thereby.

The Most High Lord of the Dao (Taishang Daojun) told the Perfected Puguang (Puguang Zhenren): When the five kinds of formless Qi (vital energy) intertwine, they form a state of chaotic fusion; stirred by karmic force, bodily form arises from this. Once form is established, it is able to transform; the various natures and principles unite in harmony, and thus the myriad things come into being.

Transformation arises from “consciousness” (the capacity to perceive and discriminate), and Shen (spirit) thereby comes into play. Consciousness and Shen can be said neither to be wholly the same nor to stand apart from each other. Why is this? Because they issue from a single source. In terms of substance, this is consciousness, expressed as the harmonious union of five qualities; in terms of function, this is Shen, able to illuminate external objects and give rise to wisdom. If Shen lacked consciousness, by what means would it employ wisdom? If consciousness lacked Shen, it could not discern principle either.

This is like blending xingcai greens into a fine dish: the various flavors season one another—how could they be said to have nothing to do with each other? Without the greens, seasoning cannot by itself produce a delicacy; without Shen, consciousness cannot function. Thus the working of Shen appears as wisdom, and flavor becomes a delicacy only when it joins with the greens. Seen in this light, where is there any gap between the two?

Sentient beings, because of attachment, abide in ignorance; once awakened, there is clarity. Clarity has no fixed place; in delusion it appears dark, and this darkness does not come from some other quarter. Profound attachment becomes a prison and binds the bodily form; without craving and the receiving of it, there is nothing to be grasped.

This is like an uninhabited place in the wilds: the spirits of the twelve hours (deities who, according to the twelve double-hours, preside over the sequence of time) originally have no fixed abode. After walls are raised and houses take shape, the spirits of the four directions rely upon the houses to manifest numinous responses and transformations, and thus all the spirits within the house are present there. When sentient beings fall into the dark prison, the principle is the same.

When Shen arrives, one does not know whence it comes; when Shen departs, one does not know whither it goes. If evil karma has already taken form, the prison is produced by karmic force; once the offense is exhausted, there is no longer any way to say where it still remains. Moreover, wisdom has greater and lesser degrees, and Shen has higher and lower rank. If seeing Shen were enough to understand that it has no fixed direction, then everyone ought to become a sage. Why is this not so? Because within sameness there is also difference.

Perfected Puguang, you should now understand: the principles of clarity and darkness, and of Shen and consciousness, are all set forth here.

The Celestial Worthy says: The various vital breaths succeed one another and mutually respond, giving rise to every kind of karmic affinity of life. Good and evil, as well as fortune and misfortune, each have their own root and cause. These are not determined by Heaven, Earth, or human beings alone; at root they all concern the heart-mind, and the heart-mind in turn is governed by Shen (spirit).

The body does not truly belong to me. We are born by coming forth from emptiness and spontaneity, lodging in the womb through causes and conditions, and only after undergoing transformation are we brought to birth. The parents on whom I depended while lodged in the womb are not my original parents; the true parents are not here. The station of parents is exalted, and their kindness and grace run deep. The parents of this life, their causes and conditions being fulfilled, have allowed me to take lodging with them and to receive the grace of their nurture; therefore I repay them with ritual reverence and call them my parents.

Thus the bodily form I bear does not truly belong to me either. It is only a house in which I dwell for a time, a place raised through borrowed causes and conditions for me to lodge in. Form attaches to me and lets me appear as a body possessed of shape, and from this the contrast of being and non-being is shown. Therefore one who has attained the Dao (the Way) no longer has this form, nor the differentiated and dispersed spirits of the body (spirits that lodge in the body, each attending to its own charge). When body and Shen unite as one, they become the true body; one returns to the original parents and in the end attains the Dao.