《太上玄灵斗姆大圣元君本命延生心经》

The Heart Scripture (Jing) of Natal Destiny and Life Prolongation of the Supreme Mysterious and Numinous Doumu, Great Sage and Primordial Lady (Doumu: the mother of the stars of the Northern Dipper, venerated in Daoism)

Lord Lao said: Above Doumu, within the great celestial precious moon of perfectly round numinous light, there stands a qian tree, its color crystalline as lapis lazuli. The jade rabbit lives long within it and refines the great medicine.

The cycles of Qi (vital energy) in heaven and earth have their flourishing and their decline. When the sun, moon, and stars depart from their proper courses; when rain and clear skies, brightness and darkness, fail to accord with the seasons; when wind, cold, summer heat, and dampness lose their measure; and when drought and flood, water and fire, pestilence and calamity, and even warfare, insect plagues, sprites, goblins, and ghosts, illness that injures life, lawsuits, and sudden disasters—every kind of inauspiciousness—arise, all of these are caused by perverse and contrary Qi. Doumu sends down the great medicine and extends healing everywhere. She harmonizes the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), so that the two Qi of Yin and Yang (Yin-Yang) rise and descend in due order. She releases what is blocked and breaks up darkness and deviant Qi. She brings back into season whatever has missed its time, and restores to normal measure whatever has lost its constant course. She protects the fetus and childbirth, treats illness, nourishes the root, causes yang Qi to return, and brings the seasons into harmony. She transforms and generates the myriad things, refines and delivers ghosts and spirits, disperses every kind of misfortune, supplements the yang Qi of the eight directions, upholds the orthodox Dao (the Way) and preserves true nature, summons harmonious Qi, and lengthens blessings and longevity. In secret she exerts the power of the medicine and presides over the office of the Celestial Physician.

Doumu gives birth to the light of the many moons of all the heavens; she is the mother of the stars of the Northern Dipper. The Dipper is the corporeal soul of the moon; water is the Jing (essence) of the moon. She governs the light within the human body and condenses the water of inner nature. The many bodies of water are alike illumined by a single moon; the many moons alike possess one and the same light. Sentient and insentient beings alike receive this numinous radiance. The Qi of the Dao (the primordial Qi of the Dao) continually nourishes and protects the myriad things. Her kindness and De (Virtue/Power) are profound, yet people often do not know it. Thus the human face has seven apertures, inwardly corresponding to the heart, and the corporeal soul has seven truths, received from the Northern Dipper.

Doumu’s honorific titles include Primordial Lady, Ancestral Mother of Night-Shining Golden Essence upon the White Jade Tortoise Terrace, Supremely Wondrous among the Nine Numina; Primordial Lady Doumu of the Brahma-Qi of the Central Heaven; Celestial Worthy of Purple Light, of Brilliant Wisdom, Compassion, and Benevolence, Primordial Empress of Great Simplicity, of Golden Truth and Holy De; King of the Great Perfect Moonlight; and Great Sage of Celestial Medicine, Sovereign Lord of Eastern Florescence and Compassionate Salvation, among others. Her names are more than one. She presides over the Precious Pavilion of the Central Heaven.

In a kalpa-age of high antiquity, she cultivated the mysterious and numinous wondrous Dao in the Heaven of Mysterious Brightness and True Purity, reverently attending the Most Venerable Primordial Beginning. The incense of her wisdom spread in dense fragrance, and the lamp of wisdom shone bright. She constantly made a great vow: that she might give birth to holy sons, so as to assist the work of creation and govern heaven and earth. The power of her vow was firm and remained the same from beginning to end.

Later, Doumu bathed in the nine-bend flowery pool. From within the pool emerged the precious throne of the divine xiezhi upon the White Jade Tortoise Terrace. She ascended the throne, peacefully nourished her true Shen (spirit), and refined her Jing and corporeal soul. In stillness she gathered primordial Qi and brought it into the mysterious and wondrous realm; she circulated and joined the numinous wind and assembled the Qi of the purple void. At last she realized the mysterious and numinous wondrous Dao and emitted boundless, subtle light. It illumined the flowery pool through and through and transformed into nine golden lotuses. After seven days and nights of the human world, the light within the flowery pool grew ever more intense, then rose to the Heaven of Nine Blossoms and became nine great precious pavilions.

Within the pavilions, nine kinds of true and wondrous Brahma-Qi mingled and condensed, and writing appeared of itself. In it was written: “Before lies Tiangang; light spreads the secret characters.” The writing radiated light in every direction. These nine sections gave birth to divine brightness and manifested as the Dao-bodies of the Nine Sovereigns: first, the Celestial Emperor; second, Purple Tenuity; third, Greedy Wolf; fourth, Giant Gate; fifth, Preserved Emolument; sixth, Civil Melody; seventh, Pure Chastity; eighth, Martial Melody; and ninth, Army Breaker.

The two venerable imperial stars, the Celestial Emperor and Purple Tenuity, dwell in the upper palace of the śāla tree at the mouth of the Dipper, their true light as great as a chariot wheel. Whoever is able to see them may enjoy long life, take a place among the true immortals, and never again enter the round of rebirth. The lingering radiance of these two stars further divides into Left Assistant, Right Aide, Upholder of the Ram, and Tuoluo, transforming without end and together commanding the orthodox Qi between heaven and earth. The stellar lords of the Seven Primordials turn the creative transformations of Yin and Yang. Their merit extends throughout the Three Realms and moistens all living beings, and the power of that merit is inconceivable.

Those who cultivate the great elixir of nine reversions and seven returns (a method of practice in Daoist Neidan, internal alchemy) and who recite and uphold this scripture can suddenly awaken to the mysterious pass and cause the numinous light to appear. The thirty-nine joints within the body naturally arise and flourish, and one thereby realizes the Dao of Great Mystery and the Three-in-One, understands and maintains the principle of original completeness, and makes the true body firm. Refining one’s practice further in great stability, one can reach the realm in which both form and Shen are wondrous and unite in truth with the Dao, ascend in flight to the Jade Capital, and roam in freedom.

Once this realm is reached, ancestors and kindred of generation after generation all obtain liberation, together receiving the mysterious grace, and both the living and the dead are ferried to salvation. This is a profound and wondrous principle. One who turns the heart to faith in this scripture should, in a pure and quiet place, hold fast to the Dipper Pivot (the hinge of the Northern Dipper, and also the inner crux contemplated and maintained in cultivation), so that inner visions do not leak away through the six sense-roots (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind), and outer conditions do not let the heart and Shen sink into the myriad things. When mind and realm are clear, limpid, and pure, the Dao is before one’s eyes. At the end, one bows in reverence before the true form of Doumu.

The Qi (vital energy) of Xuanling (the Mysterious Numen) flows in harmony and without obstruction, enabling a person to preserve life for a long time. Taixuan Sanyi (the Three Ones of the Great Mystery), important divine beings in Daoist Neidan (internal alchemy) and in the practice of preserving the spirits, guard one’s original true form. The spirit-lords of the five viscera—the deities that respectively govern the five organs—each rest in their proper place, so that the five viscera remain peaceful and at ease.

O Kui, 𰢡, and 魒, stellar officials of the Northern Dipper, please carry this out at once in accordance with the statutes!