《元始无量度人上品妙经通义》Vol. 3

The text of this scripture is one zhang long. In ancient times, the Celestial Perfected Emperor (a sacred figure said to have recorded the celestial scriptures) wrote these characters and established them as the correct sounds. Those who understand these sounds and can recite them after purifying themselves will be observed by the Flying Heavenly Divine Kings (celestial generals), sent down by the heavens. They will record the person’s merit and report it to the heavens. Then the myriad gods will come to pay their respects, and the terrestrial spirits will guard the gates. Even the mighty demon kings will recommend the person for admission to the ranks of the immortals. Once his cultivation and merit are complete, he can travel freely through the Three Realms—the different levels of the worlds of heaven, earth, and humanity—and ascend to the Golden Gate.

Mo’an says: “ancient script” refers to the characters from the first appearance of jade script, that is, the celestial seal script handed down today. This is what the Dao Lord meant when he spoke at the end of the scripture’s preface about the mysteries of the numinous writings. “Great Brahma” refers to the wondrous Qi that arises naturally in the heavens and condenses into characters. “Hidden words” are the secret names of the Celestial Emperor. “Sound without measure” is the sound of empty, spontaneous nature, resounding through the heavens and possessing vast, immeasurable merit.

When the Primordial Celestial Worthy first preached the scripture and the Celestial Perfected Emperor set down the words, the characters were formed from the Brahma Qi of the heavens. Each character was therefore one zhang long, written on jade in gold, with rays of light extending from its eight corners. These are the celestial seal characters handed down in later times, called “ancient script.” The chapters passed down to later generations are transcriptions that render into writing the characters formed from the Brahma Qi of the heavens; what they express are precisely the correct sounds of old. Anyone who understands these sounds and recites them after purifying themselves can communicate with the heavens: the divine kings will observe them, record their merit, and report it. Then the myriad gods will pay their respects, the terrestrial spirits will guard them, and even the demon kings will recommend them for admission to the ranks of immortals. “The Dao is complete” means that, when cultivation and merit are perfected, one can travel beyond the Three Realms, ascend to the Golden Gate, take up a position in the Three Pure Ones’ realms, and attend the Celestial Emperor each day.

Guanfu says: The inner relationship between emptiness and substance discussed here can also be seen through images and numbers. If one follows the method called “the nine days guiding Qian,” the principles involved are all accounted for. The Qian trigram begins in the north, meaning that Yang Qi first stirs at the hour of Zi. Jia corresponds to Qian, and Zi corresponds to the Yellow Bell; thus Jia-Zi begins at the winter solstice. Returning the Elixir—the process in Neidan cultivation by which essence and Qi circulate and gather—is cultivation that follows the patterns of Great Brahma’s movements.

The Four Images and Five Phases, the Three Origins and Eight Trigrams, the sun and moon, the dragon and tiger, and Neidan terms such as cinnabar, mercury, lead, and silver are all contained in these hidden words. As for the Yin Talisman and Yang Fire, and the warming, nourishing, drawing out, and adding of ingredients—the regulation of the firing process and the gradual cultivation and adjustment of ingredients in Neidan—these must be mastered by following the rising and falling of the hexagram lines and the cycle of the sexagenary signs. The four trigrams Qian, Kun, Kan, and Li symbolize heaven, earth, sun, and moon respectively; they are the essential foundations of the vessel and the ingredients. The remaining sixty trigrams correspond to the sixty combinations of the sexagenary cycle.

Cultivation must also follow the changes of spring and autumn and the alternation of cold and heat. The year is divided into twenty-four solar terms, with seventy-two pentads corresponding to its seasonal phases. The sequence of a month is then arranged within the twelve double-hours of a day and night. One determines the clepsydra’s measures and the sun’s shadow, distinguishes Zi and Wu, examines Yin and Yang, links the new and full moons, and balances the weights and measures. In this way, cultivation follows the great numbers of heaven and earth and accords with the patterns of change in Yin and Yang.

The trigrams contain 384 lines, and the firing process is likewise divided into 384 zhu. The myriad things arise from nothingness; the principles of Great Brahma and the learning of the Changes are in fact connected. The teachings handed down by the various masters secretly converge here: the path of Neidan and the study of the Changes are not two different ways. If students can investigate the depths of the numinous writings, they will grasp both the foundations of Neidan and the principles of the Changes.

This scripture’s sound can accomplish everything: it can ward off and dispel, avert calamity, deliver beings from suffering, and bring them to fulfillment. It is a sound in accord with Heaven’s principles and arising naturally. Thus, chanting it can establish communion with the celestial realm: flying deities descend to gaze upon the world, the High Lord answers with song from afar, the gods come to pay homage, and divine beings from the Three Realms attend on either side. Demons bow their heads and submit; ghosts, monsters, and spirits disperse of their own accord. As the chant rings out like the music of jade chimes, the worlds in the ten directions grow solemn and pure. Rivers and seas fall still, and mists dissipate among the mountains. All spirits are stirred and filled with reverence, and even the immortals dwelling in plants and trees are summoned to gather. The sky is free of turbid Qi, the earth of demonic and baleful defilement; hidden wisdom opens into clarity. This is a vast and profound realm.

Mo’an says: Here the Dao Lord further explains the effects that practitioners can attain through the practice of chanting scripture. “This sound” refers to the scripture’s sound mentioned earlier. It can free the sky of turbid Qi and the earth of demonic and baleful defilement, and open hidden wisdom into clarity, revealing a vast and profound realm.

Master Mo’an says: Here, the Lord of the Dao further explains the benefits that students can gain through cultivation and recitation of scriptures. “This sound” refers to the boundless sound. Reciting it can drive away all manner of baleful spirits, dispel calamities, liberate living beings from birth and death, and bring both heavenly beings and mortals to fulfillment. Its power reaches everywhere, which is why it is especially called “the naturally arising sound of Heaven’s True Ones.” These words are texts of natural Brahma Qi—the primordial energy spoken of in Daoism—proclaimed aloud by the supremely true spirits of the heavens. They are not written symbols devised by human beings, and their efficacy is therefore immense. After reciting the scripture, one can draw the flying immortals to descend; by reading it, one can also understand its powers.

The Supreme Lord praises the reciter’s good deeds from afar. The myriad spirits come to pay homage, the spirits within the reciter’s body appear in turn, and the spirits of the Three Realms follow close by like attendants. At this point, the Three Corpses—the spirits believed in Daoism to dwell in the human body and hinder cultivation—lie concealed; the Six Thieves, a metaphor for the six sensory desires that disturb the mind, withdraw; all manner of demons and malign spirits bow their heads; disturbances from external demons subside; ghostly essences disperse of their own accord; and inward attachments and distinctions are dissolved. Once karmic consciousness, formed by past actions and ingrained habits, is purified, all defilements vanish, and only the original True Nature endures.

“Jade-like sounds resound” means that both body and spirit are elevated, as if celestial music were sounding of its own accord. “The ten directions are hushed and clear” means that silence falls in every direction. “Rivers and seas are still” means that the River of Desire and Sea of Suffering, symbols of attachment and tribulation, grow clear and calm. “Mountains and peaks swallow the clouds” means that body and mind are steady, the spirit settled, and the breath harmonious. “The myriad spirits are awed and subdued” means that cultivation is complete and the Dao fully embodied, so that all spirits show reverence. “The assembled immortals gather” means that the myriad spirits pay homage around the Original Spirit, gathering naturally without being summoned. “Heaven is free of foul vapors, and earth of demonic dust” describes a mind and nature settled in stillness, desires stilled, and union with the Great Void.

In “dark wisdom, penetrating clarity,” “dark” means profoundly still, without attachment; “wisdom” means lucid, penetrating, and boundless; “penetrating” means empty, luminous, and unobstructed; and “clarity” means pure and inexhaustible. This is the power of dark depths opening through to all things and wisdom illuminating them, as described in the Scripture of Contemplating the Return. When inner cultivation reaches this state, one can see in all eight directions and one’s nature becomes wholly integrated: it can encompass the cosmos and reach into the subtlest details. These are exceedingly mysterious and refined states, whose breadth and depth cannot be measured; hence they are called “the vast and mysterious mystery.”

Though Heaven and Earth are vast and the myriad things are many, all living beings, down to the tiniest insects, possess a wondrous nature. They all arise from nonbeing: first appearing in the Supreme Ultimate, then taking form and awareness through the generation of Yin-Yang and the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water). If one is not obscured by the differing outward forms of the myriad things and does not forget that the Supreme Ultimate is originally one, one can return to the beginning beyond sound and smell, and go back to the Non-Ultimate.

The Celestial Worthy, in teaching the scripture, first suspends a precious pearl in view and then expounds ten layers of wondrous meaning, which already contain the secrets of the Great Brahma and the arcane principles of the Elixir Way. At the end, the scripture also reminds cultivators not to cling to emptiness or to existence, and so concludes with “dark wisdom, penetrating clarity; the vast and mysterious mystery.” The essential meaning of the scripture and the secret of the “Millet Pearl”—a metaphor for the most subtle True Nature or the essence of the Dao—are contained here. True cultivation cannot be attained by relying on any outward form. It lies in realizing emptiness and stillness, aligning with the Non-Ultimate, and seeking within oneself. In this way, one’s luminous nature remains unobscured, one understands that Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things are all contained within oneself, and one realizes the supremely divine and wondrous Dao.

A diagram shows a millet pearl, a tiny bead the size of a grain of millet, suspended in space and presenting the image of ten cycles.

A diagram of the Golden Elixir’s ten transformations and the Four Spirits.

The middle section describes the stages of the firing process in accord with the Changes.

An illustration explaining the overall wondrous workings of the Taiji diagram and the original primordial Qi.

The Red Script of the Cavernous Chaos, the crimson celestial writing from the opening of primordial chaos, is the formless, imageless, supreme True Dao. This is what is meant by “from Wuji (the Limitless) comes Taiji (the Supreme Ultimate).” At the primordial eon of the Origin, the heavens were brought into being, and the three celestial lights—the sun, moon, and stars—were revealed. This is the foundation of Heaven. Above it there is no ancestral source; only the Dao exists as the underlying reality.

This is what is meant by Taiji moving to generate Yang; when movement reaches its extreme, it turns to stillness. Stillness generates Yin; when stillness reaches its extreme, it turns again to movement. Movement and stillness, each taking the other as its root, give rise to one another. As Yin and Yang divide, the Two Modes are established.

The five patterns unfold and appear. This is what is meant by Yang Qi transforming and Yin Qi joining with it to produce the Five Phases: Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, and Earth. The Qi of the Five Phases moves in sequence, and the four seasons follow in turn. Ultimately, the Five Phases derive from Yin and Yang; Yin and Yang derive from Taiji; Taiji has its root in Wuji.

Divine spirits bring all things into being throughout the cosmos. No pattern fails to shine with light; none is left unmanifest, unestablished, unfulfilled, untransformed, or ungenerated.

This is what is meant by the true wonder of Wuji: the two Qi of Yin and Yang and the essence of the Five Phases blend and coalesce with wondrous subtlety. The Way of Qian brings forth the male; the Way of Kun brings forth the female. The two Qi of Yin and Yang respond to one another and give rise to the myriad things. The myriad things continually grow and reproduce, and their transformations have no end.

The principle revealed in the “Diagram of the Wondrous Function of the Whole of Primordial Qi” deserves deep study. In this way, one can naturally accord with the Dao of the precelestial, and glimpse the mysteries of Heaven and Earth’s creative transformations. Thus, when Confucians understand the patterns of darkness and light, know the myriad things, investigate their beginnings and endings, pursue principle to its furthest reaches, and fully understand their nature, they are not deceived by the principles of life and death. Laozi, meanwhile, says that only by putting down deep roots can one live long and preserve life for a long time. Each tradition has its own fundamental teaching.

How, then, can one attain this state? The scripture says: “Know the strong, yet keep to the weak, and you can return to the state of an infant; know the bright, yet keep to the dark, and you can return to the Non-Ultimate.” This is the principle of “returning the elixir through liquid gold” (a Daoist Neidan teaching about returning to the root and restoring the origin). Thus one can seek out and strengthen the foundation of life, and thereby live long and see far. Master Mo’an adopted this principle through the idea of “contemplating return” (observing how the myriad things cycle and return to their root).

Inscription on the Wuchang Wei Fang edition written for Master Mo’an by the Celestial Lord Xin of the Azure Emperor

Scriptures are transmitted through the heart and mind, but they must also be grasped inwardly. To understand them in heart and spirit is precisely the Way of returning the elixir through liquid gold. Thus one can seek out and strengthen the foundation of life, and thereby live long and see far. What Master Mo’an adopted was this idea of “contemplating return.”

Written by the Celestial Lord Xin of the Azure Emperor, who descended to write the inscription on the Wuchang Wei Fang edition for Master Mo’an.

Scriptures must be transmitted through the heart and understood through the heart. Once understood inwardly, they can be passed on heart to heart, bringing salvation widely to beings in Heaven and on Earth. Hold this intention in your hearts, and the Emperor Lord will naturally look favorably upon you. Believe, accept, and put the teachings into practice; carry out good deeds with care.

In the fifth month of the Gengyin year, the Celestial Lord Xin descended to the writing brush and said: “The disciples who practice the Dao devote themselves to the Way, and the faithful worshippers believe in it sincerely. Their devotion moved the teachings of the Scripture of Primordial Unity that I transmit, so I have come to this altar.

“The sublime Scripture of Salvation through the Numinous Treasure was not composed as an ordinary piece of writing. Many scriptures are destroyed when calamities come, but this one alone endures in the Jade Capital, the city of Heaven. From ancient times to the present, no sage, immortal, or Buddha who attained the Way has failed to practice the methods of the Scripture of Salvation. Among all scriptures, the Scripture of Salvation transmitted by the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning belongs to the highest class. Reciting it stirs people to goodness in the world of the living, and liberates the spirits of the dead in the underworld; its merit is immense.

“I teach you with my ears, and you listen to my words with your mouths. Ha! What is meant by ‘listening with the mouth’ is the state in which the six faculties—the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—work through one another. Here lies the mystery of the Great Dao of Primordial Unity. When you recite the Scripture of Salvation, do you understand its subtle meaning?

“The human heart is a precious pearl; the Primordial Spirit is the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning. The Celestial Worthy does not exist outside consciousness, and the Daoist methods do not exist outside the heart. To deceive your own heart—is that not to deceive Heaven?

“When you begin reciting the scripture, gather in your scattered thoughts and bring your mind to single-minded focus. This is like the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning summoning beings from the ten directions. Reciting with full attention is the Celestial Worthy preaching the scripture; when emotions and the deluded spirit no longer stir falsely, it is like beings from the ten directions listening to the teaching. Forget desires and cut off distracting thoughts, and you reach a state of stillness and silence. When the heart and nature become clear and return to unity, you can distinguish truth from falsehood and keep your resolve undivided. With time, this becomes natural and steady: all deluded thoughts return to true nature. This is how beings of Heaven and the many living beings receive salvation.

“If you can understand the teaching in this way, you will naturally reach the Formless Realm, beyond material shape. All deluded thoughts that disturb the spirit are transformed and returned to the Dao, and the practitioner can become a perfected person. This is the scripture’s central teaching. If you merely recite it without understanding this principle, without gathering in your scattered thoughts and returning to true nature, what benefit is there to me, even if you recite it ten thousand times every day? The principles of refining and delivering the dead through liturgical rites and ritual methods are even harder to explain. If you do not understand the scripture’s meaning yourself, how can you deliver others?

“If you can understand that the precious pearl within the heart is empty, clear, and shining; gather in your myriad thoughts and return to true nature; and hold your resolve steady and unmoving, then it will seem that the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning has brought you into stillness and silence in the space of a single hour. The joy of that experience is beyond words. In this state, the ghosts and spirits of the Three Realms will stand in awe, and all wandering spirits can be delivered.

“Ritually offering and refining the spirits of the dead is a great merit and virtue. The immortals and Buddhas of antiquity took cultivation of themselves as merit and delivering others as virtue; only in this way could their merit and virtue be complete. I am an officer of Thunder. In the distant past, I attained the Great Dao; later, I entered the Thunder Bureau, where I command wind and thunder, send down rain and dew, and bring forth the growth of all things. Thunder is Heaven’s weapon, the Emperor’s authority, and the hinge on which the Dao’s workings turn. Thunder governs the power to bring forth and to kill all things. Its transformations are inexhaustible, and its merit is immense.

“I can make all things grow, and I can also bring them to wither and die, because I act in accordance with benevolence and righteousness. Benevolence is like the officer of spring, causing all things to arise and flourish; righteousness is like the officer of autumn, bringing all things into order and causing them to wither. I assist Heaven and Earth in their passage through the four seasons, administer the fate of the world on the Emperor’s behalf, and continue to accumulate merit and virtue. After attaining the Way, what use would I be to the Emperor if I did not save living beings? Even the Jade Emperor, after cultivating the Way through countless kalpas, still must preside over the fate of the world. How much more so must we?

“Since you have entered the gate of my Daoist teachings, you should understand this principle. You are all outstanding disciples of my tradition; that is why I have spoken this far. I am not revealing the secrets of thunder to confuse you. Devote yourselves to cultivating the Dao and upholding its methods. At the altar, I will help you preserve the Daoist tradition. If disaster comes, hold firmly to one resolve, serve one deity, and recite one scripture as protection. Practice diligently, practice diligently.”

Someone nearby asked about submitting a petition to receive an appointment. The Celestial Lord Xin replied: “The ancestral altar has recommended me; how could I presume to speak of titles? A post need not be high. What good is a high post without merit and virtue? Even the simple title ‘disciple who serves the Dao’ can reach the Heavenly Emperor. A single sincere thought can pierce even metal and stone.” On the fifth day of the fifth month, the Fierce Officer of the Five Thunders, Xin Zhongyi, wrote this down; the disciple Chen Yuanheng recorded it.

The fourth volume of the Comprehensive Commentary on the Wondrous Scripture of Supreme Rank on the Primordial Beginning and the Limitless Salvation of Humanity: This is the fourth volume of the commentary on the scripture. “Primordial Beginning” refers to the Daoist supreme deity, the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning. “Limitless Salvation of Humanity” means broadly saving all living beings, while “comprehensive commentary” refers to an explanation of the scripture’s meaning and principles.