《灵宝大炼内旨行持机要》

Facing the scripture table, one performs nine bows, or performs three bows and then burns incense. One may also burn incense first and then bow, or burn the incense only when the ritual is about to begin. One first explains the purpose of the fast, then reports to the Highest Sages and the Master-Perfected the reason for this performance and the matters at hand. When the report is finished, one bows three times more, leaves the scripture table, and sits upright to settle the spirit, regulating the breath and the state of mind. One then recites the Great Scripture nine times. The text recited may be the Shengtian Jing (Scripture of Generating Heaven) or the Shengshen Jiuzhang (Nine Chapters of Generating Spirits), or it may be the Qingxuan Precious Names. With each recitation, one draws in a breath and visualizes it passing straight into the Dantian (energy center; here, the lower abdomen, the site of inner cultivation). The original reads "Dantian," but the annotator suspects it should read "bodily field," meaning that one visualizes the breath spreading throughout the whole body.

Next, one visualizes oneself arriving at the Water Palace (the location of the water region in inner-cultivation visualization), where a point of light shines between the two kidneys. Nine currents of luminous Qi gather and condense into an infant, whose form resembles one's own. One then sits cross-legged and visualizes light shining from within the body onto heaven and earth. This does not mean that light actually radiates from outside the body. It refers to the scene of creation and transformation inside the body, like a world within a gourd.

Before long, the five-colored Qi of the five organs rises like clouds, bearing the infant up through the double passes of the Jiaji (the area along the spine) and into the Niwan Palace (the palace visualized within the head). The infant suddenly turns into a precious pearl, the "millet-grain pearl" (symbolizing a Neidan elixir that is tiny yet brilliant). The infant becomes the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun), and the five-colored clouds become five-colored lions. The Celestial Worthy sits upon the five-colored lions within the pearl and emits countless precious rays that illuminate all the heavens and all the earths, leaving inside and outside pure and bright.

Then one visualizes the myriad sages and thousand perfected beings of the thirty-two heavens arriving from the sky, entering the pearl together and coming before the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, as if listening to the teaching. From between the Celestial Worthy's brows comes the white-tuft light (the radiance between the brows), which shines down on the nine hells and prisons of Dengdu, visualized below the navel. The pearl appears in the Niwan Palace and in both places of light, and within each pearl appear the myriad sages and thousand perfected beings of the thirty-two heavens, who guard the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning. One then visualizes the Celestial Worthy Who Saves from Suffering appearing, his light illuminating the ten directions. Under the radiance of the Celestial Worthy's might, the prisons of Dengdu lose all their gloom and are transformed into a pure land.

Next, one visualizes everything below the two kidneys as a place of darkness, that is, the hells. Once the prison gates open, the Northern Emperor, together with the officials of the underworld and the prison wardens, lines up outside the gate of Dengdu to pay homage. Dengdu lies behind the Water Palace, roughly corresponding to the area between the waist, the kidneys, and the spine. When the homage is complete, the flying heavenly spirit-kings of the ten directions arrive in dragon chariots, attended on both sides by golden boys and jade maidens. Holding the talismanic decree of the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning and upholding the Dao's directive, they send light into the prisons of Dengdu. All the suffering souls of the dead receive pardon, then leave the prisons and assemble before the palace of Dengdu.

Then one visualizes the Flower Pond (the saliva in the mouth) and scenes such as the ranks of palaces and halls. Next, one visualizes the myriad sages and thousand perfected beings in the pearl reciting together the Great Mantra of Danyang. Then one visualizes the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning issuing a command and sending down a red dragon, which stirs the waves of the Mist Pool and pours them like a waterfall into the Eastern Well. At this moment, one urgently visualizes the tongue turning into a red dragon that churns the saliva in the mouth. When the mouth is full of saliva, one turns the head to the left and swallows it, sending it down to the front of the Water Palace, where the Heavenly River lies.

One then visualizes before the Water Palace a boundless great sea, into which all the souls of the sinful enter to bathe. A gentle, auspicious wind, warm as spring, steams through the whole body and fills all the souls with joy. They suddenly awaken to the faults of greed and anger and turn toward the true Way. When the bathing is finished…

The Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun) commands the Golden Youths and Jade Maidens (celestial attendants) to bring pure heavenly garments, countless in number, and bestow them upon all the condemned souls. Once the departed have put on their robes, a thousand perfected beings and myriad sages appear within the precious pearl, and together they chant the Scripture on Salvation (Duren Jing) and the secret numinous texts. The Celestial Venerable of the Supreme One (Taiyi Tianzun) and the Celestial Venerables of the Ten Directions chant the scriptures as they pace in ritual steps, descending from the drifting clouds. Taiyi Tianzun sprinkles the departed souls with a rain of sweet dew and the Dharma, cooling their bodies and minds and moistening their throats. Each of the Celestial Venerables of the Ten Directions holds a golden bowl and a jade spoon; the bowls are filled with sweet dew and jade ointment, which they offer to the departed souls in midair. The souls partake of this sacred food until they are sated.

Next, the practitioner visualizes their own spine transforming into a Dharma rain that is sprinkled over the departed souls, cooling their bodies and minds and moistening their throats. The Celestial Venerables of the Ten Directions once more fill their golden bowls and jade spoons with sweet dew and jade ointment and offer the food in midair, until the souls are sated. The practitioner then visualizes the spine becoming a great Dharma bridge to the heavenly realm: its upper end joins the Crimson Palace of Zhuling (in Daoist belief, the fiery mansion of the south), and its lower end reaches the Water Mansion. The Golden Youths and Jade Maidens, holding ceremonial standards and scattering fragrance and flowers, lead the souls onto the bridge.

The bridge leads to the Fire Mansion of Zhuling. There dwell the Great Lord of Long Life, the Sovereign, the Great Spirit Sima, and the Venerable Han, along with the deities of the Director of Destiny, the Director of Emoluments, the Extension of Life and Increase of Years, and the Relief from Calamity. Clad in their respective ritual robes, they watch over the departed souls as these enter the Fire Foundry (the place where the souls are refined by divine fire). After this refinement by blazing fire, all the souls put on heavenly garments. Hundreds upon thousands of fire dragons rise from the foundry, radiating flames and light, and carry the souls aloft. They pass through the Twelve-Storied Tower, cross the Fire Foundry in the sky, and continue to ascend until they reach the Jade Pure Realm (in Daoist belief, the heaven of Pure Subtlety). There the souls pay homage to Yuanshi Tianzun and settle themselves within the precious light.

At this point the practitioner should let their heart and spirit (Shen) become settled and clear, forgetting both external things and the self, in stillness without a single thought. They must not dwell on where the deceased have gone; so long as even a trace of attachment remains in the mind, perfection is hard to attain, and the deceased will have no chance of being delivered. The rite must be kept strictly secret and performed in silence, with the mouth closed.

This method concerns the transformations that arise through inward cultivation; it is not a teaching that encompasses heaven and earth or reaches outward in a vain pursuit of the mysterious. Never transmit it lightly to those who are unsuited to it, lest they become doubtful and dismissive and refuse to believe. In that case, both master and disciple may transgress the precepts of the Daoist tradition (Xuanmen, the Gate of Mystery). Be most careful in this matter!