《元始洞真慈善孝子报恩成道经》

The beginning of the bodily formation of the True Ones of the Left, Right, and Center (the perfected deities who dwell on the left, the right, and in the center) originates in the Qi (vital energy) generated through the responsive transformation of the Primordial Supreme Dao (the Way). They were conceived within a numinous and wondrous jade womb, passing through ninety thousand great kalpas while remaining long in secluded stillness and solitude. After ninety thousand kalpas, in accordance with the Way of Heaven they were due to come into the world; they therefore condensed their forms, regulated their breath, and were born from the jade womb.

When they emerged from the womb, thunder shook the Nine Heavens and the Nine Earths split open. With their very first step they ascended the Heavenly Treasure canopy, their whole bodies radiating golden light like the newly risen sun. The Two Dawns (two rays of morning light) shone upon them from either side, brilliant and bright; their eyes seemed to hold the heart of the Northern Dipper, and before the stars the light of the sun was reflected once more. Their hair was blue-green, their teeth evenly joined, and purple Qi shot straight into the clouds. Wherever they went, the Seven Pure Clouds (pure white auspicious clouds) covered them morning and evening; hidden dragons bore lotus flowers upon their backs to serve as their couches and seats. Celestial lamps and celestial candles lit the paths among the clouds; celestial music and celestial Brahma-sound (the music and Brahma-tones of the heavenly realms) sounded together, and myriad strains of music rang out as one. Dragons and phoenixes danced to the rhythm, singing of scenes of great peace. The music was harmonious, refined, and proper, beyond what words can describe.

The waters of the sweet springs and sweet wells, once drunk, can cure illness. Their bodies are like gold and like jade and do not age. Amid the transformative teaching of Wuwei (non-action) and harmony, they pass through ninety thousand kalpas.

At this time the three true spirits transformed into infants and were entrusted to the True Mother. They gradually grew and, conforming to life in the world, came of age. The supreme lord of the Great Dao (the Way), the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun), bestowed on them the honored title “True Kings of Ultimate Filial Piety.” They taught and transformed the Central Plains, while also attending to the minority peoples of the four directions. Every living being came to receive their instruction. They taught people to be compassionate and filial, to revere Heaven, to accord with Earth, to guard the one mind so as to nourish the bodily form, and to show pity for the myriad things.

After three thousand three hundred years there came another renewal and change: the casting out of impurity and the tempering of all things through water and fire. At that time the three True Kings of Ultimate Filial Piety respectively took charge of the sun, the moon, and the stars of the Northern Dipper. They commanded the light of sun, moon, and stars to shine upon the dark places, and in a mysterious manner they harmonized the three primordial Qi (vital energy), secretly joining emptiness and substance. Their transformations in response to circumstances were swift. Without being summoned they appeared as a shadow follows form, and no one needed to fix the mind upon them in deliberate thought. Although they dwelt in the upper realm, they could meet the needs of the lower realm. Unrestricted by above or below or by any boundary, they established their teaching wherever they went, saving living beings of every different kind, resonating in one mind with those beings, so that doubt no longer remained in the heart.

The mind of filial piety is vast and far-reaching, and the power of spiritual penetration has no equal. It can turn Heaven and Earth about, regulate Yin-Yang, set in order the cycles of time and fortune, command the host of spirits, and call forth auspicious signs. Without relying on wings one may fly, travel ninety thousand li in a moment, and in the blink of an eye pervade all the heavens. All of this arises from ultimate filial piety.

To be filial toward one’s parents and to pity every animal and plant that has life is the Way of Filial Piety. Compassion and humane love, cherishing life and loathing slaughter, are also the Way of Filial Piety. Eating meat and drinking wine does not accord with the Way of Filial Piety. Filthy and unrestrained conduct between men and women does not accord with it. The matters of conception and childbirth, and of the decay of corpses, do not accord with it. Injuring the body and shedding blood do not accord with it. Robbery and theft do not accord with it. Taking pleasure in unwholesome deeds and speaking of evil things likewise do not accord with it. Those who sink into a filthy and base life are defiled both within and without. Their will and conduct are slack, and they do not cultivate the way of long life. Their faith is not firm; they are frivolous and dissolute, drifting along with events, unable to concentrate and guard the One. Mind, Shen (spirit), and breath then scatter into disorder, and so they suffer the many afflictions of birth, old age, sickness, and death. After death they fall further into hell and suffer for a long time, with no term of release. Lacking wholesome causes and conditions, they lose the Way of Filial Piety that I transmit and bring upon themselves every kind of suffering.

If men and women of later generations cultivate the Way of Filial Piety that I transmit, they can share the same De (Virtue/Power) with the Dao. Once they share the same De, they share the same radiance with the Dao, and then share with the Dao the same perfection, the same body, the same Shen, the same transformations, and the same span of life. Having attained the same longevity as the Dao, they share being with the Dao; having attained this shared being, they further share non-being with the Dao. Where they are nowhere absent, they also cling to nothing; where they are nowhere absent, there is at the same time nothing they do not possess. The realm is still, empty, and vast, changing in response to the mind.

One who cultivates the Dao may become an emperor, a loyal minister, a worthy person, a filial son, a Daoist priest, or a preceptor of the state. One may also dwell in the cold forest, purify the mind and observe fasting and abstinence, practice with austere effort, recite the scriptures (Jing) and intone the Dao, and accumulate merit. Or one may become an able general and prevail without fighting; or store up grain and cloth to relieve hunger and cold; or become an enlightened teacher who removes illness and pestilence and benefits all living beings. One may also kindle lamps and candles to illuminate the long night; shorten ten thousand kalpas so that they are as a single kalpa, or lengthen one kalpa so that it is as a hundred kalpas. A single hair can surpass the great earth, and a single pore can contain the nine great rivers and the four seas, yet without injuring the inherent nature of the myriad things, and living beings do not perceive it. One can further gather in the worlds of the ten directions, cause them to surpass a needle’s tip, and set them before the eyes. All living beings can see the luminous-Qi Dharma-bodies of the three true spirits, hear them expound the teaching each in a different way, and each come to understanding. Those who practice the Way of Filial Piety that I transmit can enter an inconceivable realm and accomplish inconceivable deeds. Those who lose the Way of Filial Piety cannot even keep pace with the relief of suffering; the cycle of birth and death continues without break, and suffering cannot be exhausted.

To practice the Way of Filial Piety is to obtain the karmic fruit of fearlessness. First, one departs from fear of birth and death and obtains the fruit of no longer being bound by birth and death. Second, one departs from fear of darkness and obstruction and obtains the fruit of light: by day there is divine radiance, by night there are celestial lamps, and after long cultivation the body itself emits light, ceaseless by day and by night. Third, one departs from fear of hunger and cold and obtains the fruit of food supplied by the celestial kitchen and of the body protected by celestial garments. Fourth, one departs from fear of every kind of harassment; demon kings and fierce beasts all come to await command and become attendants and guards. Fifth, one departs from fear of the formed body and obtains the fruit of entering the formless realm. What is called entering the formless is not death or disappearance, nor is it being born anew. It is the absence of any fixed form: the ordinary body turns into the body of the Dao, the body transforms into luminous Qi, and one ascends into the formless realm and merges with empty space. Form may appear or vanish freely, and gathering or scattering follows one’s intent. Being and non-being are both decided by thought, and one can act without relying on the body or the intellect.

When the world is governed by the Way of Filial Piety, there is no need to labor over laws and ordinances. When the self is governed by the Way of Filial Piety, aspiration and temperament become firm and upright. When the hundred illnesses are met by the Way of Filial Piety, Heaven becomes the physician. When the myriad things are treated by the Way of Filial Piety, no poisonous harm can injure a person. When mountains and rivers are governed by the Way of Filial Piety, grasses and trees do not wither. When livelihood is managed by the Way of Filial Piety, fields and sericulture yield a multiplied harvest. When filial conduct resonates with Heaven, wind and rain arrive in their proper seasons; when it resonates with Earth, the myriad things are settled, and auspicious signs such as numinous mushrooms and numinous trees appear everywhere. When filial conduct resonates with birds and beasts, dragons, qilin, luan birds, and phoenixes fly in and gather within the realm; when it resonates with deep waters and lakes, the river gods offer pearls, fish and dragons leap in joy, and the waves grow calm.

One need only be filial and reverent toward one’s parents, and this is to repay the profound kindness of Heaven and Earth; the myriad spirits between Heaven and Earth will guard one day and night. Cultivate the Great Dao and devote yourself to guarding the One, and you will naturally attain the Dao. The Way of Filial Piety is supremely lofty and vast. It comes into being together with the Great Dao; it can govern the sun, moon, and stars, illuminate the dark places, and cause all living beings to be sheltered forever.

At this time, the spirit child bowed to the Celestial Worthy and asked, “In the world there are many people of unfortunate fate whose parents both died when they were young. They wish to fulfill filial piety, yet do not know how to express it.”

The Celestial Worthy replied, “To revere Heaven and accord with Earth, and to pay homage to the sun, moon, and stars—the Three Luminaries—is the same as showing filial respect to one’s parents; there is no distinction. In doing so, one attains the Dao (the Way) more quickly, and one’s wishes are fulfilled as the heart desires.

“To accord with the great Earth is to accord with the movement of Qi (vital energy) by which Heaven and Earth proceed. Homage to the deities of mountains and rivers, such as those of the Five Sacred Peaks, may be offered according to one’s own circumstances and within one’s capacity. Do not go against Taisui—in traditional belief, the baleful spirit that governs the year and the seasons—and accord with the changes of the four seasons. Cultivate the methods of the Dao that are renewed each day, taking the eight nodes as the appointed periods: Beginning of Spring, Spring Equinox, Beginning of Summer, Summer Solstice, Beginning of Autumn, Autumn Equinox, Beginning of Winter, and Winter Solstice. When praying for blessings and repenting and acknowledging one’s faults, keep purity both within and without. Be sincere and open-hearted, making the mind clear as when incense is burned. Wash away coarseness and defilement, so that body and mind become still more refined and pure; even when already very pure, advance yet further; even when already drawing near to what is true, continue to seek the true. Those who pass off the false as the true and pursue deviant paths will attract evil spirits, and in the end they will inevitably fall back and fail.

“To enter deviant paths while still alive causes the hun and po souls to suffer torment, and the mind and spirit to become disordered, confused, and deranged. Such a person may also invent a teaching of his own, corrupting and profaning the essentials of the methods of the Dao, solely to seek private gain. When offenses accumulate to a certain degree, punishment comes even in life, and one suffers all manner of affliction; after death one falls into hell, enduring throughout the torments of boiling liquid, fire, and roasting on coals, never able to escape. Even if there is a chance of rebirth, one may be born among the six domestic animals—horse, ox, sheep, chicken, dog, and pig—in circumstances far from what one would wish; or one may be born into a lowly household, becoming blind, deaf, or mute, or with limbs incomplete, never in all one’s life seeing the Dao or hearing its teaching, and moreover being driven and put to labor by people and by beasts. Hunger and cold press in together, hardship is unbearable, and life itself is exceedingly fragile. Once the Great Dao is lost, one sinks for a long time into wretched conditions, and the consequences are hard to imagine.”

The Celestial Worthy said further, “A person of De (Virtue/Power), whose filial heart is lofty and far-reaching, accords with the Dao of Heaven and Earth. Therefore Heaven cannot make him perish, nor can Earth bury him away.”

A person of De (Virtue/Power), whose filial heart is profound, lofty, and far-reaching, acts in harmony with the Dao (the Way) of Heaven and Earth. Thus Heaven cannot harm him, the Dao cannot bring him to destruction, and Earth cannot bury him in oblivion. Like frost-jade that has been carved and polished, he at last becomes a treasure of gold and jade that will never be destroyed. Such a person ascends to Heaven and enters the Earth without hindrance.

Long ago there was a man who did not understand the Great Dao. He clung to life and feared death. Each morning and evening he prayed with wholehearted devotion, bowing before a withered tree in the hope of attaining longevity thereby, and he continued for forty years. The Great Dao pitied his sincerity; seeing that he labored diligently without respite, it caused the withered tree to flourish with branches and leaves once more. The man rejoiced greatly and thereafter cultivated with still greater zeal, plucking and consuming the flowers of the tree, and in the end he attained the Dao by this means. What is precious for one who cultivates the Dao is unceasing perseverance: one must continually accumulate merit and let one’s thoughts and conduct be renewed day by day. Divine lamps, divine incense, divine light, and spiritual powers are all confirming signs of the Dao’s manifestation. So long as one’s resolve does not cease, the Dao will descend and teach him the true essentials; this response is not an empty illusion.

In the secular world there are perverse persons who, seeing the arts of the Dao display efficacious power, seek to profit from the opportunity. They solicit donations under other people’s names and appropriate the money for their own use. Clouded by wicked thoughts, they can never attain the Dao. Those who are stingy and greedy and refuse to give lose the way of compassion and have no filial heart. To embrace Daoism for the sake of profit only makes fraud and hypocrisy more serious. The offense of fraud and hypocrisy is one that Heaven and Earth cannot pardon. Those who study the Dao should not associate with such people. They should rebuke them, point out their faults, expel them, and deal with them according to their offenses, and they should not readily believe their false repentance. Other Daoist priests should then take over their property and use it to relieve the poor and the ill. One must not use filthy, unrighteous wealth to construct sacred buildings or to make offerings to the deities.

The halls of filial governance (halls for practicing filial piety and conducting related cultivation) and the pure lodges (quiet places for cultivating the Dao) should be carefully maintained and adorned with solemn dignity, and the buildings must not be allowed to fall into ruin. Those whose conduct is vulgar, whose bodies are filthy and foul-smelling, who suffer from sores and warts and are covered in dirt, who have squandered their family property through indulgence in wine and sensual pleasure, and who eat fish, meat, scallions, garlic, and other pungent or meaty foods, should be forever forbidden to enter. One should not draw near to them, nor allow them to set foot in the zhai kitchen (the kitchen where vegetarian ritual meals are prepared).

The Dao (the Way) says: There are also ten kinds of evil conduct, together with acts of defying one’s parents and failing to fulfill filial piety: secretly harming others and slandering them, thereby destroying the path of goodness; jealousy and arrogance, craving sensual desire, and indulgence in drink; a love of eating fish and meat, and hunting and killing; theft and robbery, and faith in deviant ways; a heart without thoughts of kindness or filial devotion, and unjust dealings; keeping poor relatives at a distance while drawing close to the wealthy; delight in mocking and ridiculing others, and a zeal for strife; a habit of storing up weapons, and no heart of forbearance; thinking only of oneself while harming others. All of these are things that filial piety dreads and shuns; they also cause both people and animals to feel fear, and they are unfit for hearing the great Dao. One ought to keep far from such conduct and not draw near to it.

The unsurpassed great Dao proclaims these teachings so that wise rulers of later ages may govern the world through filial piety, and so that filial children may repay the kindness of their parents. By this the family and the state are ordered, the world is brought to peace, and the four quarters are united as one. Everyone should practice the utmost filial piety. Whoever obtains this Jing (scripture), whether man or woman, noble or humble, should recite and uphold it morning and evening, in order to repay the profound grace of their parents.

When this Jing was expounded, divine lamps appeared in the heavens and brightness shone all around; heavenly bells and stone chimes sounded together, and celestial songs and music arose as if coming from the void; heavenly incense and heavenly flowers drifted and turned with the wind. All people of the household and the state should venerate this Jing, grasp the principles within it, and carry them out in practice, and they should also urge those around them to hear it. If one wishes to copy it for transmission, one should prepare clean paper and brushes, bathe and make oneself pure, and then burn incense while copying. Copying a hundred scrolls or a thousand scrolls, circulating and offering them widely, with incense and lamps never ceasing and the mind never growing slack, one can thereby attain the Dao, and the merit gained is beyond conception.

Here ends the Scripture of the Primordial Beginning, Dongzhen (of the Three Caverns), on Benevolence and Compassion, the Filial Child’s Repayment of Kindness, and Attainment of the Dao.

Here ends the whole of the Yuanshi Dongzhen Cishan Xiaozi Bao’en Chengdao Jing, the Scripture (Jing) of the Primordial Beginning and Dongzhen (one of the Three Caverns) on Charity and Kindness, the Filial Son’s Repayment of Kindness, and Attainment of the Dao.

Where the text reads “crystal hues shine in clear brilliance; the eyes hold the heart of the Dipper; before the stars is the image of the sun,” the Baxian Wang Jiaojie Jing, the Scripture of Admonitions of the King of the Eight Immortals, reads “crystal hues dazzle the eyes; on the back is the star of the Dipper; before the heart is the likeness of the sun,” and the sense runs more smoothly.

Where the text reads “bearing a lotus,” the Scripture of Admonitions of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “a round lotus.”

Where the text reads “not something that can be named or designated,” the Baxian Wang Jing, the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals, reads “a glare that dazzles ear and eye.”

The word “already” was originally written with the character for “by means of”; it has been corrected on the basis of the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals.

The word “three” has been supplied on the basis of the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals.

The word “draw forth” was originally written with the character for “friend”; it has been corrected on the basis of the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals.

Where the text reads “that liking,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “rather fond.”

Where the text reads “without wholesome causes and conditions,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “originating in causes and conditions.”

As for these eight lines—“Once they are already one in nonbeing, there is nowhere that is not nonbeing; there being nowhere that is not nonbeing, there is likewise nowhere that is not being. There being nowhere that is not being, all is silent, solitary, empty, and open; there being nowhere that is not nonbeing, one responds and transforms according to the mind”—the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals writes them thus: “Once they are already one in nonbeing, there is nowhere that is not nonbeing; there is nowhere that is not being, and likewise nowhere that is not being. There being nowhere that is not nonbeing, all is silent, solitary, empty, and open; there being nowhere that is not being, one responds and transforms according to the mind.”

The word “below” was originally written with the character for “not”; it has been corrected on the basis of the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals.

Where the text reads “the fruit beyond birth and death,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “the fruit of neither birth nor death.”

Where the text reads “neither diminishing nor arising, and without form or appearance,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “Is it not without extinction or arising, and without form?”

Where the text reads “the worldly people of the later age,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “human beings born in the later age.”

Where the text reads “cast out into forced service,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “cast out and brought into contact.”

Where the text reads “gold and treasures,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “gathering profit.”

The word “save” was originally written with the character for “seek”; it has been corrected on the basis of the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals.

Where the text reads “that resolve,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “establishing resolve.”

Where the text reads “celestial songs,” the Scripture of the King of the Eight Immortals reads “celestial Brahmā.”