《洞玄灵宝道要经》

The Great Dao (the Way)—the supreme and unsurpassed “Dao”—is profound, empty, and still, silent and remote, and bears no fixed name. The Way of Filial Piety (the way of honoring one’s parents and revering the Great Dao) arises from within the formless and from Wuwei (non-action); from this, life is received and bodily form is brought forth. Bodily form comes into being by following the Way of Filial Piety, and this nameless root is called the “Dao.” The Dao dwells in the highest place and mysteriously responds to the realm below. Its renown and meritorious practice are lofty and far-reaching, the benefits it bestows are vast, its spiritual powers meet with no obstruction, and it has neither end nor beginning. For this reason it is called the Way of Filial Piety.

None of the myriad things that possess form can grow without the Dao, nor be brought to completion without filial piety. Thus the Great Dao gives birth to primordial Qi (vital energy); primordial Qi gives birth to Taiji (Supreme Ultimate); Taiji gives birth to Heaven and Earth; and Heaven and Earth give birth to the myriad things. Among the myriad things, the human being is the most honored; among the myriad spirits, the Great Dao is the most revered. Because the Great Dao is honored with humaneness and the Way of Filial Piety, this is called the Way of Filial Piety. The Dao is the father of the myriad things, and is also called their mother. It is further said: “The Dao gives birth to the One; the One gives birth to the Two; the Two give birth to the Three; the Three give birth to the myriad things.” When the myriad things obtain the Dao they flourish; when they lose the Dao they decline and perish.

One who cultivates the Dao should be subtle and yielding, humble and gentle, patient under insult and filled with loving kindness, practice the Way of Filial Piety, and go on to cultivate the way of the centered and upright, without slackening within. By cultivating oneself through the Way of Filial Piety, one repays the grace of the root. The Mysterious Father and the Mysterious Mother—the profound and wondrous parental grace spoken of in Daoism—bestow immense kindness upon human beings; therefore the Way of Filial Piety must be practiced. The heart arises from emptiness and stillness, and the Dao returns to the formless. Emptiness and non-being respond to one another, and correspondence comes about without any need for action. Once there is response, the Dao is brought to completion, and the Way of Filial Piety is likewise brought to completion.

Therefore one should meet the myriad things with an empty heart, and the myriad things will meet one with an empty heart in return. Only after this mutual regard can spiritual intentions communicate; first let spiritual intentions communicate, and then let bodily forms communicate. When both body and Shen (spirit) are fully open, the Way of Filial Piety is accomplished. The Dao can pass in and out between the formed and the formless, differentiating into countless bodies and present everywhere: in Heaven it is the celestial spirits, and on Earth it is the earth deities (the gods of the earth). The celestial spirits and the earth deities are the manifestation of the original Jing (essence) and Qi of the two luminaries—the sun and the moon. They shine day and night, nurturing all living beings; in the east they preside over the Nine Yi, in the south over the Eight Man, in the west over the Six Rong, in the north over the Five Di, and in the center over the Three Tai. Even peoples of differing lineages in remote regions, and living beings of every manner of life in the waters and upon the land, all depend upon the Dao in order to receive birth.

A mother nurtures her children with loving kindness, and the children respond with the Way of Filial Piety. Once life has come into being, one ought to know how to repay the kindness that nurtured one; even birds, beasts, and insects know how to return kindness. One who violates the Way of Filial Piety is not even the equal of birds and beasts. One who does not practice filial piety and turns away from fundamental grace is a vicious person, not a person of noble character, and cannot be called a Daoist priest; such a one is in truth a ghost laden with guilt.

In all the ethical relations among human beings, one who does not practice the Way of Filial Piety, even upon seeing good conduct, is unwilling to follow it, and upon hearing the principle does not believe it. Yet the Dao still bestows grace like a compassionate mother and never, to the end, abandons living beings. The Dao manifests in the world through every kind of expedient means, displays all manner of divine transformations, and leaves behind subtle signs of verification. If one still cannot make use of these revelations, one is called a “dushi” (a bodily shell ruined as if eaten away by wood-boring insects), and is also like a “tuopo” (the term of the original text, referring to a ruined, soul-bereft condition). The Jing that guards the corpse still remains within the body of such a person.

At this point the Lofty and Brilliant True King (a revered deity of Daoism) composed a hymn, saying:

Do not say that the Dao (the Way) of filial piety is unreal, nor that the Great Dao lacks the power of the gods. When the Dao of filial piety is practiced, light shines upon all under heaven and also illumines one’s own heart. If the mind is confused, benighted, and unawakened, one hesitates and wavers, missing the chance to seek a path of life. When favorable conditions arrive, they examine a person’s merit and reputation; without merit, one can never in the end obtain deliverance. Heaven is still and without joy, while the hells are filled with cold. To you who cultivate the Dao I say: diligently set foot on the path of becoming an immortal and realizing the true. Do not follow those foolish beings who die, their bodies turning to dust and gathering as food for mole-crickets and ants. Once fallen as a short-lived, drifting ghost, one forgets the path of life even through ten thousand kalpas; the punishments of boiling broth, fire, and roasting charcoal have no end, and one can only keep the grave in blank confusion.

At that time, after the True King (Zhenwang, a revered deity of Daoism) had finished this hymn, he bent a finger and snapped it. The sound reached the Eighteen Hells of Boiling Broth and Charcoal and the Six Palaces of the Gates of Sin (places in hell where sinners are punished). He then composed another hymn of suffering. Heaven stands forever open, and hell has never been closed; suffering has no respite, and guilty ghosts come in throngs. When thirsty they drink scalding cauldron broth, and when hungry they eat burning ashes. Why have they lost the Dao of filial piety? Wealth and sensual desire are precisely the means that invite disaster. In the strength of life they will not cultivate the Dao, and only at the point of death do they wish to turn back; hearing the Dao of filial piety, they mock and slander it instead, and in the end they can only grieve for a long time amid broth and fire.

Thereupon, when the True King had finished this hymn, he sent forth the radiance of the Dao of filial piety, shining through all under heaven. The radiance became bright lamps, illuminating the Eighteen Great-Earth Hells of Accumulated Night (hells of long darkness). The True King’s compassionate breath transformed into five-colored immortal clouds, spreading over and covering the boundless worlds of the ten directions. All these guilty ghosts were pardoned at the same time. At the Mysterious Ford (Xuanjin, the wondrous crossing that symbolizes the washing away of sinful defilement) they cleansed body and mind, ascended the Phoenix Steps (the staircase leading to the realm of the immortals), worshipped and repented, confessed their faults, rejoiced and celebrated, rested in peaceful delight, and sang. In the Six Palaces the name-registers of sinners have been removed; within the Ninefold Darkness there are no longer souls of grievance and enmity. Heavenly lamps illuminate the dark chambers, and we bow our heads in worship of the Mysterious Gate (Xuanmen, the gate of the Dao). The Three Officials (Sanguan, the divine offices governing Heaven, Earth, and Water) no longer pursue our offenses, and from now on we return to the Honored Sovereign of Imperial Unity (Diyi, a revered deity of Daoism).

At that time, the sinful ghost, having finished singing this song, still had not obtained the chance of rebirth and returned once more to the grave. Every night he appeared in dreams to his descendants, saying, “If you wish both the living and the dead to have their hopes fulfilled, quickly burn incense and set out offerings for the departed souls in the Ninefold Darkness (Jiuyou, the realm of the underworld), raise a refined hall (Jingshe, a place for cultivation and offerings), and prepare beds and sitting mats. Devote yourselves single-mindedly to cultivating the Dao (the Way), and with compassion come to the rescue of all beings. Through incense and lamps entrust your vows, thereby repaying the kindness of your parents and the grace of the Great Dao; recite and spread the scriptures and teachings (Jing), so as to help the state remain secure and the people safe and well; relieve the orphaned, the suffering, and those in peril, and heal sickness and plague; guard the One in cultivation, accumulate merit and virtue, and urge others to do good.”

At this, ordinary people were stirred by what the dream revealed and, in their sleep, startled awake into clear understanding. They saw heavenly lamps lighting the courtyard, the radiance striking straight into their hearts, and thus they grasped the principle within. For eighteen years they practiced filial piety and revered the Dao, and they attained the fruit of the Six Penetrations (supernatural powers that grant insight into many realms). Their forebears who had died earlier were likewise delivered in the Southern Palace (Nangong, the place where, in Daoist belief, departed souls receive deliverance), reborn into a blessed land, able to behold the Dao and hear the teaching, and they ascended to the rank of immortals.

The Dao says: Vast is the De (Virtue/Power) and overflowing grace of the Great Dao. Filial piety can move and connect the underworld with the human world, so that both realms receive deliverance.

The Dao (the Way) says: the Dao and De (Virtue/Power) are vast and great, and the way of filial piety can reach and move both the hidden realm and the world of the living. Guilty ghosts are thereby pardoned and continue to cultivate the Dao, and descendants, too, can come to understand filial piety in the unseen. Those who practice my Dao should first practice filial piety and only then cultivate the Dao; for this reason it is called the “way of filial piety.”

In former times there was a man who first cultivated the Dao and only later thought of practicing filial piety. The Dao is neither born nor extinguished, yet human beings are born and die. His cultivation had not yet succeeded, and when he wished to fulfill his filial duty his parents were already gone from the world. Because he had not been filial in time, he grieved beyond measure and injured his body, mind, and Qi (vital energy); this brought him no benefit. Past the age of forty, the signs of aging appeared. The practice he had guarded with a single mind was thereby broken off, and his sorrowful heart could not be calmed for a long time. At sixty he collapsed among the graves. Three years passed, and still his body and Shen (spirit-consciousness) had not dispersed. Numinous birds spread their wings to shelter him, and fierce beasts stood guard at his side.

On the seventh day of the seventh month, just at the Beginning of Autumn, the Taiyi Tianzun, a venerated deity of Daoism, leaned down in compassion for him. At the Autumn Equinox the Tianzun sent an immortal envoy bearing qiongdan—the numinous elixir of which the immortals speak—down into the mortal world to save him. As soon as he swallowed it he returned to life, as though waking from sleep. The Eight Kings of the Western Palace bestowed on him a biaolun, the flying chariot of the immortal realm, received him into the celestial mansion, and granted him the title “Filial Immortal.” He has now passed through ninety thousand great kalpas. His form is like gold and jade, his complexion like clouds; he can pass in and out of life and death, and he endures forever without perishing.

When the Filial Immortal first began his practice, he suffered extreme hardship. He passed through wind and frost without changing his resolve, and endured hunger and affliction without wavering. In cultivating the Dao, what is precious is the completion of the elixir, and still more a lofty aspiration; only by keeping to purity and uprightness and holding fast to integrity can one attain the true fruit. He ascended to the upper realm riding a cloud chariot. Even now he continues to practice filial piety, often recalling his parents and feeling gratitude for their profound kindness, for it was they who enabled him to attain the Dao—a grace beyond all conception.

In a kalpa of the past there was a man of the utmost filial piety. Both his parents lived to the age of one hundred and thirty-seven, and the son himself was already one hundred and five. He was expert in medicinal formulas and regularly took elixir medicines; parents and son alike had strong sinews and bones and vigor that did not fail. And so the filial son dressed in brightly colored clothes and, skilled in music, sang and danced twice each day to delight his parents.

Later, one day, the parents suddenly died, as peacefully as if they had fallen asleep. Their bodies felt no pain, and mind and Shen were not disordered. The filial son built a tomb and buried them. Crows and wild beasts gathered to help, carrying earth in their beaks and mouths to raise the grave. After three years the tomb stood a hundred feet high. The filial son then put up a hut beside the grave and lived there for nine years, fulfilling filial piety while cultivating the Dao. The divine candles of the world appeared and illumined his heart and resolve. The Incense Officials, divine officers who preside over incense, took the numinous signs around the tomb as tokens of the Dao. Heaven, Earth, and his parents, moved by his sincerity, bestowed on him jiaoli, the numinous fruit of which the immortals speak, and led him up into the Western Palace, granting him the title “Golden-Light Filial Son, Bright-Jade True Youth.” He attained the Dao in old age, and now his appearance has been restored to that of a youth. Although he has already attained the Dao and become a Perfected One, he still does not forget the way of filial piety.

If ordinary people forget kindness and betray what is right, and fail to practice humaneness and De, how do they differ from corpses? If they defy Heaven and Earth, sink into lust and drink, covet wealth without righteousness, think only of themselves while harming others, eat fish and flesh raw so that blood stains the mouth and a rank, gamy stench spreads over the whole body, and put their faith in evil spirits; or if, for the sake of profit, they leave the household, falsely claim to revere the Dao, destroy merit, steal the wealth of the teaching, and indulge in wine and sensual pleasure without ever knowing satiety—then even if they plead in sorrow at the hour of death, their guilt was fixed long before. The living Shen within the body no longer abide in peace; the mind grows confused, Qi weakens, and the complexion changes. Even if regret arises in the heart, pardon cannot be gained on that account. Hun and po scatter and suffer in every place; the corpse is gnawed by crickets and ants, bone and flesh turn to soil, the five viscera rot, and there is no longer a human form.

I tell you, people of generations yet to come: if you wish to practice the way of filial piety, diligently recite the Jing (scriptures) and the precepts, carefully observe body and mind, and cut off every greedy attachment. When greedy clinging is cut off, afflictions disappear, for affliction is born of desire. If desire can be cut off, one can forever sever the grasping that turns the wheel of birth and death; body and mind are at ease, the mind of the Dao is vast, and ancestors of seven generations together receive the blessing. How could it be only oneself who attains the Dao?

The spiritual power of the way of filial piety is as vast as Heaven and Earth. All the myriad things between Heaven and Earth are brought forth by the transformations of Heaven and Earth; only parents are not made out of nothing. One ought to practice filial piety and repay the great kindness of one’s parents; one ought also to cultivate the Dao, keep the fast and observe the precepts, deliver one’s ancestors, burn incense and light lamps, and relieve suffering. When ancestors are sunk in suffering, they look to their descendants to seek help from the spiritual power of the Dao, so that they may be set free. It is like a prisoner bound in cangue and chains who hopes to meet with an act of grace, have the offense removed, and once more be happy and at ease, the heart free of care.

The offenses reckoned in the hidden realm and in the yang world of the living are largely the same, differing only in small ways. To be guilty and then meet with pardon is not as good as having been innocent from the start; although the guilt may be remitted, the record of it still remains. Lose even one form of De, and for the rest of one’s life it is hard to be trusted. Therefore a person must not lose the Dao of life, nor forget the Dao. To forget the Dao and lose the Dao of life is to become a guilty ghost, no longer called a human being. To forget the Dao and lose the Dao is to be carried along by circumstances, turning without end. It is like drifting on the great sea, not knowing the sea’s limit, wishing to return to the island of former days, yet being swept away by wind and waves and forever losing the way home. Those who lose the Dao of life are just the same.

While the body is still strong, and what is hard to accomplish can still be done in time, why not hasten to practice filial piety and cultivate the supreme Dao, forever cutting off the causes and conditions of the cycle of birth and death and of affliction?

“Those who hear of my Dao (the Way) are worthy persons; only those who practice in accordance with my Dao are Zhenren (Perfected Persons).” At this the Immortal King (sovereign of the realm of immortals) composed a hymn, saying:

Do you wish to know the scene when the way of filial piety flourishes? The hall is filled with maidens in attendance; the inner palace is secluded and beautiful, assisting princes and dukes and bringing the fortune of the age to fulfillment. At that time the Dao I transmit can be put into practice: celestial lamps shine brightly everywhere, divine incense clears and brightens people’s mind and consciousness, and auspicious clouds of Qi (vital energy) rise among the mountains and wilds. Enemy states cease their campaigns, and within the four seas arms are no longer taken up. Those who can observe the precepts of filial piety will soon see an age of great peace.

The Dao says: The Dao does not come of its own accord to cultivate people; people must cultivate the Dao themselves. The nature of the Dao is natural and spontaneous; if people do not follow the Dao, they will not spontaneously bring the human way to completion. People are not born already able to accord with the natural Dao, and so they ought to be diligent and strive forward. In cultivating the natural Dao, although there are thirty-six thousand essential methods, all of them should fundamentally take filial piety as their guiding principle.

There has never been anyone who was unloving and unfilial, who even defied their parents and killed their ruler, and yet still attained the Dao. Those who are neither loyal nor filial are called the “ten evil persons” (people who commit the ten kinds of evil deeds). While alive they violate the king’s law; after death they fall into hell. Through the cycle of birth and death they are continually punished, with no term set for release, and in the end they fall into the path of hungry ghosts.

The Dao says: To cultivate the Dao (the Way) with utterly sincere filial devotion is to practice the Way of filial piety. The Dao dwells within sincere filial conduct; without filial piety, one cannot accord with the Dao. Why is this so? Filial piety allows a person to become compassionate, to endure humiliation, to advance diligently, to bear hardship, to hold fast to the right path, and to subdue every kind of demonic obstruction.

When faced with wealth, beauty, wine and meat, or with fame, glory, and rank, people often struggle and compete, even raising armies and killing one another. The truly filial person is unburdened by all of this, devoted solely to guarding the Dao without wavering, and so the demonic obstructions subside of themselves. A steadfast practice of filial piety is like a golden gate: it seals the road that leads to death and cuts off the paths by which demons stir up chaos. In this way, both inner and outer are made pure and still, and one can devote oneself wholly to the practice of filial piety. Within the heart there is no strife, and outwardly there is no hidden calamity lying in wait.

The Way of filial piety has no form, so one cannot cling to any particular shape of it; yet it is vast, so one cannot cast it aside either. Neither grasping nor abandoning is what it truly means to practice it. It can meet every kind of circumstance, like a treasury that can never be exhausted. Because it is inexhaustible, there is no need to be attached to taking or leaving; if one takes and leaves, there will be depletion and slackness. To reach depletion is to fall out of accord with the Dao; to be slack is not to be filial. Only what is neither depleted nor slack deserves to be called the Way of filial piety.

The Way of filial piety is like breathing: the breath cannot be allowed to stop. When the breath stops, the body perishes; when filial devotion stops, the Dao declines. Therefore, whether in the span of a single breath, or while walking or resting, one must keep it in mind and never let it slip from thought. If one lets go of this steadfastness, the Dao will decline, and so it must never be abandoned.

The Dao (the Way) says: Men and women of future ages who wish to attain the Dao of filial piety should not seek it for the sake of gain, nor seek it for the sake of physical beauty. Gain breeds delusion and craving, and delusion and craving are not in accord with the Dao. Physical beauty gives rise to jealousy, and all the causes and conditions of affliction likewise increase because of beauty. Jealousy is not De (Virtue/Power), and affliction is not in accord with the Dao. If one seeks the Dao while harboring thoughts of craving beauty, the Dao cannot be attained.

The Dao is not found in sacrificial rites and cannot be obtained through offerings of wine and meat. Seeking the Dao ought to be pure; one cannot approach it with a mind that is defiled and disrespectful. In seeking the Dao of filial piety one must not harbor selfish motives, nor rely solely on cleverness and intelligence. In seeking the Great Dao—the fundamental and universal principle—no form is seen, and it cannot be sought through outward appearances.

Those who seek the Dao should seek with a mind that looks for nothing to obtain, and should not cling to thoughts of the past or the future. They should seek with a mind that neither arises nor ceases—a mind not attached to the arising or vanishing of thoughts—a concealed and unostentatious mind, a broad mind, and a plain and upright mind. They should also seek with a mind of patient endurance and diligent effort, a still and gentle mind, and a mind of compassion and utmost filial piety. Here only the essentials of seeking the Dao are briefly set forth; one may extend them according to these principles, and in time one will naturally come to understand.

At that time the True King, an honorific title in the scripture, briefly explained the essentials of seeking the Dao for people of future ages, so that they might be transmitted and put into practice. Those who obtain this scripture, if they can recite it morning and evening and single-mindedly cultivate the principles within it, will accomplish the realm of the Dao in the heart—a state beyond conception.

The Dongxuan Lingbao Daoyao Jing, the Scripture (Jing) of the Essentials of the Dao of the Numinous Treasure of the Cavern of Mystery (Dongxuan), ends here.

What follows are collation notes on the scripture, recording differences of wording among the versions. The character wu, “without,” reads yuan, “primordial,” in the base text and has been emended to wu on the authority of the Dunhuang manuscript. The fifteen characters from you yue, “it is further said,” through wan wu, “the myriad things,” are absent from the Dunhuang manuscript. The character juan, “weary,” is likewise written juan in the Dunhuang manuscript. In both places, the character xuan, “mysterious,” is written yuan in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character du, “to eat away,” is written ling in the Dunhuang manuscript. The four characters ru du kui, “as if jealous and ashamed,” are written you du mei, “there is jealous bewitchment,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. In one place the character ran is written ling in the Dunhuang manuscript, and in another place ran is written chuan, “to transmit.” For the two characters han hu, “bitter cold,” the Dunhuang manuscript preserves two readings: one place has yuan, and another has hao hu, “to wail and cry out.”

The two characters yi tang, “ritual hall,” are written shan nan, “good men,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The four characters yu shi zhen wang, “thereupon the True King,” are written shi shi liu men, “at that time the six gates,” in the Dunhuang manuscript; elsewhere, before the character fang, “to release,” the Dunhuang manuscript adds the four characters yu shi zhen wang. The two characters wu se, “five colors,” are written qi se wu se, “seven colors and five colors,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character shi, “chamber,” is written shi, “to discern,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character wu, “to realize,” is written wu, “to wake from sleep,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character er, “and,” is written xiao, “filial,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character dai, “to await,” is written shou, “to keep,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The sentence wei bu dai gu, ze you fu ai zhi tong, “because one does not await, there is then the anguish of suppressed grief,” is written in the Dunhuang manuscript as shi gu ze you fu shuai, “therefore there is then concealed decline.”

The character yi, “to increase,” is written bian, “to change,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character shi, “corpse,” is written si, “death,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character tu is written tu, the graph for the bitter plant, in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character cheng, “to complete,” is written cheng, “sincere,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The two characters zhong you, “within there is,” are written shi zhong zhou, “at that time the central province,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The two characters fen ying are written xian ying, “offering an infant,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character jiao, “to join,” is written wen, “pattern,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character kua, “to collapse,” is written wu, “to defile,” in the Dunhuang manuscript.

The character xin, “trust,” reads yan, “speech,” in the base text and has been emended to xin on the authority of the Dunhuang manuscript. The character shi, “to lose,” reads yang in the base text and has been emended to shi on the authority of the Dunhuang manuscript. The two characters nü tong, “female attendant,” are written yu tong, “jade lad,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character cheng, “sincere,” is written jie, “precept,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character tai, “great,” is written tai, “exalted,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The four characters bu xiu ren dao, “does not cultivate the human Dao,” are written gu bu xiu ren, “therefore does not cultivate the human,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character shen, “body,” is written si, “death,” in the Dunhuang manuscript. The character xin, “heart-mind,” is written bi, “must,” in the Dunhuang manuscript.