《玄天上帝说报父母恩重经》

Subtle affinity (miaoyuan, subtle causes and conditions) and subtle practice (miaoxing, subtle good deeds) do not originally arise through cultivation or accumulation. Yet from within cultivation one may cultivate further and thereby realize subtle affinity, and from within accumulation one may go on accumulating good deeds and thereby reach the subtle realm. Subtle principle originally issues from the void, while deep and far-reaching accumulation brings it into manifestation. One therefore proclaims subtle affinity widely, urging people to cultivation through words, and makes subtle practice plain, setting an example of accumulating good through concrete deeds. Because subtle affinity and subtle practice can link cultivation with accumulation, every thought and every act of beings in the world is likewise bound up with causes and conditions and with conduct.

People lose their original nature and cast aside their inherent purity, clinging instead to what actually exists. Consider parents giving birth to children: at first no concrete form is visible; only later, when life lodges in a form, does actual existence appear. Once there is form, all manner of changes in appearance arise. Hardship, affliction, worry, and sorrow all come from attachment to form. Because I lodge in a form, I continually trouble my parents and cause them grief day and night. As my form grows, my father and mother grow ever older; precisely because of me, the original face they once had is gradually buried. Parents and children succeed one another in this way, cycling without end. All who cling to form fall at last into suffering.

From this day forward, within my own attachment, I will dispel craving and anger and break through the steep obstacles that are hard to cross. With a mind of equality I will hold the practice in remembrance, repaying the original kindness of my parents so that they may gain the greatest joy and suffer affliction no more. May my parents, in every life into which they are born, possess a complete form that does not decay, and then pass beyond the bonds of form. May the original nature return to non-attachment, so that attachment to form is extinguished together with it. Both the original nature and my form return to the primordial beginning. Where there is no mark of attachment, there is likewise no visible mark. Neither clinging to “being” nor falling into “non-being,” one meets with no obstruction. With nothing to block or close the way, one follows what is so of itself, casts off entanglements, and does not fall into the sea of suffering. May all people believe in and receive this principle, and recite and practice it every day.

The “Sacred Name of the Dark Emperor for Repaying Kindness” refers to the sacred name used by the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven (Xuantian Shangdi), a revered Daoist deity, in the cultivation of repaying kindness.

With the utmost sincerity I take refuge in Xuantian Shangdi (the principal deity of the North venerated in Daoism). The Dao (the Way) of the Mysterious Origin manifests as a god; the Wuqu star differentiates and gives forth the true spirit (Shen), who looks down with care upon us living beings that possess form and appearance. We are born through reliance on our parents. A mother carries the child in the womb for ten months and nurses and raises the child for three years. Parents endure countless hardships and, at every moment, hold us in earnest concern, and so they grow old day by day. Now, with a mind of equanimity, I recite the holy name, wishing to eliminate faults such as a harsh countenance, greed, and excessive caution. I honor Xuantian Shangdi as my teacher and pray for his grace, so as to repay the kindness of birth and rearing. May parents still living enjoy increased blessing and longevity, and may parents who have passed away soon attain deliverance. Greatly Holy and Greatly Compassionate, Greatly Benevolent and Greatly Filial, Teaching Lord of the Eighty-Two Transformations Who Repays Kindness, True Warrior Who Protects the Holy, Fortune God Who Orders the World, Prime Minister of the Jade Void, Xuantian Shangdi, Celestial Worthy and incarnate body of the Golden Portal: I pray that you bestow grace, enabling us to repay the fundamental kindness. May parents still in the world have their blessings and lifespan increased, and may deceased parents soon attain liberation.

In former times, the Great Emperor of Taiqing (Supreme Clarity), in his eighty-second transformation, was born as the crown prince of King Jingle and Miaoxiang, the Celestial Sovereign. At the age of seven he left his parents and his country and entered Mount Taihe to cultivate the Dao. After forty-two years of practice, his merit was complete and he was raised aloft; he took guard over the North and became Xuantian Shangdi. Mindful of how profound was the kindness of his parents in giving him birth and raising him, Xuantian Shangdi therefore expounded this scripture (Jing).

If faithful men and women take to heart the teaching of Xuantian Shangdi, set filial piety in their minds, observe the fast for three years, and bow while reciting the holy name eighteen thousand times—corresponding to the number of titles in one complete canon of the Dao Jing—they thereby repay the kindness of three years of nursing and rearing by their parents. If those resolved upon cultivation can also study the meaning of the scripture and advance diligently in cultivating the Dao, then even across a hundred million kalpas they can repay the fourfold kindness, parents among them, and can further relieve the sufferings of the Ninefold Darkness and the Three Paths. The significance of this is not limited to repaying the kindness of one’s parents.

The scripture cites a saying: “Of the ten thousand scrolls of immortal scriptures, loyalty and filial piety stand first.” It also says: “When one person learns the Dao, nine generations of ancestors can ascend to heaven.” This is precisely the principle meant. Written by Zhao Yizhen, ritual master and successor to the teaching of the Mysterious Gate.