The Grand Clarity Liturgy of the Manifest Transformations of the Tao and Its Virtue

Zhengtong Taoist Canon, Dongshen Division, Rites Category

1. Presenting birthday offerings

2. Proclaim the Guardian Spirit Incantation and state one's register office

Your servant XXX, stating his office, announces to: Lord Lao the Most High (Taishang Laojun) of the Limitless Great Tao of the Three Heavens, Supreme Mysterious Primordial of Grand Clarity, the Heavenly Worthy of the Tao and Its Virtue (Daode Tianzun); the Holy Mother, Great Holy Empress of Prior Heaven, the Primordial Sovereign Taiyi; the lords and elders of Dongshen of Grand Clarity, the High Minister, High Steward, High Protector, and High Tutor; the officials of all the bureaus—chancellors, ministers, and supervisors—of the Three Heavens and Four Ministers; the ranks of immortal bureaus and numinous officers; and the true spirits of the Three Realms. We all look to your vast compassion to turn and look down upon us. Your servant has heard: the great void is vast and empty, and above it is the imperial homeland; the primordial qi is faint and boundless, and within it abides the body of the Tao. He looks with favor on the realm of Grand Clarity, the dwelling of vast kalpas. The qi of the Tao in hundreds of millions, layered realms of primal vastness, and the twelve hundred official lords of this domain are made ministers by creative transformation. Wondrous being and wondrous non-being, elusive and evanescent. Though his merit does not rule, it is bestowed through benevolence to the people and loving nurture; though his traces are fundamentally hard to trace, they are revealed through handing down teachings to the world. Your servant XXX has humbly examined the records and presumed to fathom the holy spirit. Of old, in the ninth year of Wu Ding's reverent reign, on the full-moon day when the handle of the Dipper pointed to Yin, it is said that the birth of the Primordial Unity truly fell on this day. Therefore the celebration of the rites has flourished in the world. This merely shows the longing and admiration of human hearts; how could it add luster to the holy virtue? On this day the disciples XXX and others, rejoicing and revering deeply, sing without ceasing. We have cleared the pure altar and set out the offering, and hasten to the cinnabar steps to raise the cup. We humbly pray that you will not reject us in our lowliness, but especially turn to our banquet. The blue ox and the purple qi, solemn as at the time you passed through Hangu Pass; the white horse with red mane, just as on the day you descended to Mount Mao. May the host of Perfected gather together, and a single thought secretly communicate. Your servants gaze up to the heavenly steps, overwhelmed with fixed anticipation. Reverently we bow our heads and bow again to make our invitation.

3. Inviting the holy ones

With utmost sincerity and reverence, we respectfully invite: the Divine Lord, Supreme Heavenly Emperor of Grand Clarity; the Heavenly Emperor Elder of Grand Clarity; the Lord of the Immortal Capital of the Nine Elders of Grand Clarity; the Elder of the Nine Qi of Grand Clarity; the High Minister, the Azure Lad Lord of the Palace of Fangzhu; the High Steward, the True King Lord of Xicheng Who Governs the Perfected; the High Protector, the Primordial Sovereign of the South Pole of Great Cinnabar; the High Tutor, the Primordial Sovereign of Great Simplicity of the Palace of Baishan; the Great Ritual Master of the Mysterious Center, the Elder of the River Bank; Master Wenshi, the Perfected Yin; the High Minister of Great Mystery, True Lord Zhang; the High Minister of the Heavenly Mechanism, True Lord Ge; the High Minister of the Heavenly Pivot, True Lord Xu; the Secretary High Minister, True Lord Fuqiu; the Perfected of Great Possession of the Upper Prime; the Immortal Elder of the Supreme Ultimate of the Middle Prime; the Immortal Earl of Grand Clarity of the Lower Prime; the High Minister of the Supreme Ultimate of Dongshen; the Immortal Earl of the Supreme Ultimate of Dongshen; the High Immortal of Great Mystery of Dongshen; the Commander-in-Chief of the Dharma Protectors of the Three Heavens who governs Dongshen; the Grand Commander of the Great Troops of the Nine Heavens of Dongshen; the Chief Minister of Great Subtlety of Dongshen; the Chief Minister of the Supreme Ultimate of Dongshen; the Ministers of the Wood Ministry, the Fire Ministry, the Metal Ministry, the Water Ministry, and the Earth Ministry of Dongshen; the Grand Minister of Great Subtlety Who Protects the Troops of Dongshen; the Grand Minister of the Supreme Ultimate Who Increases the Reckoning of Dongshen; the Grand Minister, High Immortal of the Purple Bureau of Dongshen; the Supervisor of Immortal Majesty, Great Immortal of Dongshen; the Grandee, High Immortal of the Supreme Ultimate of Dongshen; the Protector Commandant Who Beheads Demons in the Three Heavens of Dongshen; the Grand Minister, High Immortal of the Azure Void of Dongshen; the Supervisor, High Immortal Who Protects Destiny in the Nine Heavens of Dongshen; the Grand Supervisor of the Seven Governors of Purple Tenuity of Dongshen; the Grand Supervisor of the Covenant with the Powers of the Golden Gate of Dongshen; the Grand Supervisor of Fusang and Yanggu of Dongshen; the Supervisor, High Immortal of the Supreme Ultimate of Dongshen; the Grand Supervisor, Immortal Magistrate of the Mysterious Capital of Dongshen; the Recorder of Troops of the Immortal Bureau of the Supreme Ultimate of Dongshen; the Rectifier Who Protects the Bureau of the Nine Heavens of Dongshen; the Grand Supervisor of Clouds and Mists of the Nine Heavens of Dongshen; the Colonel of the Purple Bureau of Dongshen; the True Supervisor of the Six Brightnesses and Bright Emptiness of Dongshen; the Protector Commandant of the Immortal Capital of the Eight Poles of Dongshen; the Grand Supervisor of the North Pole of Dongshen; the Capital Bureau Lord Who Governs the Spirits of the Supreme Ultimate of Dongshen; the twelve hundred official lords of Grand Clarity; the bureau officers of all the palaces of Grand Clarity who receive petitions; the Golden Lads and Jade Maidens who attend the incense on the left and right in Grand Clarity; the Dragon and Tiger Lords who stand guard on the left and right in Grand Clarity; the Perfected Langlanggan; the Perfected Kou of Mount Song; the Perfected of Grand Clarity who have transmitted the Tao through the ages; the gods and immortals of Grand Clarity who opened transformation in the Three Realms; the incense officers and envoys on daily duty; and the upright god, the Earth God of this locality.

4. Bringing down the holy ones

Your servants, in sincere trepidation and awe, bowing our heads and knocking our heads to the ground, bowing again with reverence, petition Lord Lao the Most High of the Limitless Great Tao of the Three Heavens, Supreme Mysterious Primordial of Grand Clarity, the Heavenly Worthy of the Tao and Its Virtue. Your servants respectfully hope that your vast compassion will shed its light on the precious seat.

5. Prelude of Grand Clarity music

Your servants, not measuring our mortal foolishness, have presumed to invite the heavenly retinue. We humbly imagine the divine dragons harnessed to your carriage, the heavenly horses opening the road, the twelve guard officers crying out in front, and ninety thousand flying immortals following behind. Raising staffs across the flowing empyrean, clouds and rosy mists float the banners of the ten perfections; the great carriage rings its bells, and sun and moon shine on the fans of the five brightnesses. Your servants draw auspicious colors from high antiquity and rely on the lingering light in the middle of heaven. We gather what is rare and fitting in each thing and set it out in the fullest and finest display. The offering of the seven treasures we vow as the rite of celebration. Your servants, overwhelmed, bow our heads, bow again, and dance with the utmost joy.

6. Pacing the void

The precious seat comes to the golden hall; rosy light shines on the jade terrace. Ten thousand Perfected pay court at the Emperor's abode; flying slippers tread the roots of the clouds.

Your servant has heard: when of old your immortal form was born, divine water was first set forth. Drawing from the pool of yellow flowers of the Eastern Well, your body sent forth golden light; pouring into the flowing pool of Xihua, your body grew a jade luster. Ever since the nine dragons presented this auspicious sign, it has been a glory for a thousand ages. Here we take its name and extol its beauty. Extending one branch of the numinous stream, its flowing blessing is endless; dividing the lingering waves of the Eastern Well, flying immortals may rely on it. Your servants, looking up before the Tao, reverently make this offering.

Heavenly Worthy of the Flowing, Moistening Source of the Law

7. Offering incense

Your servant has heard: within the Tao, incense alone is esteemed. That which comes from Pure Subtlety is called Liberation, having the power to relieve the dark and deliver the living; that which is produced on the Island of Gathered Caves is called Returning Life, having the wonder of raising the dead and restoring bones. For its merit lies not in the thing but in virtue; it is heard, too, not with the nose but with the heart. If the fragrance of plants and trees in the human world—how could it be lacking to the gods and immortals in heaven? Yet in ritual, the few are valued: when things are chosen for their rarity, sincerity cannot be hidden, and heaven may accept it. Your servants, looking up before the Tao, reverently make this offering.

Heavenly Worthy of Incense Clouds Forming Seal Script

8. Offering flowers

Your servant has heard: in the immortal gardens there are many fragrant blooms, ten thousand kinds of rare flowers. In the Cave of the Sun where it is always bright, we look up and reach for the blossoms of the Ruo tree; in the grove of the Mysterious Garden, we pick the buds of the empty azure. Luxuriant blossoms open, and the numinous wind makes the day long; crimson and purple flourish, and the sun of the Tao melts into spring. These are not the colors and scents of the mortal world, and are fit to be offered for the enjoyment of the Most Venerable. Holding jasper blooms upon the mat, we wish to offer delight to heaven; transformed into a precious canopy in the sky, together we rely on the shade of the Tao. Your servants, looking up before the Tao, reverently make this offering.

Heavenly Worthy of Jasper Blossoms of Brilliant Color

9. Offering candles

Your servant has heard: though lamps and candles in origin are small, they make up for what yin and yang do not reach. Orchid oil continues the daylight, sending forth the flicker of red flame; the burning mirror draws essence from the sun, raising the blaze of cinnabar radiance. As for the immortal realm of Grand Clarity, how could it need the lingering light of a torch? Its meaning may be taken from repaying the yang, and ritual fittingly offers rows of torches. Your servant's heart is thus: may you behold the constant light of one point; when the power of the Tao sends it forth, it shines throughout the ten directions. Your servants, looking up before the Tao, reverently make this offering.

Heavenly Worthy of Unobstructed Light of Wisdom

10. Offering tea

Your servant has heard: all the marvelous kinds of plants and trees are rich food for the true immortals. The stone mushroom of the seven brightnesses is tribute from Kunwu in the west; the divine herb of ten knots comes from the depths of the Empty Cavern in the north. How much more are the many medicines of the Taoists; how could a single tea of the human world be worth envy? Yet in offering longevity to the Most Venerable, one should fittingly follow the rite of what is prized. Of the three Penglai mountains, dare we boast of the wonder of reaching the immortals? First in rank in Highest Clarity, it may still be hoped to change the bones of an immortal. Your servants, looking up before the Tao, reverently make this offering.

Heavenly Worthy of Numinous Penetration and Measured Grades

11. Offering wine

Your servant has heard: when your great carriage once traveled to the four poles, the immortals vied to present cups of longevity. The Azure Lad of the Eastern Sea offered a feast of green wine and golden liquor; the Supreme Emperor of the Nine Heavens opened a banquet of cloud nectar and moon liquid. Jasper flowers were presented from the Vermilion Mound; sweet liquor came from the Purple Bureau. Recalling from afar the beauty of those years, we perform again today's rite. Reaching for the Northern Dipper, we ladle heavenly nectar to offer up the spring colors of the ninefold heavens; brewing the West River into wine of longevity, we wish that all six directions share the land of drunkenness. Your servants, looking up before the Tao, reverently make this offering.

Heavenly Worthy of Floating, Moistening Jade Light

12. Offering fruit

Your servant has heard: when the imperial carriage once went on its tours of inspection, immortal fruits were among the tribute recorded by the officials of the quarters. The Western Mother of the Nine Spirits presented golden-purple jiaoli pears; the Lady of the South Pole offered the red numinous fire-dates. In the east were gathered the mulberries of Fusang; in the north were harvested the melons of the Empty Cavern. Imagining that these fine things of old still remain, we follow the mortal rite and make an offering. Praising three thousand years, the fruit that has just ripened is not enough; having gained seven hundred years, the branches that do not sweat—we pray you will share them out to us. Your servants, looking up before the Tao, reverently make this offering.

Heavenly Worthy of the Subtle Taste of the Inaudible and Invisible

13. Presenting the petition

Your servant has heard that the virtue of heaven and earth surely needs no description, and what could painting add to the light of the sun and moon? How much more does the Great Tao lie beyond names and words, and the Twofold Mystery transcend thought and discussion. Though likened to kalpas as countless as grains of dust and sand, it cannot be measured to the end; how could a single word set down in documents praise it in detail? For what is set out in a memorial is in truth as chilling as a wind of knives. The rivers and seas do not reject small streams, and relying on this we have no fear; the great virtue of heaven and earth, daily giving life, will surely be received. The cinnabar sincerity we set out, we reverently make known above.

Proclaim the petition, proclaim the dispatch, as before; dedication of merit

Text of Homage to the Manifest Transformations

14. Pacing the void

Your servant has heard: of the body of the great void, even the perfect person cannot knock upon its beginning or end; of the round face of the sun and moon, even the most skillful craftsman cannot render its radiance. We respectfully consider beneath the jade steps of the Immortal Realm of Grand Clarity: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity, the Heavenly Worthy of the Tao and Its Virtue. Born before the Limitless, emerging above the great void. Neither being nor non-being, neither sound nor color, he alone is the ancestor of the supreme Tao; able to be long and short, square and round, he is the nameless mother of the myriad things. Great, he embraces the universe; small, he enters a hair's tip. Lofty and vast, none can name him; dim and silent, he cannot be known. From when the vast source first opened and the mysterious transformation flowed in secret, high and low were fixed in the forms of clear and turbid, and movement and stillness governed the substance of hard and soft. Wind, thunder, mountain, and lake joined the Eight Trigrams to give rise to one another; spring, summer, autumn, and winter moved the four seasons without error. Sun, moon, and stars are fixed above; people and all things are born between. Thronging and multitudinous, ever producing and transforming—this is he who moved the primordial qi and opened heaven and earth. When the Nine Sovereigns had been established and dynasty succeeded dynasty, he descended to the world as teacher and set up the teaching according to the times. He laid out the guiding principles and set the rules, ordering the great norms of the realm; he made use of things and enriched life, accomplishing the many tasks of the people. This is he who, following the ages, established the way of humankind. Then he established the doctrine of the Tao and its virtue and made the rules of purity and emptiness. The wondrous scriptures of the seven divisions receive and guide according to the three vehicles; the formulas of the ninefold-returned elixir are entrusted to superior practitioners to cultivate. At times he set out the sources of ritual and music; at times he expounded the learning of the Buddha. Root and branch were all complete; the refined and the coarse were fully laid out. Ten thousand methods and a thousand gates, one goal and a hundred considerations—this is he who, following the customs of the times, established teaching and transformation. Further, he divided his form in the Three Realms and left traces in the ten directions. At times as Yaopo of the Curved Array he ordered the stars above; at times hiding his light as Archivist he assisted the state below. He pointed to white bones and made them human, rescued from great floods and delivered through the kalpas. He supports those in danger and rescues those in hardship; there is no feeling he does not answer; he relieves the dead and delivers the living. Those with the affinity to meet him—this is he who through all time delivers people beyond measure. Therefore his divine powers are brilliant and his merit lofty. In heaven he is the most venerable of ten thousand sages; in the world he is the elder of the three teachings. The thirty-six heavens and thirty-six earths all return into the grasp of his hand; in eighty-one years and eighty-one bodies he first revealed the traces of his transformations and births. The gods cannot exhaust his wonder; the wisdom of sages cannot reach his source. Though ten thousand voices and ten thousand tongues praise him, they could not finish through all the kalpas; if one sets out a single word or phrase, what benefit is it to the Tao? Now your servant and the disciples XXX and others, gazing at the vast sea as it flows divinely and looking up at Mount Tai as far as the eye can reach, not measuring our presumption and folly, venture to offer praise. Taking the holy names as the outline, we have trimmed them into nine homages; selecting from the immortal scriptures to sing his beauty, not one in ten remains. Only because our love and reverence are so deep, we do not notice the crudeness of our words. We humbly pray that the heart of the Tao will be silently moved and the gaze of heaven secretly reached. Words as trifling as drops and dust are surely not worth taking; yet the vast measure of the rivers and seas, what can it not contain? Your servants each move our sincere hearts and together proclaim the wondrous model.

Intone, each in turn with reverence

15. Sacred proclamations

(1) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: dark and obscure, dim and silent, profoundly still and mysteriously penetrating. From the empty cavern without root, the great void became the body of the Tao; when the Mysterious Primordial first congealed, the ancestral qi established the root of heaven. He created and transformed the Three Powers and opened out ten thousand models; he abides within the imageless and formless, and dwells before the Great Beginning and the Great Change. The Elder of Divine Treasure—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

Within the elusive and the obscure there is an image; above there is no further ancestor, and the Tao is supreme.

Embracing creative transformation and moving yin and yang, he carved emptiness and nothingness to establish heaven and earth.

Above he assists the transformation of the Primordial of the Great Canopy; in the middle he spreads the influence of the Lord of the Tao of Numinous Treasure.

Venerable, he dwells in the Palace of the Supreme Ultimate of Grand Clarity, and is called the Lord of the Great Tao of Non-Action.

(2) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: he bored open primal chaos and split apart the dark and yellow. The qi of the Tao mixed and congealed, and from the Great Canopy the Three Realms of Clarity were born; the primordial order flowed and spread, and from the ancestral kalpa all the heavens were transformed and born. Above he arrayed the Nine Empyreans; below he divided the Three Realms, establishing the grades of cultivation of each realm and fixing the secret regions of the true immortals. He reaches throughout the great chiliocosm and becomes the ancestral sovereign One. Master of the Teaching of Ten Thousand Heavens—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

Ever since the Brahma qi flowed from the vast primal chaos, he established the root of heaven from the ancestral kalpa.

Five thousand five hundred million layered heavens; the teachings of the Three Caverns in thirty-six divisions.

Each realm makes clear its grades of cultivation; all are the ranks and stages of the true immortals.

Heavenly beings, Perfected, and sages all take him as master; his merit is lofty, surpassing ten thousand kalpas.

(3) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: he came down under the Nine Sovereigns to set up the teaching, and was entrusted through the ages as teacher. From Fuxi down to King Kang of Zhou, he lived through tens of thousands of years; beginning as Yuhua and ending as Guoshu, he was called master under fifteen names. Embodying the origin and leading in benevolence, he opened up things and accomplished tasks, showing the model for a hundred kings and making the pattern for ten thousand ages. Teacher of emperors and kings through the ages—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

The ways of sovereigns, emperors, and kings were established according to the ages; Tongxuan in Pangu's time was the Ancient Master.

Yuhua, Guangshou, and Dacheng were his names; Guangcheng in response was called Chijing.

Lutu, Wucheng, and Yinshou are listed; Zhenxing, Xize, and Xieyi are named.

Yucheng and Jingcheng, ending with Guoshu—that he was teacher through the ages may thus be told.

(4) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: according to the occasion he established transformation; with each kalpa he delivered people. The Tao and its virtue in five thousand words and more opened the way as ancestor of the Golden Elixir; talismans and registers in fifteen hundred scrolls handed down the lineage of Orthodox Unity. The teachings come from one source under different names; the ways run side by side without conflict. Heavenly beings and humans look up to him, immortals and sages turn to him; the Great Ritual Master of the Mysterious Center—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

Transformed as the Quiet Elder, he first spread the teaching, and many rulers and ministers of the eastern states were delivered.

His Tao went to Wen and Yin, revealing the Golden Elixir; his methods were entrusted to the Celestial Master, making clear Orthodox Unity.

Zhen Duo and Song Lun received refining and nourishing; Qianzhi and Gan Ji obtained the scriptures and codes.

From chaff and husks, how many immortals has he fired and cast? For ten thousand ages the mysterious influence has never faded.

(5) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: he expounded the teaching of the One Truth and opened the gate of non-duality. He penetrated the sources of ritual and music and made clear the return of the Tao and its virtue. In Eastern Lu he drew the sigh of “seeing a dragon”; he set forth the fruit of nirvana and expounded the teaching of the Buddha; the western Hu came to welcome him riding an elephant. He called himself the Ancient Master, and was known in his time as a hidden gentleman. Though the names stand like the three legs of a cauldron, their virtue flows together like rivers. Patriarch of the three teachings—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

From the Yin and Zhou he first revealed his traces; traveling widely through the Xia world, he set up rules and order.

Eighty-one countries changed their Hu customs; for more than nine hundred years he made clear the transformation of the Tao.

The Proclaiming Sage (Confucius), hearing of his influence, took him as teacher in ritual and music; Futuo bowed his head and received the teaching of the Buddha.

Thus we know that the three teachings fundamentally return to one; later learners in confusion only trouble themselves in vain.

(6) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: his Tao penetrates the ancient beginning; his virtue is wondrous in mysterious sameness. Above as a sovereign, below as a king—with it one can govern the body within and govern the state without, and there is nothing to which it is not suited. He combined the strengths of the Yin-Yang, Names, Legalist, Confucian, and Mohist schools, and exhausted the debates on order and disorder, heaven and humanity, past and present. Deep and far-reaching, it reaches great accord; elusive and evanescent, it returns to the nameless. The Heavenly Worthy of the Tao and Its Virtue—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

When the two books of the Tao and its virtue first came down to the world, the many theories of the hundred schools all became stale words.

Emptying the heart and filling the belly, merging with the inaudible and the invisible; restoring destiny and returning to the root, guarding the mysterious female.

Without action and without desire, returning to clarity and stillness; constant virtue and constant name, valuing what is so of itself.

Cultivating the self, ordering the family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world are merely his leftovers; the immortals of past and present gained it from this.

(7) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: from non-being he entered being; entrusting himself to qi, he took form. From the six qi of Yudan and the auspicious sign of lightning, through kalpas beyond counting; to the dream of the five-colored pearl of Tianshui, when first he revealed his body. Once, riding a white deer, he rose to heaven; again, appearing at the Azure Goat, he descended to Shu. Traces that are no traces, so of themselves. Heavenly Worthy Who Descended to Birth—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

The host of immortals bore the sun down from heaven; the five-colored flowing pearl formed the holy embryo.

Nine times nine years accorded with the Qian origin; his birthday of five and three matched the Luo numbers.

He took his surname from reaching for the plum tree (li); leaving the dust, at birth he walked on lotus flowers.

Above heaven and below heaven, he alone is venerable; his marks and features, dignified and upright, are all first.

(8) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: his transformations have no fixed form, his divine powers are unfathomable. At times he is twelve hundred, as Laozi manifesting in all the heavens; at times he is one hundred and eighty, as the Lord of the Tao receiving and guiding the mortal world. His titles are not limited to thirty-six titles, nor his names to seventy-two names. Though his dharma body fills all, like empty space, his wondrous body is fundamentally ever clear and still, primal chaos through ten thousand changes. All respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

The wondrous body fundamentally returns to the supreme One; transformation bodies by the thousands and hundreds are not too many.

In spring he is Shangjing, in summer Laoxi; in autumn he transforms into Shenguang, in winter he is the Lad.

In the world he is called the God of Blessing, manifest as the Dark Warrior (Xuanwu); in heaven he is called the Lord of the Stars, governing the Curved Array.

It is like a precious moon in the empty sky: wherever there are clear waves, it is always seen.

(9) With utmost sincerity I take refuge and pay homage: his merit is highest among the sages, his virtue crowns the two modes. He spreads kindness and practices benevolence like the birth of spring; to the myriad things he responds according to each occasion. Like the moon appearing in a thousand rivers, he rescues from suffering and hardship beings as many as motes of dust, and relieves the common people through vast kalpas. Compassionate Father of the four kinds of beings. Benevolent Teacher of the Three Realms. Delivering people beyond measure—all respond: Lord Lao the Most High, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity.

True father and mother of all beings in the Three Realms, at the end and beginning of kalpas he delivers heavenly beings and humans.

Cutting down evil, he showed his form and destroyed Pang Xun; healing sickness, he extended compassion and raised up Guangying.

The Chinese and the barbarians alike received his transformation; even insects, grass, and trees received his grace.

He divides his body in response and transformation like motes of dust; his merit cannot be praised to the end.

16. Repentance

The merit of the homage and praise above has now been completed. For seeking the great void in words and images, how could one see its truth? Exhausting descriptions of abundant virtue, it is hard to add to its beauty. The wonder of presiding over Grand Clarity—how could the copied ink know it? Peering insignificantly through a leopard tube, how great is our profanation of the dragon steps! Having completed the praise and homage, we trust we have received your gaze. We earnestly reflect that your servants have delved into the mysterious influence and gradually been touched by its wondrous transformation. It is not that we do not delight in the way of embracing the One and guarding the female; but what can we do, being those who resist the dust and run after the world? The farther the Tao, the lower the spirit—how can we reach the ground of inner contemplation? The heart not yet clear, desire not yet dispelled—there is no way to reach the heaven of constant stillness. Pitying this small life, we are lost and at a loss. We pray only that the compassionate Worthy will have pity on us and especially bestow the dharma, lifting us up with his power, so that your servants may repent and cut off karmic ties, soon leave the net of delusion, wash away our habitual bonds, and all return to the influence of purity. The ritual assembly in devotion together make repentance.

Bowing our heads, we take refuge in the Three Pure Ones above, the Lord of the Teaching of Non-Action, the Venerable of Primordial Unity,

The host of true immortals of the Tao and its virtue of Grand Clarity, and all the ministers of Dongshen of the Supreme Ultimate.

Your servants, since beginningless kalpas, have had our true hearts obscured by ignorance, greed, and craving.

At times we have violated the twelve hundred new codes; at times we have broken the one hundred and eighty great precepts.

Right and wrong, others and self, gave rise to false views; emptiness and form, being and non-being, made us fall into the dust of phenomena.

The boundless sea of desire has no law at all; the rolling river of craving—where is its shore?

We lament that this body has no fixed state, and the cycle of birth and death has never stopped.

Now, looking up to the Venerable of Great Compassion, we repent and vow to attain the supreme Tao.

Again we tell the assembly of this ritual arena who share our karma: quiet your hearts, gather your thoughts, and reveal your true sincerity.

Receive and uphold the ten vows and form good affinities, and extinguish ten million sins numberless as dust and sand.

First, may the sage live ten thousand years; second, may all under heaven have peace;

Third, may the Tao and its virtue ever spread its transformation; fourth, may wind and rain come in due season;

Fifth, may old and young practice kindness and filial piety; sixth, may those cut off early be granted a full life;

Seventh, may the three evil paths be free of suffering and hardship; eighth, may weapons be laid down throughout the land;

Ninth, may flood and fire cause no harm; tenth, may plague and miasma not spread.

Sin arises from the heart, so with the heart we repent; when the heart is extinguished, sin too is no more.

No heart and no sin, both are empty; this is called true repentance.

17. Dedication of merit

The homage to the Perfect One, the setting out of repentance, and the praise of merit just performed are all complete. We humbly pray that you will not withhold your compassion but universally bestow your gracious gifts: erase our faults from the black register, so that the defilement of sin is blown clean by the wind; record blessings and longevity in the cinnabar book, so that the sprouts of goodness grow day by day. As a good cause above, with utmost sincerity we recite: Heavenly Worthy of the Manifest Transformations of Grand Clarity—merit beyond conception.

The Offering Rite of the Manifest Transformations

Proclaim the Guardian Spirit Incantation and state one's ritual rank

Carrying out, with full rank, the offering method of the Manifest Transformations of Grand Clarity, the Libationer, your servant XXX, announces to: Lord Lao the Most High of the Limitless Great Tao of the Three Heavens, Supreme Mysterious Primordial of Grand Clarity, the Emperor of Supreme Virtue of Primordial Unity, the Heavenly Worthy of the Tao and Its Virtue; the Great Empress of Prior Heaven, the Primordial Sovereign Taiyi; the lords and elders of Grand Clarity; of the Four Supports of Grand Clarity, the Elder of the River Bank and Master Wenshi; the Four Ministers of the Three Heavens; the chancellors, ministers, and supervisors of Dongshen and all the immortal bureaus; the twelve hundred official lords of Grand Clarity; the Golden Lads, Jade Maidens, and Dragon and Tiger Lords of left and right; the officials of the Three Realms; and all the awesome spirits. We all look to your vast compassion to deign to look down upon us. Your servant has heard: there is a thing formed in chaos; forced to name it, I call it the Tao. Beyond the inaudible and invisible, it has no form and no name; without feeling, within the elusive and evanescent, there is an image and an essence, and there is a thing. Heaven and earth and all transformations come forth from it; yin and yang and the four seasons are completed by gaining it. Form and color, wisdom and strength—the waxing and waning that come are endless; advance and retreat, survival and ruin, evil and right following one another—when will it end? If there were no one presiding over it all, how could it endure without ceasing? Only our Primordial Unity is the ancestor of the Tao. Considering that all beings are his own beings, how could he not support them? And since all living beings are born from him, how could he abandon them? So he divided his spirit through vast kalpas and responded in transformation among motes of dust. As teacher of sovereigns, teacher of emperors, and teacher of kings, through ten thousand ages he never tired; establishing the way of heaven, the way of earth, and the way of humankind, he brought peace to all Three Powers. His transformation covers the great and the small; his influence moves through the hidden and the manifest. The myriad things return to him and he does not act as master—his virtue is thus steadfast; the common people use it and none can know it—it may be called great. Your servant XXX is a lowly man of a thatched hut, a straw dog laid out and discarded. Having long received the grace of great creation, I have been placed among those below. Allotted from the Tao and formed from the One, though I share the wholeness of yielding to what is given; knowing the male and guarding the female, I have not yet awakened to the wonder of the valley spirit. Now we meet the fine festival of the True Origin, the day on which the ancestral qi descended. Eighty-one bodies are still the whole body of the great void; seven hundred million kalpas are no different from the first year of the Primordial. Humble and insignificant as I am, I too reflect on how easily a floating life is lost. May the compassionate Worthy have pity and especially bestow his lingering grace on all sentient beings. Restoring destiny and returning to the root, may all obtain the way of long life; cultivating affinities and realizing practice, may we meet the time when Great Possession opens. Your servants respectfully offer incense; the first offering.

18. The first offering; proclaiming the text

As set out in the text, with one recitation reaching the hearing of heaven, we look up and hope that the compassion of the Tao will look down and read it. Your servant has heard: what is so of itself—the Tao, because it is not born, therefore gives birth, and giving birth is called its wondrous function; the spirit, because it does not possess, is able to possess, and possessing is likened to the primordial image. Hidden in the empty cavern, it is the Supremely True; rooted in the great nothingness. Beginning in no beginning and ending in no ending, it is surely hard to liken to the matter of transformation and birth; now is not now and past is not past—how could it be tied to the times of generations? Only because its office is teaching, it takes transformation as its heart, and cannot avoid harmonizing its light and entering the dust to show a body. Of old, when Gaozong ascended the throne, in the ninth year when the year was in Chen, by the Yin calendar, the time was truly when the handle of the Dipper pointed to Yin, in the second month. Suddenly the auspicious sign of the sun's light doubly shining was seen, and it was known to be the omen of a Perfected coming into the world. Eighty-one years fulfilled the nine numbers of the great yang; seventy-two marks were again the first of the primordial qi. In the Li valley of the north, there was light; at the Great Office of Western Shu, it was seen in splendor. From this his name first became known and his influence spread. Seeking the Tao from the Primordial Sovereign, he made clear the principle that learners must have a teacher; hiding his virtue as Archivist, he showed the sage's heart that does not abandon the world. He spread the mysterious teaching in China and expounded the teaching of the Buddha in the Western Regions. Though the hiddenness and manifestation of true immortals are fundamentally beyond worldly knowing, the records are clear and, verified by the heavenly scriptures, beyond doubt. Your servant XXX and others heard of his influence at Qiao commandery and sought antiquity at Laixiang. Touching the traces that still remain, we regret that we were not born earlier. Clinging to the juniper of the courtyard, the whirlwind wheel is already far away; washing in the numinous pool, the immortal body is hard to behold. Bowing before the true image in painting is no different from seeing the blue sky through clouds and mist; examining his great merits in books, we can only grasp a hair's tip of Mount Tai. In vain we cherish hearts of longing, with nowhere to lodge our will for taking refuge. Reverently meeting the day of his descent to birth, we respectfully perform the rite of celebration. Liquor of nine lights and the jade flowers of white jade—we imagine from afar the immortals offering longevity; purple crab apples of the Three Mysteries and cinnabar fruits of the crimson tree—we recall ten thousand emperors raising their cups. Just as the banquet of Xilin is at its height, how would the joys of the turbid world be regarded? Yet the Tao, through compassion, receives beings; your servant, cherishing love and reverence, serves his lord. When pure thought secretly communicates, it is not the person but the intention; when the high spirits clearly respond, they accept not the rite but the sincerity. Our private hopes exceed what is proper, unaware of our presumption. Your servants bow again respectfully and offer incense; the second offering.

19. The second offering; proclaiming the report

Your servant has heard: the Great Beginning and the Great Change are without image and form, and the Great Tao cannot be traced to its ancestry; giving birth to heaven, giving birth to earth, making ghosts divine and emperors divine, his mysterious work cannot be named in words. Only the arts of the Tao, ancient and modern, have come forth mixed among the hundred schools; and the Confucians, the Buddhists, and the followers of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi stand side by side as the three teachings. Though ritual and music are not comparable to names, laws, and the military arts, they are not as lofty as self-transformation through non-action. Though the emptiness of Chan differs from the words of hard and white, same and different, how could it compare with the working of responding well without speaking—still less the teaching of the true One of Lingbao, and the methods of nature and life of the Golden Elixir? At their greatest, they can bring about immortality; at their least, they can still shelter family and state. The Tao is venerable and its virtue precious, so it is fitting that it surpass high antiquity and alone endure; its subtlety is wondrous and its merit deep, so it is not something an ordinary person can recognize. The many narrow scholars often speak dangerous words. Some regard it as heterodoxy; some slander it as an outside way. Yet what could be added to the supreme principle of what is so of itself? Those of small wisdom who are selfish show that they do not know their own measure. Your servant, together with the disciples XXX and others, though ashamed to be of the lowly world, often recite the mysterious scriptures; hearing the teaching of the gods we are roused, and longing for the influence of clarity and stillness we wash ourselves clean. We lament that the sages have gone ever farther away and pity how the world declines ever lower. Is our Tao wrong? Do we not see the customs of Fuxi and Shennong in high antiquity? The subtle words are cut off; who can make clear the books of the Hidden Talisman and the Tao and its virtue? Fortunately the day of our master's birth is a trust for the flourishing of our Tao. We humbly pray that you will widen the world's teaching and rouse the lineage's influence. May the heavenly books of the Three Caverns come forth again in full; may the supreme Tao of non-action endure through vast kalpas. As for taking creative transformation as his merit and matching the great void in longevity, these are what the true Worthy should possess by nature, and not what a small servant can fully speak of. Your servants bow respectfully and offer incense; the final offering.

20. The final offering; proclaiming the petition

Your servant has heard: when heaven and earth unite, sweet dew falls; when Kan and Li are brought to completion, the yellow sprout is born. Since the essence of the elixir cauldron is far removed from the vulgar, how could the smoke and fire of the red dust be offered to the high immortals? Therefore, following the rite of ladling water, we imitate the ceremony of offering broth. One spoonful at dusk—we wish to try an immortal formula from the bag; the white snow of the ninefold return—we pray for a share of the leftover dose that changes the bones. Your servants devoutly and respectfully raise and present it.

Presenting the broth; offering the scriptures

21. Sending off the holy ones

Your servant has heard: the spirit is hidden in the elusive and evanescent, and there is nowhere it is not present; the Tao lies in emptiness and nothingness, and whenever sought it responds. Matching the distant realm of the Great Canopy, it is the lofty Venerable of all that exists. To seek it in form and appearance is already wrong; still more remote is to liken it to coming and going. Yet because of people, this rite has been modeled; if we did not follow traces, we could not convey our sincerity. Therefore incense, flowers, lamps, and candles express what is fitting; texts, petitions, memorials, and statements convey our meaning. We are grateful for the lofty and bright gaze bestowed upon us, and fear punishment for our profanation. Now that the rite of celebration is complete, the whirlwind banners cannot be held back. We humbly imagine the crane canopy of nine lights coming to meet you from the azure sky, and the dragon carriage of eight splendors rising back above the blue empyrean. Your servants gaze to the utmost into the clouds and sky, tears streaming down our cheeks. Words have an end but meaning is endless; though in form we are distant, in heart we are very near. In those years the white deer could still be sought at Qiao city; on another day, how could the azure goat come to the commandery of Shu? Your servants, overwhelmed by humble feelings of longing to cling to you, reverently bow our heads and send you off.

Hymn of the Returning Carriage