Assembly, you have received the three hundred great Precepts of the Central Ultimate and practice secret conduct and subtle deportment; this cannot be compared with the Initial Perfection of former days. These articles are subtle, deep, and profound, and require you to work on your own minds. Whenever a thought arises or an idea stirs, you must hold to sincerity and reverence, examine it quietly, and carry out your practice with great care. Sweep the thoughts in your minds perfectly clean, like a bright moon in a blue sky without the slightest cloud, like crystal and glass without a single flaw, like a boundless bright mirror without a speck of dust, like a luminous pearl without a trace of darkness, perfectly round and brilliantly shining; only then can one speak of wisdom and light. This wondrous form of true emptiness, wisdom and light, comes originally from precepts and concentration. Only through enduring insult and cutting off obstructions, keeping the precepts strictly and rigorously, and with the help of the medicine of the Law, can one reach it. If one receives the precepts but cannot keep them, is not strict and rigorous in practice, and deceives and hides from oneself, it is utterly impossible. Why is this?
Assembly, practice that is not thorough is called a cause with leaks, and can hardly realize the fruit of non-action. These four words, “wisdom and light,” belong to those of sharp faculties in the higher vehicle; those of dull faculties in the lower vehicle cannot awaken to them. You need only to keep your will undivided, concentrate the spirit in the cavity of qi, cultivate the ancestral qi, and warmly nourish prior heaven: attain the utmost emptiness, hold firmly to stillness, pure and single without division, the spirit hidden in the Ultimate of Nothingness (Wuji), and from the Ultimate of Nothingness to the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji); then naturally the light of wisdom arises, the primordial yang returns, and at last you see your original face. To know the nature of ghosts and spirits and the pivot of creation is called knowledge; to take part in the transforming and nurturing of heaven and earth and the movement of the sun and moon is called wisdom; to manifest the body of the Law universally, to take in the whole realm of the Law, not going beyond awakened illumination but returning wholly into radiant brightness, is called light; to penetrate the myriad things while they are still formless, to see the myriad affairs before they show any sign, to pervade empty space without a trace and rise above the sun and moon without a shadow, is called brightness. If the precepts are not rigorous and thorough, there can be no great stability. Without great stability, wisdom does not arise and light does not appear. Long ago the Heavenly Worthy of Thunder (Leisheng Puhua Tianzun), Responding to the Primordial of the Nine Heavens, taught the Jade Pivot Scripture (Yushu Jing). In it he singled out original nature and pointed directly at the human mind, revealing its hidden truths and laying bare the heavenly workings, so that living beings might turn the scripture and awaken to the Tao. But alas, many living beings are deluded: though their mouths recite it, their minds cannot hold it; though their minds may be sincere, their strength cannot turn it. What a pity to fail the sacred intention and know the treasure of the Law in vain! Now I cannot but, on behalf of the Heavenly Worthy, proclaim the wondrous method again and secretly turn the true mechanism, so that all of you may suddenly awaken and enter.
Assembly, each of you must be reverent and listen attentively with utmost sincerity. Do not let your ears fail to hear the scripture while listening idly to other sounds; do not let your eyes fail to look at the scripture while gazing idly at other forms; do not let your minds fail to turn the scripture while thinking idly of other matters.
Assembly, long ago the Heavenly Worthy Puhua said: “Fifteen hundred kalpas ago, my mind encountered this Tao, and so I attained the rank of the high Perfected; my intention brewed this work, and so I gained authority over great transformation. Once, before the Primordial Heavenly Worthy (Yuanshi Tianzun) of the Great Canopy, with a mind of clarity and stillness, I made a vast vow: that in future ages, if any living being—heavenly dragon, ghost, or spirit—should once call my name, all would be made to transcend into radiance. If any should fail, I shall take their place with my own body.” Cleanse your minds, and I shall proclaim it for you. The Heavenly Worthy said: “You heavenly beings and humans wish to hear the ultimate Tao. The ultimate Tao is deep and profound, and lies nowhere else. Since you wish to hear it, it is the one who hears without a gap. Without gap and without seeing—this is the true Tao. When hearing and seeing also vanish, there is only you. You yourselves do not even exist; how much less the Tao? Hearing without hearing—what Tao is there to speak of?” The Heavenly Worthy said: “The Tao is entered by sincerity, kept by silence, and used by softness. Using sincerity seems like folly; using silence seems like slowness of speech; using softness seems like clumsiness. Being thus, one can forget form, forget self, and forget forgetting. One who enters the Tao knows where to stop; one who keeps the Tao knows caution; one who uses the Tao knows the subtle. Knowing the subtle, the light of wisdom arises; knowing caution, sagely knowledge is complete; knowing where to stop, great stability is secure. When great stability is secure, sagely knowledge is complete; when sagely knowledge is complete, the light of wisdom arises; when the light of wisdom arises, one is one with the Tao—this is called true forgetting. Only forgetting yet not forgetting, forgetting with nothing to forget—that which has nothing to forget is the ultimate Tao. The Tao is in heaven and earth, yet heaven and earth do not know it; the sentient and the insentient are one and not two.” The Heavenly Worthy said: “How shall I now benefit living beings in the world? For all you heavenly beings and humans I expound this wondrous treasure; those who awaken to it shall ascend the steps of the immortals. Students of the Tao are truly subject to qi and number. Where the climate and land differ, what one is endowed with naturally differs; therefore it is called qi. Where wisdom and folly differ, clarity and turbidity naturally differ; therefore it is called number. Number is tied to destiny; qi is tied to heaven. Confined by qi and number and shackled by heaven’s decree, one cannot attain the true Tao.” “The foolish can become wise and the turbid can become clear; only destiny brings it about. The dimness of the foolish and the darkness of the turbid can also be shifted by the endowments of climate and land. Heaven and earth make their workings divine so that people do not know them, and this is called naturalness; they make people know that they do not know, and this too is called naturalness. The wonder of naturalness, though it is wondrous in knowing, is wondrous because it comes from not knowing. Yet as for the Tao, it has never made anyone foolish or turbid.” When all the heavens had heard this, the four assemblies all rejoiced. The Heavenly Worthy said: “The merit of this scripture is beyond conception. In a past kalpa it was proclaimed by the Great Emperor of Long Life, True King of Jade Clarity of the Divine Empyrean. When a devoted person receives this scripture, he should cut gold and present silk, and swear an oath to heaven in transmitting it.”
Assembly, this is the true, mysterious, secret, and supreme teaching of the Jade Pivot Scripture, beyond conception.
Assembly, it is the superior, subtle, and wondrous treasure of the Law of clarity and stillness, naturalness, and liberation. Assembly, you know only how to recite scriptures all day long, and have never understood the wondrous method the Heavenly Worthy taught. If, while reciting, you had awakened to the Heavenly Worthy’s secret method, you would not have needed to come today to listen to this lecture.
Assembly, the ultimate Tao the Heavenly Worthy taught is deep and profound, and cannot be seen or heard. Had the Heavenly Worthy not, fifteen hundred kalpas ago, opened a mind of clarity and stillness and made a vast vow to save all living beings in the future, how could we see the true source of the Primordial and hear the treasure of the Law of the Divine Empyrean? The Heavenly Worthy said that the Tao is originally emptiness and nothingness, with no sound to be heard and no color to be seen. Since there is no sound to be heard, one should forget one’s ears; since there is no form or color to be seen, one should forget one’s eyes. Once they are forgotten, hearing and seeing are also extinguished. Why? Ears and eyes have form and color and are the leaders of the six senses; hearing and seeing cling to forms and thoughts and are truly the source of the six consciousnesses—how could they accord with the Tao? If you can bring the six senses to clarity and stillness and sweep away the six consciousnesses, then you listen not with the ears but with the mind, and look not with the eyes but with the spirit. Not listening, you hear; not looking, you see. Without hearing and without seeing, you accord with the Tao.
Assembly, the Scripture of Protecting Life says: “Look, and you do not see me; listen, and you cannot hear.” The Zhuangzi (True Classic of Southern Florescence) says: “Hearing stops with the ears; the mind stops with what tallies with it.” The Scripture of Red Script Penetrating Antiquity (Chiwen Donggu Jing) says: “Forget the eyes, and light overflows into the limitless; forget the ears, and the mind’s consciousness is constantly deep. When both mechanisms are forgotten, one enters the gateway to all subtleties.” Are these not the same as the Heavenly Worthy’s wondrous method? This mechanism for entering the Tao by forgetting form and forgetting self, of which the Heavenly Worthy spoke, requires only that you enter by sincerity.
Assembly, this word “sincerity” is the precepts. Keep it by silence.
Assembly, this word “silence” is concentration. Use it by softness.
Assembly, the word “softness” is wisdom. Using sincerity seems like folly.
Assembly, that is, keeping the precepts and subduing body and mind. Using silence seems like slowness of speech.
Assembly, that is, entering concentration and forgetting the ears and eyes. Using softness seems like clumsiness.
Assembly, that is, wisdom hidden within, in secret.
The Heavenly Worthy said that if you, the assembly, wish to seek it through hearing and seeing, you will never see it and never hear it. The Diamond Sutra says: “One who seeks me through form and sound, who would see me through form and appearance, walks a heterodox path and cannot see the Tathagata.” Those who wish to enter the Tao should only receive the precepts and enter concentration, and secretly cultivate wisdom to overcome delusion and darkness; then they will hear without hearing and see without seeing.
Assembly, when the Heavenly Worthy said that one who enters the Tao knows where to stop, that is the work of keeping the precepts and stopping thoughts; that one who keeps the Tao knows caution, that is the work of being watchful when alone and advancing diligently; that one who uses the Tao knows the subtle, that is the work of renouncing sageliness and discarding cleverness. Stopping thoughts is impossible without the precepts; watchfulness when alone is impossible without concentration; knowing the subtle is impossible without wisdom. If you can keep the precepts, enter concentration, and cultivate wisdom, so that body and mind are in great stability, sagely knowledge is pure and complete, and the illumination of wisdom is bright, then you are one with the Tao; only this is called true forgetting.
Assembly, this true forgetting is not sitting in stillness in blank emptiness; true forgetting is true emptiness. Within true emptiness there is a wondrous form of purple gold. If you can avoid falling into blank emptiness, then within emptiness there is non-emptiness, and the wondrous form naturally appears. Only by not clinging to the wondrous form do you forget with nothing to forget, and that which has nothing to forget is the perfectly true and wondrous Tao.
Assembly, the Heavenly Worthy also said: where folly and wisdom differ, clarity and turbidity each differ. Though this is due to unequal endowments of climate and land, all of it is the workings of creation, the spiritual movement of naturalness, the principle of qi and number, and the fixed decree of heaven. Yet the foolish are foolish of themselves and the wise are wise of themselves; when have heaven and earth ever made them foolish or wise? One need only give rise to a pure mind and make a vast vow. Vowing to leave the world in order to save others, one must hear the Tao and save oneself. One who saves oneself, first taking refuge in the Primordial Heavenly Worthy, receives the precepts and enters concentration, and cultivates wisdom so as to radiate light; then the foolish can become wise and the turbid can become clear. If one cannot keep the precepts and enter concentration, cultivate wisdom, and radiate light, then the clear can become turbid and the wise can become foolish. The Diamond Sutra says: “The Law I teach originally has no fixed law.” That is what this means.
Assembly, wisdom and light, radiant through the Great Mystery and illuminating the realm of the Law—how could they lie outside the Heavenly Worthy’s Jade Pivot Scripture? The Jade Pivot is the true mechanism in each of you. Those who wish to turn the scripture must first turn the true mechanism; then knowledge, wisdom, and light will be found within it. As for nurturing the undefiled substance of the Tao and cultivating the indestructible body of the Law, if you do not diligently turn the true mechanism and secretly cultivate blessings and wisdom, I fear you will be unable to hear or see the treasury of light. How then could you know the nature of ghosts and spirits, grasp the pivot of creation, take part in the transforming and nurturing of heaven and earth, turn the movement of the sun and moon, gather the realm of the Law into a grain of millet, settle affairs and things before they sprout, be called a master of the wondrous Tao, and advance into the realm of the heavenly immortals!
Only one who sees the treasury of light can hear the root of the ultimate Tao.
Without cultivating precepts and concentration, how could the light of wisdom be deep?
Clinging to forms is not the true form; only by forgetting hearing can one begin to hear.
Through hearing, reflection, and practice one enters the wondrous: free and at ease, the sound of the ocean tide.