Assembly, is this true person, empty and unobscured, so easy to see? The sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas of past and present, the patriarchs and the multitude of Perfected, faced the wall for nine years or sat in the enclosed hut for six, through the three-times-three and the seven-times-seven, seeking with diligence and hardship; they traveled to all the famous mountains and roamed the blessed lands, sought out masters and visited friends, asked about the Tao and listened to the scriptures, practiced austerities and deep work, gave alms and accumulated virtue—all these kinds of practice were for nothing more than the great matter of birth and death, nature and life, and its causes and conditions. Not knowing where they came from before or where they go after, drifting and sinking, one can hardly escape the turning wheel. So they made vows and established merit through practice. Some took cutting off thoughts and forgetting feelings as the method of leaving the world, and so they went and practiced seated meditation for three or five years until they wore through their cushions—yet when did they ever see a thought cut off for a moment or a feeling forgotten for half a quarter hour? Two fives still make ten. Some took cooking lead and refining mercury as the method of leaving the world, and so they went and practiced the work, with the Zhun hexagram in the morning and the Meng in the evening, withdrawing the tally and advancing the fire. When did they ever see the jade liquor return seven times or the golden liquor revert nine times? They catch one thief and let another robber go. Some, through visualization and contemplation, silently pay court to the Lord on High in the Three Heavens; some, through the rites of refinement and salvation for the dead, rescue the souls of the dead from the Nine Earths; some summon spirits and call up generals, wearing talismans and registers and calling themselves Perfected; some raise the qi and open the passes, circulating essence and qi and calling it the wondrous Tao; some chant scriptures and diligently bow in worship; some prepare elixirs and medicines to cure illnesses and treat sores; some refine substances to ingest, hoping to fly up to heaven; some imitate yin and yang and practice gathering; some use the cauldron-vessels of the bedchamber arts, using the spirit in their breathing to move the true lead, to prolong life and extend their destiny; some use cauldron and furnace, cinnabar and fire, adding and subtracting to smelt “thatch silver,” giving alms and establishing merit. Some, as their bodies decline, cling to the Tao of the Golden Elixir and wait to transmit it to someone blessed; some, whose affinity is shallow and thin, practice the practices hard to practice and throw themselves off cliffs. There are very many kinds of these, and none is the orthodox way.
Assembly, to cut off thoughts and forget feelings, you must investigate and awaken to where thoughts arise from and where feelings come from; you must grasp them firmly, hold them steadily, recognize them truly, and point to them concretely, and only then set your hand to cutting and set to work forgetting. But let me ask you: what is it that can grasp, catch, recognize, point, set to work, and cut off thoughts and forget feelings? No matter how you cut off thoughts and forget feelings, wearing through your cushion, thoughts are still thoughts and feelings still feelings. Assembly, using a thought to cut off thoughts is called putting a head on top of a head; using a feeling to forget feelings is called catching a thief and letting a thief go. Better to forget even the method of forgetting feelings, and cut off even the method of cutting off thoughts; when both mechanisms are forgotten and cut off, one enters the gateway to all subtleties—only this is a principle of the highest vehicle.
Assembly, I use a method to cut off thoughts, not knowing that the method is itself a thought; I use a method to forget feelings, not knowing that the method is itself a seed of feeling. Assembly, cutting off thoughts is not as good as thoughts ending; forgetting feelings is not as good as feelings being forgotten. This is called “asking others is not as good as asking oneself.”
Assembly, those who cook lead and refine mercury, with their adding and subtracting and fire timing, imitate the hexagrams and lines, boring through and chiseling apart the undivided chaos of the Supreme Ultimate. They take false names for real use and treat metaphors as practice. They talk wildly of essence and qi in the three fields, and guess blindly at the pivots of the nine apertures. They take the words “seven” and “nine,” “return” and “revert,” to mean seven times and nine times, seven rounds and nine rounds, seven sections and nine sections, seven years and nine years, seven turns and nine turns. This one draws a diagram, that one produces a picture. They stand up the spine, the Tailbone Pass (Weilü), the Niwan, the elixir field, the Crimson Chamber, the Yellow Court, and the Flowery Pool; water rising and fire descending, warm nurturing and bathing. Today it is the intercourse of Kan and Li, tomorrow it is the peace of earth over heaven, the day after it is the union of the hun and po; this year they wait for the infant, next year they wait for the infant, the year after they wait for the infant, and after waiting nine years they are still old sinners who do not know about death. They do not recognize their mistake, but still shake their heads and count on their fingers, saying to their lay supporters: “On such-and-such a day I formed the sacred embryo; the fire timing for warm nurturing was not wrong, and the seasons for bathing were not off. Why, when the embryo has been complete for ten months, has no infant been born? Is it that your blessings and mine are thin and our karma deep, so that the ghosts and spirits will not allow it to be accomplished?” And they still hold their bellies, brazen-faced, mouths open, eyes peering, shedding false tears. Assembly, such people of poor roots and the lowest folly, who do not know their own minds and do not understand their own nature, benighted creatures of karmic obstruction—what principle do they know?
Assembly, you should know that such people are still people with a mind to strive upward; but they are confused and do not awaken to the mechanism of striving upward.
Assembly, the essence and qi in the body are originally the primordial qi and primordial essence of prior heaven, a treasure that neither increases nor decreases, is neither defiled nor pure, and is neither born nor extinguished. If you go and move it about, you will not see it increase; if you do not move it about, it is the same, and you will not see it diminish. This true person, empty, numinous, and unobscured, is the primordial spirit. Since it is called the primordial spirit, why speak of any embryo? What infant? Your own sinful karma from many kalpas ago has not yet been dissolved, your obstructions not yet removed, the source of your mind not yet purified, the root of your nature not yet numinous. Instead of repenting early of your faults, changing your temperament, consulting masters and awakening to the Tao, enduring insult and subduing the mind, why take your useful true mind and do useless false things, and why spend your limited time waiting for an infant without a shadow?
Assembly, what in your own body knows good and evil, right and wrong, heterodox and orthodox, birth and extinction, self and other, true and false—that is the infant. But this infant originally does not know good and evil, right and wrong, heterodox and orthodox, birth and extinction, self and other, true and false. This infant does not cling to forms of itself: from circumstances the mind arises, from the mind knowledge arises, from knowledge awareness arises; because of good it knows evil, because of right it knows wrong, because of the orthodox it knows the heterodox, because of birth it knows extinction, because of self it knows other, because of the true it knows the false. Originally it has no form of self, nor is it the form of emptiness; it is simply that this world is here, and it cannot but be here. Without the world, this knowing could also be not-knowing. But this knowing is innate knowledge of the good; the Buddhists call it the good and wise friend, and the Taoists call it the infant, the primordial spirit. In short, assembly, it is the one point of empty, numinous, unobscured principle and nature.
Assembly, you only see Taoists enter the enclosed hut to sit in meditation for three years or nine; have you ever seen what they produced by sitting in the hut? Did it benefit themselves or benefit others? Assembly, you only hear Taoists talk of conceiving an embryo; after ten months in the chamber, have you ever seen any Taoist priest produce an infant, radiate light, and manifest a form? Assembly, you see the Taoists who sit on cushions: before entering the hut, they do not know whether heaven and earth will be cloudy or clear, the nature of ghosts and spirits, the fortunes and misfortunes of the human world, future good and ill luck, or the year of their birth and the day of their death. After they come out of the hut, they still do not know. Unclear about their own birth and death, how can they save others from birth and death? With good and ill luck unforeseen and fortune and misfortune unknown, used by ghosts and spirits and bound by heaven and earth, living with the same food and clothing as laypeople and buried after death just like laypeople—is not this sitting in meditation and sitting in the hut a superfluous business?
Assembly, first kill the deluded mind, then enter the hut; first finish with the ties of attachment, then sit in meditation. When the lustful mind has long been at rest, the kidneys are full and the true lead rises. When the angry mind has long been at rest, the heart is empty and the true mercury descends. When food and drink are regulated and suited to the season, the spleen is strong and seals in the mercury and lead. When feelings are empty, the lungs are moist; when the nature is settled, the liver flourishes. When the water of the kidneys is abundant, the light of the eyes is bright and the pupils are black as lacquer. When the fire of the heart subsides, the mouth is full of saliva and swallowing tastes like sweet wine. When the hun soul is clear, the qi of the liver flows smoothly and the sinews and bones are light; when the po soul is at peace, the fluids of the lungs flow freely and the beard and hair are black. When the spleen is strong and the stomach harmonious, the tongue and throat are fresh and clear and the voice is resonant. When the apertures are open and the blood abundant, the ears are keen and the qi strong. When the spirit is whole, the eyes are bright; when the five organs are balanced, a hundred illnesses are repelled; when the five flavors are plain, upright qi arises. Rubbing, massaging, and daoyin according to the four seasons and eight festivals, wind, cold, heat, and damp cannot invade. Restraining the nature and subduing the mind against the six desires and seven emotions, heterodox goblins, ghosts, and demons cannot intrude. Seeking out the Great Tao, the good heart appears and the true nature becomes clear; awakening to the true mechanism, the physical body is empty and the King of the Law appears. Save yourself and then save others—which is still saving yourself.
Assembly, only on reaching this ground can you be counted as having taken the first step through the great gate. Then enter the hut and sit in stillness: above you can reach heaven, below you can penetrate earth; the nature of ghosts and spirits and the pivot of heaven and earth, their opening and closing, do not go beyond the space between one breath in and one breath out, and creation does not go beyond the palm of your hand. On entering the hut, a mortal womb-body and common bones; on leaving the hut, a sage’s substance and a body of the Law. Understanding the Great Tao, your field of vision is lofty, and you see through all ties as illusory and false; having your staff, your heart is broad, embracing heaven and earth and entering empty space. Before people’s minds stir, I already know; before affairs and things arrive, I foresee them. Only this is the six penetrations and inexhaustible wisdom. All heavenly demons bow in submission and all wish to protect and welcome one; all outer paths, taking refuge, hold one in awe. Mount Sumeru within a mustard seed is taken in without being noticed; the worlds of the ten directions within a millet-grain pearl are stored away unknown. Released, the great earth, mountains, and rivers are mine to use as I please; hidden, a speck of dust or a grain of rice is mine to arrange as I will.
Assembly, for this supreme Tao of non-action that strives upward, the first thing is to investigate subtle principle and awaken to the heavenly workings.
Assembly, you must set aside for now all these useless things and unurgent affairs: blind cultivation and blind sitting, cooking lead and refining mercury, visualization and contemplation, rites of refinement and salvation for the dead, receiving registers and raising the qi, chanting and compounding medicines, ingesting substances and gathering herbs, the yin-yang furnace and cauldron, smelting thatch silver and selling the Tao, austerities and self-sacrifice. You must with a single upright and sincere intention make a vow to heaven: “I pray only that I, your disciple, from this day on and into future lives, may soon understand the mechanism of birth and death, of coming and going, be freed from the suffering of turning through the womb, leave all the various edges, and hear the wondrous Tao.” Assembly, this “leaving all the various edges” is the great gate of skillful means for investigating subtle principle and awakening to the heavenly workings.
Assembly, what are “the various”? They are the various side doors: blind cultivation and blind sitting, cooking lead and refining mercury. What are “edges”? These side doors are neither central nor orthodox. It is like a table: these side doors are all at its four edges and cannot reach the center; even if they reach the center, they do not leave the table. They do not realize that only by leaving the table is there the Great Tao of empty space; unable to leave the table, it is still a thing and not the Tao—is that not an edge? An edge means the side, the heterodox, a boundary, a bank. Being at the side, it is not central; being heterodox, it is not orthodox. With boundaries, it cannot be vast; with banks, it cannot be all-embracing. They rigidly guard this bag of flesh, taking it for a thousand-year-old cypress or a ten-thousand-year green pine, and trap the master of the house alive until he dies. Instead they abandon the lamp to look for fire, cling to the false and forget the true—is that not lying off at an edge? Even if they succeed, they are no more than self-absorbed hermits. Their fruit and rank are limited; when the reward is exhausted, they enter the cycle of rebirth again. What benefit is there in that for living beings?
Assembly, becoming an immortal or a buddha, a sage or a worthy, lies entirely in giving up oneself to follow others and making vast vows to save living beings. These people who sit in meditation cannot even save themselves; how would they be willing to save others? Still being self-absorbed hermits, when have they ever understood the Great Tao and its boundless saving of people? Lying off at an edge, they are deeply to be pitied! The Heavenly Worthy spoke a verse that divulged the true mechanism, teaching the assembly to leave the mind of self-benefit and also leave the method that lies at an edge. It makes the side doors return to walk the middle way and the heterodox teachings enter through the orthodox teaching. It opens up limited boundaries until they are unhindered and unscreened. It stretches out the vast realm of the Law; it widens the banked ditches until they have no edges and no banks. It stretches out the all-embracing body of the Law. Only this is “look, and you do not see me; listen, and you cannot hear”—leaving all the various edges, called the wondrous Tao.
The gate of investigation and awakening lies in opening up the mind-ground and widely opening the good heart; drawing close to lofty and accomplished masters and to awakening of wisdom and sincerity; and carefully pursuing the wondrous meanings of the sages and worthies. When merit has been accumulated for a long time, one naturally opens in awakening and sees the heavenly workings for oneself.
Assembly, the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas attained the Tao and ascended to heaven long ago. To see the mind of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas, first understand their principle. If you can understand their principle, you will awaken to their method. If you can awaken to their method, you will do their deeds. If you can do their deeds, you are the body of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas. Assembly, where is the mind of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas? Assembly, it is only in the square inch of your heart. Where is the principle of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas? Assembly, it is only before your eyes. Where is the method of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas?
Assembly, in the scriptures. Where are the deeds of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas?
Assembly, they do not lie outside worldly ways; they are within worldly ways. Where is the body of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas?
Assembly, if you can see the mind of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas within the square inch of your heart, you can understand their principle, awaken to their method, and do their deeds. If you can understand the principle, the orthodox way is preserved. If you can awaken to the method, all ties are seen through. If you can do the deeds, merit and work are established, and the heavenly workings never cease but endure through ten thousand kalpas. Know that such a person’s spiritual powers and wisdom already possess the substance of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas; he is the body of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas. Assembly, where does investigation and awakening begin?
Assembly, first go and receive the Ten Precepts of Initial Perfection, subduing body and mind so that the square inch of your heart is not disordered; then you can see the mind of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas. Then go on to the Precepts of the Central Ultimate, opening up the spiritual nature so that the mysterious pass is thoroughly penetrated; then you can understand the principle of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas. Then go on to receive the Precepts of the Celestial Immortals, studying the wondrous meanings in depth so that your wisdom flows perfectly and freely; then you can awaken to the method of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas. Then, liberated and unhindered, you can be round or square, great or small, go or stop, live or die, be in front or behind, bend or stretch, go out or come in, be a sage or a worthy, an immortal or a buddha; you can take any of the four kinds of birth or the six paths, be in the heavenly palaces or in hell. Teaching according to each place, saving people through the kalpas; with transformations and spiritual powers, appearing in person to teach the Law. Like a boundless bright mirror reflecting all images, which enter and contain one another, you can then do the deeds of the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas, become their body, and realize their fruit!
Assembly, this is called investigating subtle principle and awakening to the heavenly workings.
Assembly, what is meant by obtaining the black pearl and knowing it through Formless? Long ago the Yellow Emperor, roaming by the Red River, lost his black pearl. He sent Wisdom, Intelligence, and many magical arts to seek it, and they could not find it. Later he set aside wisdom, intelligence, and all his arts, and it was found instead by Formless.
Assembly, the formless is called Formless. The sages and worthies, immortals and buddhas, though they possess the ultimate principle, originally have no real form.
Assembly, if you cling to form in seeking the sages, worthies, immortals, and buddhas, you are the Yellow Emperor using wisdom and intelligence to seek the black pearl.
Assembly! The Yellow Emperor lost the black pearl and it was found by Formless; the person of the Tao investigates the wondrous principle and attains it through no-mind.
Assembly, I have divulged all the heavenly workings and revealed the seal of the mind. But you must guard it carefully. Once the black pearl is lost, who knows on what day you will hold it in your palm again!
A poem says:
Ten thousand scrolls of immortals’ scriptures cannot say it all; one chapter of plain words divulges it without remainder.
I urge you not to play with many methods; the Tao lies in the heart, not in books.
Clinging to forms, you investigate the mystery and cannot get through; sitting in meditation with intent, you sit until you become a demon.
So many heterodox roads people insist on walking; the orthodox way has no one on it—what can be done?