I bow my head, taking refuge in the wondrous Tao of all wonders, and with utmost sincerity revere the Perfected of the twofold mystery.
Now I turn my single mind to what the mind contemplates, and roughly understand the causes of this scripture.
Emptiness and form, form and emptiness, have no fixed nature; being and nonbeing, nonbeing and being, form and emptiness are equal.
The wind of wisdom comes from the power of the Heavenly Worthy, sweeping the realm of the mind and leaving no dust.
I pray only that divine light ever guard and protect, and bear witness to one who guards the mind today.
What does one who guards the mind today realize? Without losing the ordinary body, one gains the body of the Tao.
At that time the Primordial Heavenly Worthy (Yuanshi Tianzun) was in the Grove of Seven Treasures, within the Palace of Five Brightnesses. Together with the limitless host of sages, he emitted limitless light, illuminating limitless worlds. He saw limitless beings suffering limitless afflictions, turning about in the world, revolving through birth and death in the cycle of rebirth, drifting on the river of love, blown along the sea of desire, sunk and stuck in sound and form, deluded about being and nonbeing. Without emptiness they have emptiness; without form they have form; without nonbeing they have nonbeing; with being they have no being. From beginning to end in darkness, they cannot understand for themselves and remain deluded to the last.
The Heavenly Worthy said: You beings, from what is not being there is being, from what is not nonbeing there is nonbeing, from what is not form there is form, from what is not emptiness there is emptiness. What is not being is taken as being; what is not nonbeing is taken as nonbeing; what is not form is taken as form; what is not emptiness is taken as emptiness. Emptiness is emptiness, yet emptiness has no fixed emptiness; form is form, yet form has no fixed form. Form itself is emptiness; emptiness itself is form. If you can know that emptiness is not empty and that form is not form, this is called clear illumination; you begin to reach the wondrous sound, recognize the teaching of no emptiness, and see through without obstruction. Entering the gate of all wonders, you understand and awaken as what is so of itself, leave the net of doubts, and do not cling to views of emptiness. Bring the six senses to clarity and stillness and cut off all evil obstacles. I will now speak for you this wondrous scripture, named Protecting Life, to save and deliver beings, to be taught throughout the world and circulated for reading and recitation. Then there are Flying Heavenly Spirit Kings, vajra warriors who break evil, numinous youths who protect the law, Perfected who save from suffering, and fierce beasts of golden essence, each in hosts of ten billion. All attend and guard this scripture, protecting it wherever it goes. They ward off distress and support the declining, deliver all beings, and free them from all defilement and attachment.
At that time the Heavenly Worthy spoke a gatha: Looked at, I am not seen; listened to, I cannot be heard. Apart from all extremes—this is called the wondrous Tao.