Daoist Meditations

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“The Upper Scripture of Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits

The Grand Lord Azure Lad of the Eastern Seas, resident of the Eastern Palace of Fangzhu, conducted a purification retreat for three years within the yellow chambers and cinnabar-red gates of his holy tower. Then he mounted his cloudy chariot, composed of dark-blue auroras and the flowing effulgences of his three spirit registers. He threw across his shoulders the halcyon-plumed dragon cloak of flying azure and, leading a retinue of a thousand Perfected from the Mulberry Groves, proceeded on high to visit the Golden Porte of Upper Clarity. There he requested the “Upper Scripture of Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits.”

Within the Golden Porte there are four Thearchical Lords. Among them, the Sage Lord of the Latter Age occupies the highest position, that of the left. He resides in the Palace of the Grand Void, with rose-gem estrades all constructed of cinnabar and malachite. Thirty-thousand maids and Perfected beings attend him. Poison dragons, thunder tigers, and heaven-clawing beasts guard his gates, wrapping themselves about the portals. Krakens and serpents, thousands of yards in length, twine themselves around the walls and cornices. Flying steeds, together with darting sparrows and other birds with massive wingspans, pecking with their beaks and brandishing their talons, are spread throughout the broad courtyard.

The Lord's celestial might flashes throughout, throwing off beams of light that illumine in all directions. The wind beats at dark banners; oxtail-pennoned canopies swirl and dance. Gemmy trees are shaken and sound out, blue-gem plants act as sounding hollows—all playing the songs of the clouds as phoenixes intone “Azure Peace.” The spirit consorts sing in harmony, while the great rocs dance and simurghs step in unison.

Once the Azure Lad had reached this place, he crawled into the awesome presence. Then, raising his head and facing to the north, he said:

I, the minor official Fanmei, dare to present my request before the table of his bright majesty, the sage Thearch. Long ago, when order was plucked from the Grand Barrens, I was made an official among the flying Perfected. My charge was to inspect the vast border region of the five sacred realms, to oversee what fell beyond the purview of my mystic Master. Rising up, I bathed myself in clear and volatile yang pneumas, sounding my bells in the vacant fields. I made bright and flourishing my three modes of perception, intricate and complex my wondrous understandings—[just as] within the vast fastnesses of the Numinous Park cleansing floods purge green valleys.

This accomplished, I withdrew in hesitation from the constant net to pace on high with the Mystic Elders. I joined nine simurghs in the barren wastes of Lang precipice, shooting flowing beams out over the shrouded efflorescences beyond. In a wavelike rush, I attained the paired mysteries, exhausting to its limits my spiritual perception. Merging with the utter stillness of the dragon void, I then buried my impulse to split hairs deep within the cinnabar chambers of my heart and opened the spirit-gates of my consciousness that I might give myself over to transformation and release myself from entanglements through following the progress of my changing form.

Just at this moment, my bonds and fetters fell away; my bodily spirits and breaths were subtilized. Reverently sloughing off my five bodily spirits, I entered into the flowing refinement of the hollow void, like a fish leaping through the shallows of a dark-blue ford, boldly and effortlessly.

Although I have now achieved self-sufficiency in my observations into the eight horizontal directions and there should in fact be no obstructions to my view of the glowing heights of heaven, still I am concerned that my perfected qualities have not yet been sufficiently opened and that my spiritual substance requires further honing. I wish to allow the winds to sprinkle dew over fragrant groves and to sound the heavenly pipes along the edges of the clouds. I want to eradicate the seven transgressors and solidify [human] understandings of the arcane. For these purposes, I wonder if the “Upper Scripture of Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits” might be taught to those below?

At this particular moment, the Sage Lord of the Latter Ages had clasped to him his writing table and had transformed himself outwardly [so as to be visible to those around him]. Collecting from on high his far-ranging thoughts, he was composing with his brush a commentary to the “Mysterious Scripture of the Grand Cavern” to instruct the several hundreds of Higher Perfected, Exalted Chamberlains, holy lads, and Jade Maidens. Not only did he not lend ear to the words proffered by the Azure Lad; he did not cease for even an instant his chanting to those who observed him.

Then the Azure Lad crawled farther forward on his knees and implored him further, showing no signs of desisting. After a long time, the Sage Lord pushed his writing desk away and stretched out in an attitude of repose. Suddenly, heaving a long sigh, he said: “Your bitter words are mysterious and exalted, and your quintessential sincerity has awakened me. You have been extremely arduous in your pursuits.”

At this, the Sage Lord pointed beyond to the barren regions. On his face was an expression of compassion. Accordingly, he took up his zither of the cloudy spheres. Strumming and plucking it, he produced a concatenation of cascading notes, which echoed forth clear and numinous. Their gemlike brightness shook the nine barren realms and penetrated clearly to the highest empyrean. With this accompaniment, he sang the strophes of the “Spirit Isles of the Grand Cavern,” to the tune of “Concentrated Cloudsouls.” These mystical verses of divine ornamentation contained heavenly harmonies vague and subtle. They reflected into the dashing pneumas with persistent tones, both open-stringed and dampened. The lyrics were as follows:

In the dark barrens, breaths of Upper Clarity—

Colors of the Three Elementals rush into the mottled murk.

Toward the abyss, numinous portals open—

Seven gates swung wide by feathered lads—

Allowing unobstructed descent to a vision of the cinnabar empyrean,

So that, distant yet clear, the dark cycles are made manifest.

You achieve realization, awakening to the mystic junctures;

Perch on the brink, then fly into the Grand Void.

The Solar Estrade, in the wilds of the Grand Cavern,

Shrouded and fleeting, beams from a blossoming fungus.

In an abandoned realm, a canopied conveyance of the barrens:

Cut off from your dwelling, you communicate with the hidden,

For an exalted meeting within the gate towers of the mystic timekeepers.

Bareheaded, you attend morning audience with the Jade Monarchs.

Your spirits blossom to the tones of the Ruddy Spirit,

While the rhythms of the Void sound forth from rose-gem chimes.

As your nine-harnessed cloud coach crosses the sky,

You roam among peaks wrapped in purple auroras.

Where cyan rooms open on the Cinnabar Mound,

Five chambers are arrayed within a green court.

The Golden Porte flashes ruggedly in the distance.

Shaded and vague are the palaces of Upper Clarity.

Savor the flowers of sun and moon;

Glimpse the contours of the formless realm!

Mystically bring about perception of your three spirit registers,

As you glide silently across kalpas and fathoms.

Why are you seated while still on the road?

The five difficulties will grow in your breast.

Why not take control of the Ruddy Infant

And depend on your personal Sire of the Muddy Pellet?

Then you will not die, nor will you be born;

You will not begin, nor will you end.

When the Sage Lord had finished his singing, he beckoned to the Azure Lad, urging him to be seated. He spread before him liquors of flowing auroras, fruits of ringed adamant, white fruits of vermilion gem trees, and green kernels from scarlet gem trees. Then he ordered the upper Perfected Five Ancient Ones and the Higher Duke of the Transcendent Metropolis to open the gemmy bookcases of purple petals and the book bags of cloud brocade to extract the “Upper Scripture of Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits.” This he entrusted to the Azure Lad, that the Azure Lad might bestow it below to those whose names are written on jade in the Mystic Palace and who thus are destined to become Perfected.

The Azure Lad, retreating from his mat, knocked his head in obeisance to receive it. Then, taking the text with him, he returned to the Eastern Palace of Fangzhu.

The “Upper Scripture of Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits” is the essential text that the Sage of the Latter Heavens, Lord Li, himself received and practiced when he studied the Dao as a young man. It contains methods of achieving Perfection transmitted orally by the Celestial Thearch of Grand Tenuity and the Celestial Thearch of Upper Perfection from Purple Tenuity, two Celestial Thearchs from the heavens of Jade Clarity. It represents the most vital practices for salvation from the age of the Higher Luminaries, which they extracted from heavenly scripture and compiled to compose this work. The methods of practice, incantations, and explanations were graded, compared, and arranged item by item to form a single scroll. This text was then incised on jade slats bound together, and the graphs were colored in with green and gold.

Then the Tortoise Mother guided the brush [to recopy the scripture], Perfected lads arranged the mats, Celestial consorts watched over the incense, and Jade Lads tied the inscribed slips into scrolls. The text was then given its name, the “Upper Scripture of Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits,” and copies were presented to the upper Perfected Five Ancient Ones and the Higher Duke of the Transcendent Metropolis, who secreted it in gemmy bookcases of purple petals, wrapping these in book bags of cloud brocade.

As guardians of the text, ten Jade Maidens were commanded to remain by it. Ten Jade Lads were commanded to guard the Annals of the Sage Lord. These spirits are also to oversee those Daoists who come into possession of the texts, reporting their merits and transgressions to the masters who have gone before and who now reside in mystery in Upper Clarity. Major oversights will be punished by the Three Offices; minor oversights will result in an expropriation of years and a shortening of the life span. Major transgressions will result in calamities reaching to the three degrees of ancestors; minor transgressions will be visited on the individual. If one treats the text slightingly, the spirits will depart. If one sullies the text, then the text will hide itself away.

When those who study transcendence open these spirit texts, they should always rise to bow, wash their hands, and burn incense. Since celestial spirits guard it, one should be especially cautious and reverential. One should not carelessly speak of its contents to any of those to whom the text is not to be transmitted. Even uttering the names of the sections of this text is a violation of the regulations forbidding the disclosure of celestial writ.

“The Method for Collecting and Ingesting the Flying Root and Swallowing the Solar Pneumas from the Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits of the Palace of Golden Porte in the Heaven of Upper Clarity”

Of old, [I] received this method from the Celestial Thearch, Lord of Grand Tenuity, One name of this text is the “Scripture of Red Cinnabar, Essence of Metal, Mineral Phosphorescence, and the Jade Placenta of the Mother of Water.”

You should regularly observe the precise moment of the first emergence of the sun at sunrise. Face the emerging sun in the east and knock your teeth together nine times. This complete, you should in your mind secretly invoke the spirits, calling the names of the cloudsouls of the sun and the bynames of the Five Thearchs of the sun and saying:

Cloudsouls of the Sun, Orbed Phosphors,

Envelope of Reflectivity, Green Glare,

Red lads of the Revolving Auroras,

Dark Blaze, Whirlwind Simulacra.

Having invoked the spirits in your mind, calling these sixteen words, then close your eyes and seal your fists. Visualize the flowing auroras in five colors from within the sun all approaching to receive your body down to your feet. Then envision these five pneumas rising to the top of your head. With this, the five-colored flowing auroras of sunlight will enter into your mouth. Moreover, within the sunlight auroras there will be also a purple pneuma, as large as the pupil of your eye, but wrapped in several tens of layers and flashing brilliantly within the five-colored rays of sun. This is called the flying root of solar efflorescence, the jade placenta, mother of water. Together with the five pneumas it will enter into your mouth.

Facing toward the sun, you should swallow these auroras, gulping breath forty-five times. Once you have completed this, swallow liquid [saliva] nine times, then knock your teeth together nine times and incant softly:

Cinnabar pneumas of the vermilion furnace,

Nurturing germs of the orbed heavens:

The brittle accepts the pliant, Blazing liquids and shadowy blossoms.

The primal phosphors of the solar chronogram

Are called the Grandly Luminous.

Their ninefold yang coordinates transformation,

As the two smoky vapors issue forth,

To congeal my cloudsouls, harmonize my whitesouls.

From within the germs of the five breaths,

The Five Thearchs emerge,

Riding on beams, controlling my bodily form.

I grasp the flying by means of its emptiness;

Pluck the root to achieve fullness.

Heads wrapped in dragon flowers,

Caped in vermilion, belted in green,

Reining on the raven-black, flowing darkness,

Their auroras reflect in Upper Clarity.

I will be presented a writ on jade slats;

The Golden Porte will inscribe my name.

Consuming the flowers of dawn,

I will join in spirit with the Perfected,

Will fly in transcendence to Grand Tenuity,

Will rise above to the Purple Court.

Having completed this incantation, face the sun and bow repeatedly.

Even among Transcendents and Perfected, not one in a million knows the names of the cloudsouls of the sun. This is a mystic and wondrous Way—not one of which those blood eaters with their rotting skeletons might have heard.

When the day is overcast and without sun, you may perform this rite by retaining the sun in vision within a secret room where you lay yourself to rest, so long as the spot is clean. This is because those Daoists who practice in purity and whose essential natures move sympathetically the spirits on high are able to practice this method without even seeing the sun.

Those Daoists who have renounced grain and live in the mountains and forests, who conduct lengthy purification rites On the Five Marchmounts, who have cut themselves off from the dust of the mortal world, or whose far-ranging meditations reside only in clarity and perfection, should daily swallow the auroras of solar root and swallow the essences of Grand Solarity. They will immediately notice their bodies exuding jade fluids and their faces emitting flowing light.

For those who are still involved in external human affairs, who have not yet achieved stillness of body, who float aimlessly along the byways of the world, or whose hearts are bound by ropes and fetters, it is essential that this practice be carried out as described above on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, thirteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-fifth of each month. Each month, you should practice ten times. These are the days on which the cloudsouls of the sun might descend to join with you, when the flying root is overflowing and full, and the Mother of Water might ward off [your] dreams. If you practice this for eighteen years, Upper Clarity will refine [your form] to golden perfection, so that you reflect a gemmy light. Your rank will reach that of Jade Sovereign and you will fly through the Grand Void, mounted on the efflorescences of the Three Elementals, exalted over all below heaven.

The talisman above is to be written in red on blue paper at midnight on the last night of each month. Face east and swallow it to provide prior notification to the cloudsouls of the sun. Just before you swallow it, block your breath and, grasping the talisman in your left hand, incant silently:

Cinnabar writ of Grand Tenuity,

Entitled “Opening Luminescence,”

Bring to me the cloudsouls of the sun on high,

To come and transform (so-and-so's) shape.

Just at dawn, carefully garbed,

They issue from the Round Court:

Mother of water as a flying efflorescence;

The golden essence, solar root.

Their purple reflections flow within its beams,

Which are called the Five Numens.

Having completed the incantation, swallow the talisman.