Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo guānmiào jīng 太上洞玄靈寶觀妙經
Scripture for Contemplating the Marvelous, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A very short (two-folio) meditation manual of the Língbǎo rubric, transmitted in the Zhèngtǒng dàozàng in a composite juàn (sān jīng tóng juàn 三經同卷, “three scriptures in one fascicule”) together with DZ 327 Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo tiānzūn shuō dàtōng jīng and DZ 328 Hù zhū tóngzǐ jīng (KR5b0011 and KR5b0012 in the present database).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly into practical instructions on quieting the mind and carries no author preface, postface, or transmission colophon.
Abstract
The scripture is a single continuous exposition on the cultivation of guānmiào 觀妙 — contemplation of the marvelous — through the stilling of the mind: the adept must first abjure all crooked conduct and cut off external affairs, then clarify and stabilize the mind, allowing it to remain “still in movement, moving in stillness,” until its light arises of its own accord. The text cautions against forcing the practice (“if the mind is bound too tightly, illness arises and madness follows”) and urges moderate, well-adjusted effort.
Textually the scripture is a reworked extract: Robinet has shown (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 598, DZ 326) that from its first line (1b) it corresponds to DZ 400 Dòngxuán língbǎo dìngguān jīng 洞玄靈寶定觀經 4a to the end, and that its close coincides with the last paragraph of DZ 1036 Zuòwàng lùn 坐忘論 (beginning at 16b). The text is mentioned in the Sòng-era Suìchū táng shūmù 遂初堂書目 23b (= VDL 172), and must therefore date from the Táng–Wǔdài (618–960) phase of Daoist meditative literature.
Translations and research
- Kohn, Livia. Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhen’s Zuowang lun. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1987 — for the closely related DZ 1036 Zuòwàng lùn and the Dìngguān jīng complex.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:598 (DZ 326).