Compendium of Lingbao Salvation Rites 上清灵宝大法

Originally attributed to instruction by Ning Quanzhen and compilation by Wang Qizhen, both renowned Taoist Priest of the The Lingbao Sect in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Compendium of Lingbao Salvation Rites

Comprising sixty-six volumes, it is included in the Zhengyi Section of the The Daozang. As a comprehensive text of Lingbao Taoist methods from the early Southern Song Dynasty, it is divided into twenty-seven sections, compiling various magical arts including cultivation, fasting and abstinence, repentance, invoking deities, prayer and supplication, initiation, recitation, Taoist Talismans , and sacrificial memorials. It also examines the origin and evolution of Lingbao scriptures, precepts and talismanic methods, and expounds on their essential purport as well as the merits of cultivation practice. Several such comprehensive Taoist method texts compiled by Lingbao Taoists emerged during the transition from the late Northern Song to the early Southern Song Dynasty. This book belongs to the Lingbao Donghua school, popular in the Tiantai area of eastern Zhejiang. Its Taoist methods not only inherit the traditional talismanic school's arts of sacrificial rituals and refinement, but also absorb Internal Alchemy and thunder magic, emphasizing the practice of the "Great Tranquility Method" — namely, purifying the mind and eliminating distracting thoughts, and refining essence and Qi internally as the foundation for the external use of talismans.