Jade Manual of Celestial Flight and Inner Vision 无上三天玉堂正宗高奔内景玉书

The original text bears no author’s name. Judging from its content and linguistic style, it was compiled by Lu Shizhong, a Taoist priest of the Tianxin Sect, during the late Northern Song to early Southern Song dynasties.

Comprising three volumes, it is included in the Methods category of the Dongzhen Section of the Daozang. This scripture primarily expounds the inner cultivation methods of visualizing the Three Luminaries (sun, moon, and Big Dipper) and spiritually soaring to the sun, moon, and the Dipper’s essence. Its content and phrasing are largely identical to the “Chapter on Soaring High into the Inner Realm” and “Chapter on Ascending the Dipper to Soar to the Stars” from Lu Shizhong’s other work, The Supreme Mysterious Origin Three Heavens Jade Hall Great Dharma.

Jade Manual of Celestial Flight and Inner Vision

The first volume elaborates on the Dao of soaring high to the sun and moon, describing the inner visions of solar essence and lunar radiance, and enumerating the divine images, talismans, and visualization formulas of the sun and moon deities. The third volume expounds the Dao of flying to the Dipper and soaring to the stars, recording the names, duties, images, as well as visualization and incantation formulas of the Nine Lords of the Northern Dipper.

The art of visualizing the Three Luminaries and spiritually soaring to the sun, moon, and Dipper has its origins in the Shangqing Sect of the Wei and Jin dynasties. This scripture emphasizes that the Three Luminaries—solar essence, lunar radiance, and Dipper energy—are not sought externally but are the innate truths within one’s own body. The essential formula for practice is to visualize the inner landscape of one’s self, or to envision the celestial Three Luminaries merging into one’s body and uniting with the self. Following this, one recites incantations, clicks the teeth, swallows saliva, and ingests talismans. It is said that practicing this Dao enables one to “restore yang and transform the bones, ascending to the morning light in broad daylight.”