Lingbao Instructions on Returning to Emptiness 灵宝归空诀

Compiled by Zhao Yizhen, the Master Yuanyangzi.

Zhao Yizhen was a Taoist priest at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and the inheriting master of the Jingming Sect.

Lingbao Instructions on Returning to Emptiness

The original text is one volume, included in the Method Category under The Dongxuan Section of The Daozang.

The book contains fourteen seven-character jueju poems, each followed by a short annotation expounding the "method of returning to the void". The meaning of "returning to the void" refers to the idea that a person shall return to the empty void after death. This method instructs people to hold fast to the Mysterious Pass at the moment of death, see through illusory karmic connections, and cast aside mortal desires and habitual karmic behaviors, so as to avoid falling into the various realms of existence. This method is presumably derived from the Esoteric Buddhism, and some attribute it to the Chan Master Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism.