Scripture of the Fundamental Truth 太玄真一本际经

According to Zhenglun (Treatise on Discrimination and Correction) written by the Tang-dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanyi: "The five volumes of Benji Jing were compiled by the Sui-dynasty Taoist priest Liu Jinxi, and later expanded to ten volumes by the Taoist priest Li Zhongqing".

Today, only the second volume, Fuzhu Pin (Chapter of Entrustment), survives in the Daozang, included in the Taiping Section.

Scripture of the Fundamental Truth

In addition, according to the catalog Dunhuang Daojing Mulu Bian (Compilation of Catalogues of Taoist Scriptures from Dunhuang) by Onoda Shunji, there are 102 Tang-dynasty manuscripts of Benji Jing among the Dunhuang relics. Through collation and emendation, the original ten-volume structure of the scripture can be basically restored. As an important Taoist treatise of the Sui and Tang dynasties, this scripture is falsely attributed to dialogues between the Primordial Lord and immortals such as Fajie, Miaoxing, Tianzhen Huangren (Heavenly True August Personage) and Zhengyi Zhenren (True One Perfected Person), expounding Taoism doctrines and teachings. After each section of discourse, a verse is appended. Its content is extensive, covering karmic affinities from past lives, merits and virtuous deeds, rituals and precepts, stages of cultivation, methods of refining and nourishing the body, etc., and ultimately focusing on expounding the true meaning of the original boundary and indicating the method of embodying the Dao through Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery). The scripture proclaims that Benji Jing is the sole and incomparable Dharma gate of Dao. It states that the great Dao transcends existence and non-existence, is naturally empty and tranquil, has no root or origin, no ancestor or founder. "The so-called Dao is unobstructed and all-pervasive, just like the void. It is neither existent nor non-existent, neither foolish nor wise, neither cause nor effect, neither mortal nor sage, neither form nor mind, neither marked nor unmarked. It does not conform to all dharmas, and why? The nature of all dharmas is no-nature; the nature of dharmas and the nature of the Dao are both ultimately empty—and this emptiness is also empty, with no distinctions." Since the Dao is empty and tranquil, the so-called return of all things and sentient beings to their root and origin actually means there is no root to return to, no origin to revert to. Sentient beings fail to understand this principle, thus generating thoughts of dharmas from the absence of dharmas, and thoughts of emptiness from non-emptiness, "falsely creating all kinds of dharmas, clinging to the notions of self and other—hence the cycle of birth and death, and failure to attain the true Dao". Deeply aware of this, the author proposes that to cultivate immortality and embody the Dao, one must first break through the illusions of thoughts and perceptions—neither clinging to existence nor grasping at non-existence, forgetting both existence and non-existence, and even forgetting the act of forgetting. This is the Dao of double forgetting and Chongxuan. Therefore, the scripture states: "All ordinary beings arise from the state of ethereal turbidity with ignorance, clinging to all forms of existence. Even though they accumulate diligent merits, they cannot be free from attachments—thus they cultivate emptiness to eliminate attachments to existence. When attachments to existence are purified, they still cling to emptiness, which is often called desire. Therefore, the correct observation is revealed: to empty this emptiness. When both emptiness and existence are purified, it is called double forgetting—this is the state of initially entering correct observation." It further states: "Those who practice correct observation first empty all forms of existence, with no attachments to existence or non-existence; then they discard the clinging to emptiness, purifying even the mind of emptiness—and this is called double forgetting... Those who practice in this way have no attachments to emptiness or existence, which is called Mystery; they then discard this Mystery, attaining nothing at all—hence the name Chongxuan, the gate to all wonders." This Dao of double forgetting and Chongxuan is the highest realm of Taoist cultivation. This work exerted a significant influence on the Chongxuan philosophical thought of Taoism during the Sui and Tang dynasties.