Dongxuan Lingbao Jiuzhenren Wufu Sangui Xingdao Guanmen Jing (The Scripture of the Numinous Treasure of the Cavernous Mystery: The Nine True Persons, the Five Returns, the Three Restorations, and the Practice of the Dao’s Contemplation Gate), the author of which is unknown.
Judging from its content and wording, it seems to have been composed by Taoist Priest between the Sui and Tang dynasties by imitating Buddhist scriptures.
Two Tang-dynasty texts, Yaoxiu Keyi Jielü Chao (Anthology of Essential Rituals and Precepts) and Zhiyan Zong (Compendium of Supreme Words), both quote the Guanmen Jing (Scripture of the Contemplation Gate), which is suspected to be this very text.
It consists of one scroll and is included in the Supreme Mystery section of the Daozang (Taoist Canon).
This scripture contains nine Xingdao Renzheng Song (Odes on Verifying the Practice of the Dao) by the Nine True Persons, advocating the cultivation of the Dao of the Five Returns and Three Restorations Contemplation Gate. The so-called "Five Returns" refer to:
- First, examining the Five Knowings to clarify the existence or absence of delusion in the Ten Practices;
- Second, contemplating the mind and intellect to comprehend the gate of impermanent birth, death, and transformation;
- Third, advancing in cultivation of faith and wisdom to purify the karmic field and return to the gate of stillness and transcendence;
- Fourth, attaining the subtle seed of profound mystery to enter the gate of cavernous truth and illumination through the root of chaos and darkness;
- Fifth, merging with and illuminating the Dao to ascend to the gate of translucent truth and cavernous verification.
It is claimed that those who can cultivate these five contemplation gates will attain profound subtlety of body and mind, achieve complete perfection, transcend impermanence, and obtain the true and eternal Dao, after which the Three Jewels will naturally return to them. The scripture adopts Buddhist concepts of the emptiness of all dharmas and the practice of stopping and contemplating, while advocating the attainment of immortality
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