The Numinous Treasure Spontaneous Liturgy
Author unknown.
Recorded as Lingbao Natural Retreat Evening Opening Ritual (one scroll) in Secret Catalog (Southern Song Dynasty), it is suspected to be this very text.
The existing version is included in the Dongxuan Section (Mysterious Grotto Section) of the Daozang under the category of Rituals and Ceremonies.
The Natural Retreat is one of the six early retreat methods of the Taoist Lingbao Sect. It has been mentioned in Taoist texts such as Lu Xiujing’s Lingbao Five Perceptions Treatise (Southern Dynasties) and Song Wenming’s Comprehensive Gate Treatise. Primarily used to pray for blessings and dispel disasters for the people, it rescues all living and deceased beings from hardships and calamities. This text records the rituals for performing the Natural Retreat, with key procedures including reciting prayers, repenting to deities in the ten directions, repenting to deities in the four directions, circumambulating while chanting ethereal verses (Buxu), performing three invocations and three prostrations, and making eleven vows. It is believed that practicing this retreat can transcend the spirits of the nine generations of ancestors and seven lines of relatives of a family, eliminate disasters and misfortunes for their clan and kin, ensure men and women uphold integrity and obedience, and bring prosperity to livestock and property.
Additionally: According to Shinji Ohuchi’s Catalog of Taoist Texts from Dunhuang, the Dunhuang manuscripts P3282, S6811, and P2455 are suspected to be copies of the Lingbao Natural Retreat Ritual from the Southern Dynasties, though this claim remains unconfirmed and awaits further research.
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