The Supreme Mysterious Grotto Lingbao Supreme Precepts Scripture (Taishang Dongxuan Lingbao Shangpin Jie Jing), one of the ancient Taoist Lingbao Scriptures, was probably compiled during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (c. 420–589 CE).
Partial contents of this text were already quoted in Volume 46 of The Supreme Secret Essentials (Wushang Mi Yao). The current version is included in the Daozang (Taoist Canon) under the Dongxuan Bu (Section of the Mysterious Grotto) and Jielü Lei (Category of Precepts and Rules).
Purportedly dictated by the Primordial Heavenly Lord (Yuanshi Tianzun), the scripture expounds on the "Ten Supreme Vows," "Ten Exhortatory Precepts," "Six Sense-Bases Precepts," and "Ten Medicines for Ten Afflictions."
The Ten Supreme Vows include vowing to offer one’s flesh to feed hungry beasts and birds, vowing to burn one’s body fat as lamp oil to sustain light, vowing to provide clothing and food to the poor, vowing to supply medicinal herbs and remedies to the sick, and so forth.
The Ten Exhortatory Precepts exhort people to venerate the Three Jewels (the Dao, the Scripture, the Master), copy sacred texts, cultivate virtue and hold retreat ceremonies, offer oil to light lamps, present clothing to teachers, filially support parents, relieve the sick, donate to the poor, refrain from jealousy, and sculpt statues for worship, among other things.
The Six Sense-Bases Precepts teach that the six sense faculties (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind) should "encounter phenomena and karmic conditions with wisdom, restrain emotional attachments, and remain unshaken in the true gate of enlightenment."
The Ten Medicines for Ten Afflictions prescribe ten remedies—such as being physically temperate and temperamentally gentle, practicing tolerance and maintaining a peaceful mind, drawing near to virtue and keeping away from sensual pleasures, not seizing ill-gotten gains, rescuing those in calamity and relieving distress, supporting the elderly and the weak, enduring humiliation without resentment, controlling anger, avoiding suspicion and scandal, and calming the mind and stabilizing intentions—to cure ten afflictions, including killing, hatred, lust, robbery, and so on.
The core purpose of the entire scripture is to exhort the world to do good and abandon evil.
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