The Exalted One’s Clarity and Tranquility of the Constant Scripture
The Exalted One’s Clarity and Tranquility of the Constant Scripture 太 上 常 清 靜 經 Tai Shang Chang Qing Jing Jing Du Jiang reads the text aloud. The Venerable Sage, the Exalted One, spoke this Clarity and Tranquility of the Constant Scripture. The Venerable Sage said, “The Great Dao is formless, yet it gave birth to Heaven and Earth. The Great Dao is without impulse, yet it revolves and gives motion to the sun and moon. The Great Dao is nameless, yet it eternally nourishes the myriad things. I do not know its name, but if pressed to give it a name, I would call it Dao. “From the Dao there is both clarity and turbidity, and there is movement and tranquility. Heaven is clear and the Earth is turbid; Heaven moves and the Earth is tranquil. The masculine is clear and the feminine turbid; the masculine moves and the feminine is tranquil. [Clarity] originally descended from Heaven, and so [turbidity] flows on endlessly, giving birth to the myriad things. “Clarity is the source of turbidity; movement is the basis of tranquility. If people were able to be constantly clear and tranquil they would then understand that all of Heaven and Earth return to [Dao]. “Now, the spirits of human beings are fond of clarity, but their minds are disturbed. Their minds are fond of tranquility, but they are distracted by sense desires. “If able to constantly eradicate sense-desires, the mind itself will become tranquil. Bring clarity to the mind and the spirit will become tranquil and clear. Then naturally the Six Sense-Desires will not arise and the Three Poisons will be extinguished. The reason people are unable to bring this about is that they have no clarity of mind and sense-desires have not been eliminated. “When [people] can bring about this elimination, they will, when inwardly contemplating the mind, see the mind as a false mind. When they outwardly contemplate their bodily form, they will see the bodily form as a false bodily form. So, too, when contemplating things apart from their self they will see things as false things. “When [people] are awakened to these three falsehoods, only then is the Void perceived. But they must contemplate the Void as also being Void—a Void without there even being a Void. This is because when nothingness is Void, then this Voidness becomes no-nothingness. When nothingness becomes no-nothingness, there will be a deep and constant tranquility—tranquility without any perception of tranquility. How then can sense-desires arise? For when sense-desires do not arise, this is true tranquility. “The True and Constant respond to all things. Through the True and Constant, Essence can then be acquired, which is forever responsive and forever tranquil—Clarity and Tranquility of the Constant. “Thus, by means of clarity and tranquility there is a gradual entrance to the True Dao, and having entered the True Dao is called, ‘Obtaining the Dao.’ Even though it is called ‘Obtaining the Dao,’ in truth there is nothing to obtain. It is only because of the transformation of a living being that it is called, ‘Obtaining the Dao.’ Those who have awakened to this may transmit it to others, for they are sages of the Dao.” The Venerable Sage, the Exalted One, said, “The superior person is without contention and the inferior person is quarrelsome. The virtue of [superior people] is that they do not seek to be virtuous, while [inferior people] grasp at virtue. Those who grasp are confused about both the Dao and virtue. “The reason living beings do not attain the True Dao is because they have false thoughts. When there are false thoughts the spirit is aggravated. When the spirit is aggravated the myriad things are attracted. When attracted by the myriad things, greed comes forth and there are then perplexities. These perplexities result in confused thinking, which causes further grief and bitterness to the body and mind. [False thinking] is the cause for meeting with turbidity and defilement, drifting about birth and death, constantly sinking into a bitter sea and forever losing the True Dao. “The realization of the True and Constant Dao is a matter of self-attainment. Attain and realize the Dao of Clarity and Tranquility of the Constant!”
End of The Exalted One’s Clarity and Tranquility of the Constant Scripture.
