The Scripture on the Heart, Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao

“The Scripture on the Heart, Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao” (“liao” is pronounced the same as “liao,” meaning to comprehend or realize) is an important classic of Daoism, included in the “Textual Category” of the Dongshen section of the Orthodox Daoist Canon. This scripture is brief yet incisive, likely dating to the Tang dynasty, and its core purpose is to teach practitioners to realize the nature of the mind through “inner observation” and return to the True Dao.

Although “The Scripture on the Heart, Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao” is extremely short, in Daoist practice it is regarded as the supreme method for recitation and contemplation. Long-term recitation and study of this scripture mainly have the following four major effects:

1. Psychological and emotional level: calm and composed

Relieve anxiety: The scripture emphasizes “not moving, realizing the truth,” which can help modern people cut off external information interference and quickly stabilize fluctuating emotions.
Eliminate distracting thoughts: Repeated recitation can produce an effect similar to meditation, guiding chaotic thoughts of “the mind moving without stillness” into a tranquil state of “no thought, no existence.”

2. Cultivation and enlightenment level: illuminating the mind and seeing one’s nature

Break attachment: The phrase in the scripture, “the mind abides nowhere, and there is no attachment or clinging,” can inspire wisdom, enabling one to take fame and fortune, gain and loss, and attachments more lightly, thereby reducing mental exhaustion.
Return to one’s true nature: It helps practitioners understand the principle of “realizing the true nature of the heart,” and find their own inner peace and divine sovereignty.

3. Physical body and health-preservation level: harmonizing qi and blood

Spirit at ease, body upright: Daoism holds that “the heart is the ruler of the spirit”; if the heart is tranquil, the “spirit” within the body is stable. When the spirit is calm, qi flows smoothly; when qi flows smoothly, blood circulates freely.
Assisting meditation: This scripture is often used by internal alchemy practitioners as a mantra for “gathering the mind” before quiet sitting or meditation, helping one enter qigong or meditative states more quickly.

4. Religious and metaphysical level: warding off evil and dispelling calamity

Protecting the field: Reciting the scriptures of Lord Lao (the Celestial Worthy of the Dao and Virtue) is believed to resonate with the merits of the ancestral master, serving to expel inner demonic obstacles and purify the surrounding field.
Turning misfortune into blessing: Once one understands that “the heart is the root of misfortune, and the heart is the source of the Dao,” one can fundamentally change one’s thoughts and intentions; with fewer bad thoughts, one can naturally attract good fortune and avoid disaster.

The original text is as follows:

If one cultivates the Dao, first observe the heart. The heart is the ruler of the spirit; movement and stillness follow the heart.

When the heart moves, there is no stillness; when it does not move, the truth is realized. The heart is the root of misfortune, the heart is the source of the Dao.

Neither moving nor still, no thought and no existence. Without mind, there is no movement; if there is movement, it follows the heart.

Realize the true nature of the heart; realize the true heart of nature. The heart abides nowhere; where it abides, there is no heart.

Realize there is no attachment or clinging; without clinging, one turns to the true. In emptiness there is no empty place; in the empty place, the truth is realized.

Lord Lao said: From immeasurable kalpas ago, I have observed the heart and attained the Dao; even to the point of emptiness and nothingness, what have I obtained? For the sake of all beings, I forcibly name it “attaining the Dao.”

Lord Lao said: I observe that sentient beings do not realize their hearts; they labor in vain through vast kalpas, futilely expending their spirit. With no realization in the heart, they sink into samsara for endless kalpas. Follow my sacred teaching, and roam freely while embracing the true.