Great Precepts of Celestial Immortality天仙大戒

Also known as

Great Precepts of Celestial Immortality Completing the Three Altars, Precepts of Celestial Immortality, Platform Scripture of the Jade Garden (appendix)

Author / transmission

Wang Changyue

Period

Qing · Compiled by Wang Changyue in the early Qing (after 1656), the highest of the Three Altars of Great Precepts.

Canon division

Outside the Canon

Collected in

Outside the Canon (included in the Essentials of the Daoist Canon and Daoist Texts outside the Canon)

Category

Precepts and Rules

Fascicles

One Fascicle (Juan)

Synopsis

The Great Precepts of Celestial Immortality form the third altar of the Quanzhen Three Altars of Great Precepts, also called the "Great Precepts of Celestial Immortality Completing the Three Altars"; those who receive this precept are called "disciples of the Celestial Immortality precepts," and must already have received both the Precepts of Initial Perfection and the Precepts of Medium Ultimate. The content of this precept text is not primarily a list of articles but is organized around the "Ten Goods," the "Ten Evils" and the "Ten Precepts of Wisdom," emphasizing the "formless precept" of mind and nature: every good thought is a keeping of the precept, every evil thought a violation of it, stressing that "the precept lies not outside but within the mind" — a doctrine that forms a complementary pair with Wang Changyue's teaching in the Heart Methods of the Dragon Gate Lineage of governing the mind through the precepts and illuminating the mind to see one's true nature. The system of the Three Altars of Great Precepts gave rise to a Quanzhen order culture in the Qing dynasty "centered on the precepts," and thereafter precept transmission at all the great public monasteries followed these three altars, a nomenclature still used when the contemporary Chinese Taoist Association resumed the transmission of precepts.

Key Ideas

• The completing precept of the Three Altars of Great Precepts
• The formless precept of the mind: the precept lies within the mind
• The Ten Goods, Ten Evils and Ten Precepts of Wisdom
• The core of the precept-transmission system since the Qing dynasty

Structure

One chapter, containing the precept text and dharma-talks.

Editions

• Essentials of the Daoist Canon edition
• Daoist Texts outside the Canon, vol. 12

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Wang Changyue
• CTEXT search

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