仙佛講道源
Immortals and Buddhas Speak on the Source of the Dao (仙佛講道源, Xiānfó Jiǎng Dàoyuán) is a Yiguandao (一貫道) teaching compendium of fifty sections covering the foundations of the Way of Unity — from the meaning of religion itself, through the unity of the five world teachings, to esoteric cosmology and practical cultivation. Written in modern vernacular Chinese as a study text, it is the most comprehensive single introduction to Yiguandao belief and practice in the tradition's morality-book corpus.
The opening three sections, presented here, lay the doctrinal foundations: what separates true religion from mere instruction, why the five great teachings (Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, and Islam) share a single source, and the astonishing depth hidden inside the six characters of "Namo Amitabha" — a mantra that, properly understood, contains the entire canon of all three Eastern traditions.
The Chinese source text is from the Morality Books Library (善書圖書館, taolibrary.com), which states: "Welcome to reprint, upload, reproduce, and circulate" (歡迎轉載，上傳，翻印，流通). This is the first English translation. Sections 1–3 of 50.
The Meaning of Religion
The meaning of religion is to awaken yourself and awaken others. The root-word "religion" in Chinese — 宗教 — holds the whole teaching in two characters. 宗 means "root" — to illuminate your true nature. 教 means "instruction" — to draw near to the people. A true religion has both: the inner root and the outer instruction, substance and function together.
The two characters carry a depth that most people miss. Ordinary moral instruction has teaching but no root — 教 without 宗. The root is the Dao itself. The instruction is the revelation of virtue. Virtue depends on the Dao for its life, and so the great life-giving power is called virtue.
The Dharma Gate of the White Sun Heavenly Way transmits the Dao itself. Because the Dao cannot be spoken, cannot be described — without form, without image — it can only be transmitted from heart to heart. Only then does awakening come.
This is why, when Confucius transmitted the Dao, his grandson Zisi called it "the heart-method transmitted within the gate of Confucius." The heart-method is what makes religion truly religion. Only a teaching that can transmit the heart-method deserves to be called a religion.
The heart-method has been passed in secret from teacher to teacher since antiquity, never departing from the root. The Buddha called it "a separate transmission outside the teachings" — not found within scripture, not found within speech, yet the wonder lives within it. Confucius's Dharma Gate called it "the Center" — the true way of all under heaven.
Any teaching that has instruction but no root is called an "outer path." Outer paths are not the true gate. They are gradual methods only.
The True Dao is to receive the Buddha's true Dharma and then to practice it — naturally, without desire, observing its wonder; naturally, with purpose, observing its gateway. Movement and stillness naturally accord with the Dao. No contrivance, no forced effort — and yet one's virtue harmonizes with Heaven and Earth.
Outer ways are the techniques of lesser traditions: drawing talismans, chanting spells, sitting meditation, contemplating emptiness — all of these are contrivances, and all are called outer ways.
The distinction between Dao and Teaching is this: the Dao transmits the core true Dharma; Teaching exhorts goodness through external practice. The Dao transmits the heart-method; Teaching exhorts good deeds.
The distinction between the True Way and outer paths is this: the True Way transmits the heart-method and opens the Mysterious Gate at the true point. Outer paths do not transmit the true point and do not open the Mysterious Gate. Yet even outer paths, so long as they do not transmit the true Dharma, may still be legitimate teachings.
The distinction between a legitimate teaching and a heretical cult is this: a legitimate teaching, even without the heart-method of the Mysterious Gate, studies the virtuous conduct of the ancient sages. A heretical cult violates reason, turns its back on the Dao, and uses false words to mislead the masses. Any teaching that does not use truth as its foundation is heretical.
The Five Teachings Share One Source
The five great sages descended into the world at different times, each dwelling in a different land. According to the place and the people, each established a teaching.
Confucius of the Confucian Teaching, Tathagata of the Buddhist Teaching, Laozi of the Daoist Teaching, and the Holy Prophet Muhammad of Islam — all were born in Asia. Jesus Christ was born near the West of Europe. From that time onward, the five teachings each established their own precepts and their own rules, each taking upon themselves the responsibility of transforming the people. And so, even to this day, the legacy of the sages still endures.
Since all five teachings received Heaven's luminous mandate to transmit the Dao, why did their methods differ? Only because of differences in geography and custom. The names are different, but the principle is the same:
Confucianism established its teaching upon "preserving the heart, nurturing the nature; holding to the center, threading through the One" — and transforms people through loyalty and reciprocity.
Buddhism established its teaching upon "illuminating the heart, seeing the nature; ten thousand dharmas returning to the One" — and transforms people through compassion.
Daoism established its teaching upon "cultivating the heart, refining the nature; embracing the origin, guarding the One" — and transforms people through resonance.
Christianity established its teaching upon "washing the heart, transforming the nature; silent prayer, drawing near to the One" — and transforms people through universal love.
Islam established its teaching upon "strengthening the heart, settling the nature; pure truth returning to the One" — and transforms people through benevolent love.
Though the five teachings speak differently, how has their principle ever been anything but the same? And yet — when the five sages received their mandates and transmitted the Dao, they did so only to establish their teachings and transform the people. Once their missions were complete, the heart-method was not universally transmitted.
And so: the Confucian heart-method was lost after Mencius. The Daoist wind of the Way was extinguished after Yin Xi. Jesus, having completed his teaching, wished to transmit the heart-method to all — but the heavenly timing had not yet arrived, the heavenly mechanism could not be revealed, and so he was nailed to the cross and returned to Heaven. After Muhammad established his teaching, the heavenly mandate was immediately withdrawn. Only Buddhism, answering the call of the Red Sun era, continued through single transmission from master to disciple, and survives to this day.
Yet the followers of all five teachings, having never received the "true transmission," gathered the scriptures of the sages, bent over them, recited them, and believed they had found the truth. How pitiable!
To this day, all five teachings have lost the truth. But the era has turned to the White Sun, and the time for the universal transmission of the true Dharma has arrived. All faithful seekers — awaken early and seek the truth. This is the great fortune of three lifetimes.
The True Mantra of Namo Amitabha — The Six Characters Explained
The six-character true mantra of Namo Amitabha contains within it the utmost subtlety of Confucian teaching and reaches the hidden depths that unite Heaven and humanity.
For three thousand years, those who teach have lost the meaning and passed on only the words. Those who study have recited the words and forgotten the taste. They have taken the true text by which the Buddha transmitted the heart — and turned it into a common spell for worldly blessings! And so the Dharma of India has been buried and obscured, all but betraying the great intention of Shakyamuni, who entrusted his teaching to words that the words might carry the Dao, who awakened the world through the Dao, who achieved the Dao through awakening, and who joined the thread of the Dao's lineage. Here, then, a rough explanation of the great meaning — so that students may know that the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands do not hold two different Daos; the heavens above and the earth below are, from the beginning, one principle.
An Explanation of Namo Amitabha:
"Nán" — this is the pre-heaven trigram Qian. Qian is Heaven. Heaven is so vast that nothing escapes it. One breath flows through all things; cold and heat alternate in turn. This is the Change of Transformation.
It is also the post-heaven trigram Li. Li is the Sun. The Sun is so bright that nothing escapes its light. New moon and full moon, waxing and waning, the sun and moon revolving — this is the Change of Exchange.
Vast beyond all containment, bright beyond all shadow — and yet this is still not enough to exhaust the wonder of the Buddha-Dharma. Only "Nothingness" enters into every subtlety: no sound, no scent, no form, no image, no beginning, no end, nowhere and yet nowhere it is not. This is the Unchanging Change.
The Change of Exchange is the realm of image — from which the drawing of the trigrams comes.
The Change of Transformation is the realm of breath — from which the ordering of the Great Plan comes.
The Unchanging Change is the realm of principle — from which the River Chart comes.
The principle that unites all things is the August One who bestows Heaven's decree.
The principle that each thing holds within itself is the luminous mandate of the numinous void.
This luminous mandate of the numinous void — this is the Wondrous Nothingness of the South. "Wondrous Nothingness" is what the Buddha calls "the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, the Wondrous Heart of Nirvana, the Diamond Nature, the Śarīra." Every person possesses this nature of Wondrous Nothingness. But confined by the endowment of breath and obscured by the desires of the material world, they possess it without knowing they possess it — and so they chase illusions, abandon the truth, drift through birth and death, and sink endlessly in the bitter sea. What the Three Teachings transmit from heart to heart is precisely this: the heart of Wondrous Nothingness. One who knows where it dwells and cultivates it can see the true nature and become a Buddha.
"Amitabha" — the stages of attainment:
To gather one's essence, to still one's thoughts, to condense and solidify — this is "Ā." This is the method of the initial vehicle. In Buddhism, it is the Pure Dharmakāya. In Daoism, it is the Great Purity Master. In Confucianism, it is the person "filled with substance and radiant with light."
To nurture without harm, to pervade everywhere — this is "Mí." This is the method of the middle vehicle. In Buddhism, it is the Complete Sambhogakāya. In Daoism, it is the Upper Purity Master. In Confucianism, it is the sage who is "great and transformative."
To become divine transformation, to be perfectly penetrating in response — this is "Tuó." This is the method of the supreme vehicle, the highest of all vehicles. In Buddhism, it is the billions of Nirmāṇakāya. In Daoism, it is the Jade Purity Master. In Confucianism, it is the divine person, "holy beyond all knowing." What the Confucians call "divine," what the Daoists call "immortal," and what the Buddhists call "Buddha" — the meaning is one and the same.
Therefore it is said:
Condensing and solidifying is called "Ā."
Pervading everywhere is called "Mí."
Perfect penetration is called "Tuó."
All three accomplished is called "Buddha."
In these six characters alone, all three teachings are unified, and heaven and humanity are joined. The sixteen characters of Yao and Shun, the thirty-three chapters of the Doctrine of the Mean, the five thousand characters of the Dao De Jing, the hundred thousand words of the Zhuangzi, the five thousand and forty-eight scrolls of the Buddhist canon — all are contained within these six characters!
Colophon
Immortals and Buddhas Speak on the Source of the Dao (仙佛講道源) is a Yiguandao teaching compendium from the morality-book tradition. The full work comprises fifty sections. This translation presents Sections 1–3: "The Meaning of Religion" (宗教的意義), "The Five Teachings Share One Source" (五教同源), and "The True Mantra of Namo Amitabha" (南無阿彌陀佛之六字真言).
Good Works Translation from Chinese by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated from the Chinese source text by Tulku Míngdào (明道), Yiguandao Translator. This is the first English translation. Gospel register. The English was independently derived from reading the Chinese; the established Yiguandao translations in the Good Works Library were consulted for terminological consistency. Sections 4–50 remain untranslated; this file is the beginning of a multi-session project.
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Source Text: 仙佛講道源（第一至三節）
Chinese source text from the Morality Books Library (善書圖書館, taolibrary.com). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
第一節：宗教的意義
宗教的意義是自覺覺他,宗者明德,教者親民,體用兼備.
至於宗教二字,意義深遠,一般之教化是有教無宗,宗就是道,教是德的啟示,德必依賴道的生,故大生曰德.
白陽天道之法門,是傳道,因為道不可言不可說,無形無相,必須以心傳心,才能開悟,
所以孔夫子之傳道,子思稱謂此篇乃孔門傳授心法,心法是謂宗也.凡能傳心法者,才可謂之宗教也.
心法是秘傳的,自古師師相承,不離此宗,釋尊謂之教外別傳,不在文字之內,不在言說之內,妙在其中矣,孔夫子法門謂之中者天下之正道.
凡是有教無宗者都謂之旁門,旁門就是非正門也,亦是漸法.
真道是得佛的正法而後行正法,是自然無欲以觀其妙,自然有欲以觀其竅,動靜自然合道,不造作免用功而與天地合德.
外道是以術流之功夫,如畫符唸咒,靜坐,觀空等等之造作謂之外道.
道與教的分別,就是道傳核心正法,教勸善用外功夫,道傳心法,教勸行善.
正道與旁門就是正道傳心法點玄關正竅位,旁門不傳正竅,不點玄關,旁門雖不傳正法,仍是正教.
正教與邪教者,正教雖不傳玄關心法,他是學習古聖賢的善美行為處事,邪教就是違理背道,專以邪言惑眾,凡是不用真理而立教者,都謂邪教.
第二節：五教同源
五教聖人，先後降世，各居一方，因地因人，而設其教。
儒教孔子、釋教如來、道教老子、回教穆聖、降生於亞洲；基督耶穌，降生近於歐西。由此以來，五教各立教條，各立規則，將化民之責而自任，所以至今，聖人遺風猶在焉。
既然五教皆奉天之明命傳道，然其辦法不同者，良以地勢民俗，所使然也。然名稱雖異，而理皆同：
儒教，以「存心養性，執中貫一」立教，「忠恕」二字而化人；
釋教，以「明心見性，萬法歸一」立教，「慈悲」二字而化人；
道教，以「修心煉性，抱元守一」立教，「感應」二字而化人；
基督耶教，以「洗心移性，默禱親一」立教，「博愛」二字而化人；
回教，以「堅心定性，清真還一」立教，「仁愛」二字而化人。
五教立言，雖然不一，其理何嘗不同耳？且五教聖人，當時奉命傳道，為立教化民而已；及至任務完成，其「心法」並未普傳。所以，儒傳至孟軻而「心法」失；道傳至尹喜而「道風」絕；耶穌立教完成，原思將「心法」普傳，因天時未至，天機不能洩露，所以被釘「十字架」而歸天矣；穆罕默德立教之後，天命隨即收回；惟佛教應運紅陽，單傳獨授，留傳於今。然五教之後人，因未得受「真傳」，隨集諸聖人之經典，伏而誦之，以為得真，良可憫也！至今五教，均已失真矣！因運轉白陽，「正法」普傳之時已至；望諸善信，及早覺悟而覓真，實為三生大幸。
第三節：南無阿彌陀佛之六字真言
南無阿彌陀佛之六字真言,實兼儒家之精微,達天人之蘊奧。
三千年來，教者、失意傳言；學者、誦言忘味。以佛祖傳心之真文，當作凡世祈福之神咒；致使西竺道法，湮沒不彰，不幾大負釋迦託文載道，以道覺世，因覺成道，道脈接緒之盛意乎？謹粗解大意，使學者，知西天、東土，非有二道；上天、下地，原自一理也。
南無阿彌陀佛解:
「南」者、乃先天乾位，乾為天，天則大無不包；一氣流行，寒暑代謝，此變易之易也。又為後天離位，離為日，日則明無不照。朔望盈虧，日月週轉，此交易之易也。
大無不包，明無不照，猶不足以盡佛法之妙。惟「無」則無微不入，無聲無臭，無形無象，無始無終，無在而無不在，此不易之易也。
交易之易，象也。為畫卦之所自來。
變易之易，氣也。為序疇之所自來。
不易之易，理也。為河圖之所自來。
萬物統體之理，為降衷之維皇。
物物各具之理，為虛靈之明命。
虛靈明命，即南方妙無也。「妙無」即佛之所謂︰「正法眼藏、涅槃妙心、金剛性、舍利子也。」人人有此妙無之性，因拘於氣稟，蔽於物慾，往往有而不知其有，故迷真逐妄，流浪生死，常沉苦海！三教傳心，即傳此南方妙無之心也。學者知其所在而修之，可以見性成佛。
阿隬陀佛者，造詣之次第也。蓋積精息念，凝聚堅固之謂「阿」，此初乘法也。在釋為清靜法身，在道為太清真人，在儒為充實而有光輝之大人。
直養無害，充塞周遍之謂「彌」，此中乘法也。在釋為圓滿報身，在道為上清真人，在儒為大而化之之聖人。
神化自然，圓通應感之謂「陀」，此上乘之法，最上一乘之法也。在釋為千百億化身，在道為玉清真人，在儒為聖而不可知之神人。儒之所謂「神」，道之所謂「仙」，釋之所謂「佛」，其義一也。
故曰︰凝聚堅固之謂「阿」
充塞周遍之謂「彌」
圓通應感之謂「陀」
三者成就之謂「佛」
只此六字真詮，會通三教，貫徹人天。虞廷一十六字，中庸三十三章，道德五千，南華十萬，釋典五千四十八卷，皆不出此六字之外矣！
Source Colophon
Chinese source text from the Morality Books Library (善書圖書館, taolibrary.com), Category 9 (一貫道經典). URL: c9033.htm. The site states: 歡迎轉載，上傳，翻印，流通 ("Welcome to reprint, upload, reproduce, and circulate"). Source text was fetched and staged by Tulku Bo (墨), Session 124. The double-bracket formatting ([[term]]) in the original has been rendered as plain text in the source text above. Sections 1–3 of 50 presented here.
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