《太上说酆都拔苦愈乐妙经》

At that time, the Celestial Worthy Who Relieves Suffering and Restores Joy (Baku Yule Tianzun, the honored deity who rescues beings from hardship and brings all living beings peace and happiness), dwelling in the Palace of the Eastern Pole in the upper realm of Fengdu, released a five-colored circular radiance that illumined the worlds of the ten directions. He saw that within Fengdu’s thirty-eight thousand hells and twenty-seven thousand dark prisons, countless beings were suffering: upon the mountains of knives they ran back and forth, tumbling and struggling, fainting and wailing in grief; they were cast into red-hot charcoal furnaces and boiling cauldrons, tormented again and again, day and night without pause, passing through ten thousand deaths and rebirths, unable to rest.

Moved by a heart of compassion, the Celestial Worthy took pity on all beings and proclaimed for them this wondrous scripture of universal salvation. He sought to deliver universally the punished souls of the underworld, so that they might be reborn in Zhuling (the place, in Daoist legend, where underworld souls are delivered and reborn), and thence ascend to the realm of the immortals and, through immortal transformation, become human. May the mountains of knives become precious thrones, and the trees of swords turn into the Qianlin (legendary sacred trees of luxuriant branches and leaves); may the fiery calamities of the Six Paths (the six destinations of beings in the cycle of rebirth) and the Three Paths of Suffering (the three realms of hardship: hell, hungry ghosts, and animals) all be dispelled. May boundless great offenses all turn to dust, and after beings have passed through the kalpas, may they ascend to the immortal realm and, through immortal transformation, become human. May the mountains of knives become precious thrones and the trees of swords become the Qianlin; may the fiery calamities of the Six Paths and the Three Paths of Suffering all disperse, and boundless great offenses entirely turn to dust; even after passing through kalpas as long and numerous as the sands of the Ganges, they may still receive the sovereign’s gracious pardon, turn their hearts back toward the correct Dao (the Way), and rise ethereally into Ziwei (the celestial palaces of heaven spoken of in Daoism).

Here ends the Wondrous Scripture Spoken by the Most High on Relieving Suffering and Restoring Joy in Fengdu.