《洞玄灵宝诸天世界造化经》

The Scripture on the Creation and Transformation of the Worlds of All the Heavens of the Dongxuan Lingbao (Dongxuan Lingbao Zhutian Shijie Zaohua Jing) is included in the Dongxuan Lingbao scripture category of the Zhonghua Daozang. Its author is unknown. It was composed roughly between the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui–Tang period, in a single juan. The scripture discusses kalpic cycles and catastrophic transformations, together with methods for the deliverance of all beings. The extant base text comes from the basic-texts category of the Dongxuan division of the Zhengtong Daozang.

First pin: the opening in which the Celestial Worthy expounds the scripture.

The Supreme Celestial Worthy dwelt on Mount Lingniao, where he expounded the twelve divisions of scripture to the gods of the various heavens. His disciples divided these scriptures into four hundred thousand chapters and recorded them, and so they came to be called the “Wondrous Dao (the Way).” At that time the Celestial Worthy transformed himself into a lay householder. His wisdom was boundless, and he said to the assembly: “Since I began to study the Dao, I have passed through ninety-one kalpas. I have cut off desire, brought my thoughts to rest in emptiness and stillness, and thereby realized the concentration of non-thought, penetrated the realm of all the sages, and become the honored lord among them.

“By wisdom that penetrates all and clearly illumines, I see heaven and earth destroyed and then formed anew, and living beings die and then return to life—all of this without end. The sun and moon circle Mount Kunlun, casting light in the four directions; the world under heaven turns from end to beginning and never ceases. There are four thousand Mount Kunluns, four thousand suns and moons, and four thousand worlds under heaven, and likewise four thousand great seas, four thousand palaces of the great dragon kings, and four thousand palaces of the great golden-winged bird kings. Besides these there are great evil paths tens of thousands of li in height, great spirit mountains thousands of li in height, ten thousand kinds of great spirit trees, and the great hells. Taken together, these are called one minor-kalpa world. One thousand minor-kalpa worlds are called a middle-kalpa world; one thousand middle-kalpa worlds are called the Three Realms.

“A great-kalpa world, from the time it first comes into being until later seven suns appear at once and burn everything away and sweep it clean, is thereafter formed again according to the former law. Cycles of this kind never have a time when they cease. All of this is so of itself; it is not that gods or spirits manipulate it from behind. Living beings, too, are like heaven and earth: after death they are born again. It is only that lifespans are exceedingly long, so that people do not perceive it.

“When living beings die, the body perishes and the spirit-consciousness, the Shen (spirit), migrates. According to the sins and blessings they created while alive, they are reborn among the Five Paths. What are the Five Paths? The first is the path of heaven, the second the path of human beings, the third the path of hell, the fourth the path of hungry ghosts, and the fifth the path of animals, including insects and beasts.

“If a person accumulates profound De (Virtue/Power) throughout a lifetime and their blessings are of the highest grade, they will be reborn in the path of heaven, possessing long life, a beautiful form, and boundless peace and joy, and they will still remember the causes and conditions of former lives. If their blessings are of the middle grade, they will be reborn in the human path, born into a rich and noble family and living in abundance. If their blessings are meager and their sinful karma is greater, they will be reborn into a poor and lowly household, where nothing goes smoothly and their circumstances are humble; they may also become disabled—blind, deaf, mute, and the like—or ugly in appearance and mean in status, living in filthy places. Although the paths of heaven and humanity differ as better and worse, they still surpass the sufferings of birth and death in the three paths below.

“If in a previous life a person was stingy and greedy, and, faced with the hungry and thirsty, refused to give, and did not relieve those in urgent distress, they will be reborn in the path of hungry ghosts and take on a ghostly form: the belly like a great hanging drum, the throat so thin that it can admit only a single thread. Even when they see fine food they cannot eat it, and they endure hunger for a long time; their appearance is hideous and their lifespan long, and though they wish to die they cannot.

“If in a previous life a person was not filial toward their parents, lacked benevolence toward their kin, did evil and harmed the common people, and became someone loathed by all, they will be reborn in the path of hell and undergo every kind of punishment and poisonous harm, sufferings that can hardly be told in full.

“If in a previous life a person delighted in killing living beings, made hunting a regular practice and slaughter a profession, and did not cultivate blessings or De but did only evil, they will be reborn in the path of animals, becoming sheep, oxen, pigs, geese, chickens, ducks, and the like, and will receive the retribution of being slaughtered, weighed and measured, and sold.

“Who can see what was done in former lives? Only those who have attained the Dao can know. You may not yet believe, and so I explain it in a verse: …”

Heaven and Earth do indeed continually replace one another; what could remain forever unchanged? All that is born must in the end die, and spiritual consciousness, following causes and conditions, enters the cycle of rebirth among the five paths.

If anyone deceives or acts falsely, they will be confined by the hells and drawn into suffering. One ought to cultivate good conduct, repent, and begin anew, so as to remove the root of sinful karma.

The Radiant Spirit Talisman of the Most High is a Fulu (talismans and registers) for people to cultivate. If one upholds and practices it without slackening, one can transcend the Three Realms and leave the Five Sufferings; even while passing through rebirth, spiritual consciousness is not extinguished, and in the end one may take a place among the Perfected.

Second Chapter: The King of Mount Kunlun and the Four Under-Heavens

The Dao (the Way) said: Before Heaven and Earth were generated and transformed, I already bore the title “Taishang.” I once saw the King of Mount Kunlun who rules the four under-heavens…

Second Chapter: The King of Mount Kunlun and the Four Under-Heavens

(“Five paths” refers to the different destinations of cyclic rebirth; “Three Realms” refers to the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. The “talisman” is the Fulu used in Daoism for cultivation. The “four under-heavens” are, in the ancient Buddhist and Daoist cosmology, the worlds of the four directions centered on Mount Sumeru.)

The Dao (the Way) says: Before heaven and earth were opened, I already bore the honored title Taishang (the Most High). I see Kunlun, king of the mountains, formed of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and crystal. The mountain rises 3,360,000 li, and a great sea encircles it; the sea is 3,360,000 li deep and likewise 3,360,000 li across. The earth is twenty trillion li thick. Beneath it lies another stratum equally twenty trillion li thick, and below that a layer of millet-gold twenty trillion li thick, a layer of hard iron twenty trillion li thick, a layer of water eighty trillion li deep, and a great wind layer five hundred twenty trillion li thick. The great wind upholds the earth so that it does not fall: the earth floats upon the water, the water floats upon the wind, and beneath the wind lies a vast emptiness, set apart from heaven and earth.

The northern face of Mount Kunlun is illuminated by golden light. The world there is called Yudanyue, and its territory extends 400,000 li. People live for a thousand years; their hair is a dark iron color, and men and women are of the same stature. The people all delight in doing good and need no mutual exhortation before they refrain from evil. Among the worlds of the four quarters, this one surpasses the other three.

The western face of Mount Kunlun is illuminated by the light of crystal. The world there is called the Datang Realm. Its land is shaped like a half-moon, 320,000 li in length and breadth. People live about two hundred years. Their statures differ, and, just as in the human world, there are both the long-lived and the short-lived.

The world on the eastern face of Mount Kunlun is illuminated by silver light and is called the Biluo Realm (the Azure Empyrean). Its territory extends 460,000 li, and its land is perfectly round. People live about three hundred years. Some are tall and some are short. They also have ways of life resembling those of the human world, together with the same distinction between long life and short life.

The southern face of Mount Kunlun is illuminated by the light of lapis lazuli. Its territory extends 280,000 li and is called the Qixian Realm (Where the Worthy Are Forsaken). The people there are tall and short alike. Their lives are the most bitter and toilsome, falling short of those of the people in the other three worlds, and their lifespans have no fixed term. Yet in one respect they surpass both the people of those three worlds and the beings of the heavens above: their temperaments are bold and vigorous, and it is comparatively easy for them to seek the Dao. If they can cultivate merit and carry out my Dao, they may be reborn directly in heaven, or pass beyond the Three Realms and realize the unsurpassed Dao. If their sinful karma accumulates too greatly, after death they fall into the hells. Where a person goes in haste after death is not fixed; there is no settled destination.

Mount Kunlun stands in the Huangzeng Heaven. Taiwei Dijun (the Imperial Lord of Grand Tenuity) sometimes dwells at the center, while four Heavenly Kings garrison the four directions, each governing the world of one quarter. On the first and the eighth day of every month they regularly send envoys down into the world to patrol it and inspect emperors and kings, subjects, dragons and ghosts, together with flying insects, creeping creatures, and every other living being, recording the good and evil of what they think in the heart, say with the mouth, and do with the body. On the fourteenth, Zhenren (Perfected Persons) descend; on the fifteenth and the eighteenth, immortal kings descend; on the twenty-third and the twenty-fourth the envoys descend again; on the twenty-eighth and the twenty-ninth immortal kings descend; and on the thirtieth the Heavenly Kings descend. The deities of the sun and moon, the Five Planets, the Twenty-Eight Lunar Lodges, and the rest, belonging to the celestial realms of the four directions, also come down together to examine the offenses of all living beings.

On these days you should correct your thoughts and your conduct, observe the fast, repent your faults, recite the Jing (scripture/classic), keep the precepts, and do only good. Those who can do so will receive the protection of the Heavenly Officials. The deity Siming (Director of Destinies) will add to their span of years, so that they live out the life allotted to them and meet with no sudden calamity. When that lifespan comes to an end, they will be reborn in heaven, where clothing and food are naturally complete, and they will enjoy peace and happiness without end. These words are true and worthy of trust. It is only that you have not yet believed them; therefore I will speak a verse once more.

Have you looked upon the four quarters under heaven—the four regions of the world inhabited by human beings in the ancient cosmology—and have you ever heard so hidden a warning? A human life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Since this is so, why not cultivate blessings and practice goodness?

In the dark hells one remains for tens of millions of millions of kalpas, an immensely long span of time. The celestial law is strict and clear; offenses once committed are not pardoned. When that time comes, of whom can one beg mercy?

The celestial law carries out the true Dao (the Way) and distinguishes the upright from the deviant, good from evil. When the talismanic mandate is conveyed, blessed recompense descends, so that one may follow the Dao and ascend to lofty realms. The Mysterious Capital (Xuandu), the celestial capital city of which Daoism speaks, presides over the celestial law and its covenants; those who violate the heavenly statutes receive no pardon. The matter is urgent and must be carried out according to the celestial law.

Chapter Three: The Sun and Moon Illuminating the Four Quarters under Heaven and the Heavens Above

The Dao says: Three hundred and sixty thousand li above Mount Kunlun dwell hosts of divinities, each in its own station. There too are the celestial sovereigns of the sun and the moon, perfect in radiance, illuminating the world below.

Within the city of the moon, five kinds of wind-wheels turn in succession. In the moon there are four palaces and five ladies, together with a qian tree four thousand li in height. The shadow on the moon is the image cast by this tree, and the good are able to see it. The tree bears fruit beyond all counting.

In the moon there are also the dwellings of the seven immortals, the mountains of the seven treasures, and the trees of the seven treasures. These immortals cultivate my Dao year after year, and therefore they meet with no untimely calamity and suffer no shortening of their lifespan.

If you wish to be reborn in such a long-lived celestial realm, you should cultivate five things: hold compassion in the heart, refrain from taking life, and cherish the lives of all beings; be worthy and upright in conduct, refrain from theft, and relieve those in hardship and poverty; keep body and mind chaste, upright, and pure, and do not violate the spouses of others; observe the purification fasts and guard the precepts, cultivating diligently and without slack; and be honest and trustworthy, do not deceive others, drink less, and carefully avoid fault. Accomplish these five things, and you will be able to be born in heaven.

If you do not believe, the warning is therefore given once more in verse. Time passes and cannot be stopped; human life is short and calls forth lament. Why still give rise to evil? The celestial officers will investigate and record the offense. Once one has fallen, no one can rescue or deliver one, and the hun and po souls will sink into the hells. One should quickly vow to seek birth in the celestial realms, and must not set foot upon the three paths (santu)—the three evil destinies of the hells, hungry ghosts, and animals.

The Fulu (talismans and registers) of the Taishang Scripture of the Venerable Spirit (Taishang Zunling Jing) can rescue and nurture all living beings, bringing awakening to those who are dull and ignorant. People should offer it all kinds of beautiful flowers and incense, and cultivate body and mind with reverence and sincere devotion. In this way one may obtain a body protected by golden light and enjoy a lifespan beyond measure. The prayers set forth above must be carried out at once in accordance with the statutes and ordinances.

Fourth Chapter: The Great Cavern of the Worlds of the Various Heavens

The scripture says: Within the Three Realms, the Fulu of the Taishang Scripture of the Venerable Spirit can rescue and nurture all living beings, bringing awakening to those who are dull and ignorant. People should offer it all kinds of beautiful flowers and incense, and cultivate body and mind with reverence and sincere devotion. In this way one may obtain a body protected by golden light and enjoy a lifespan beyond measure. The prayers set forth above must be carried out at once in accordance with the statutes and ordinances.

The Dao (the Way) declares that beings in the Three Realms—the Realm of Desire, the Realm of Form, and the Formless Realm—are born, broadly speaking, in three ways: the first is transformation within a lotus, the second is birth by metamorphosis, and the third is birth from the womb. Those transformed within a lotus possess profound merit and De (Virtue/Power); they are born in the lotus and become celestial beings. Those born by metamorphosis possess merit, De, and spiritual power, and come into being through transformation. Only those born from the womb have comparatively shallow merit and De and the lowest station. Lodged in bodies of flesh and blood, their lives are brief, and they fall short of the celestial beings.

Although celestial beings enjoy happiness, they remain within the Three Realms. When their lifespan ends, they are reborn in a lower realm and cannot attain the Dao on that account. A True Person (zhenren)—an immortal sage who has attained the Dao—is free from the bonds of birth and death and can both appear and vanish. Adamant cannot bind him fast; walls of stone cannot bar his way; thunder cannot startle him; water and fire cannot harm him; the heavens cannot cut him off; and wisdom cannot hold him back. No ghost or spirit fails to submit, and no living being fails to revere him. Such a person is the supreme being within the Three Realms. One who attains the Dao becomes one with empty space and is never exhausted.

Those born by metamorphosis must earlier have accumulated good merit, and so they are born in accord with teaching and transformation. Whoever wishes to seek liberation must pursue the Dao without regard for life or death, just as one might give up one’s own body to save an animal. One should practice good deeds widely, cut off worldly entanglements, dwell in seclusion among mountains and forests, and reverently carry out the sacred teachings of Daoism. Day and night one should keep the fast and observe the precepts, bathe and purify the body, rinse the mouth and clean the teeth, and refrain from eating what is rank, foul, or filthy. One must also guard Shen (spirit), do no harm to living beings, follow the Dao with a single mind, and hold to one’s vow without change from beginning to end. Then one can attain the Dao and ascend as a flying immortal.

This instruction is addressed to the immortal officials. A Daoist priest wears ritual vestments; not every emperor or subject can cultivate in this manner. Yet if one honors and practices the Ten Good Deeds, upholds the Five Precepts, and remains unstained by the Ten Evils, one will surely be reborn in the heavenly realms and enjoy a lifespan of eight kalpas—an exceedingly long span of kalpas. If one further cultivates the sacred Dao as well, one can attain the Dao. This is not meant to deceive you.

The merits and De of the various heavens answer one another. Aspirations differ, and the recompense that follows comes accordingly. Conduct in De is recorded in the Capital of the Immortals. If the hosts of demons, ghosts, and spirits come to hear the teaching, they too can increase their official rank, cause their kindred to flourish, soon attain the celestial Dao, become True Persons of Golden Light, and ascend to heaven, enjoying a lifespan of eight kalpas. If they further cultivate the sacred Dao as well, they can attain the Dao. This is not meant to deceive you.

The many heavens together protect and uphold this scripture. So long as living beings cultivate in accordance with the resolve of their vows, they receive blessings corresponding to that practice. People’s good deeds are recorded in the Immortal Capital (Xiandu). Even the hosts of demons, ghosts, and spirits who come to hear the scripture can thereby rise in official rank, extend blessings to their own kind, soon attain the heavenly Dao (the Way), and become Golden Light Zhenren (Perfected immortals). The precepts of the Mysterious Capital (Xuandu) must never be treated with contempt, and the officers who enforce the law should likewise act according to the statutes.

Minor Kalpas, Major Kalpas, and the Destruction and Renewal of Heaven and Earth

The Dao says: The great earth will meet with three kinds of calamity—fire, flood, and wind. An age of disaster first passes through a minor kalpa, and only afterward comes the major kalpa.

When a minor kalpa arrives, the Qi (vital energy) of Yin-Yang changes. Flood and drought fall out of balance, and the five grains yield poorly. Wood of every kind, stones, grass stems and thorns, even the fingernails of living beings, all turn into swords and blades, and people slaughter one another. The population is nearly wiped out, and lifespans grow short. People suddenly fall into confusion and self-deception, and within seven days they kill one another until none remain.

Afterward a great flood spreads, scouring heaven and earth. Mountains and rivers are altered, and the land becomes level. Sweet dew descends, and the Zhenren (immortals who have attained the Dao) come into the world. Light shines from their bodies, and they are named Kunlun. The floodwaters of that time are sweet and fine, and can dispel illness. Grain that is sown can be harvested seven times in a single year. If anyone excretes filth, the earth splits open to receive it and then closes again. People live to the age of eighty thousand, and women do not marry until they are five hundred. All under heaven is peaceful and happy, as in the heavenly realm.

Later the Zhenren depart the world, and people of subsequent generations gradually accumulate offenses. After tens of millions of years the hells overflow, and a major kalpa is about to arrive. Sovereigns and subjects, fathers and sons, harm one another. The common people lose the proper order of human relations, and rulers are no longer kind and humane. Bandits rise on every side, and violent disorders follow one after another. The suffering brought on by evil deeds is even more severe than that before the major kalpa comes.

Throughout the four quarters of the world, people’s hearts all turn wicked, and the honest, simple customs of former days are no more. Thereupon the major kalpa begins, and disaster occurs first in this way: two suns appear in the sky at once, then the number grows to three, then four, until seven appear together. This catastrophic change continues for several trillion years. Rivers and seas dry up, and living beings perish utterly.

The Celestial Worthy (Tianzun, a venerated deity of Daoism), seeing that the men and women on earth, because they have taken to eating the herb of the earth’s savor, have complexions grown dull and lusterless, bodies grown heavy, and can no longer ascend in flight, but can only remain long in the lower realm and suffer, takes pity on the sufferings of living beings. He causes the sun and moon to appear once more, the stars to resume their courses, and wind and rain to arrive in their proper seasons. Sweet dew descends from heaven, and sweet springs (liquan, sweet spring water) well up from the earth. People no longer fall ill; their features are bright and radiant, and their lifespan is sixty thousand years. They eat rice that grows of itself and wear clothes that form of themselves.

Later the conduct of the world’s people gradually deteriorates. The first shoots of evil begin to sprout, and lifespans gradually shorten. Food and clothing that arise of themselves disappear. People begin to eat the flesh of birds and beasts, to wear hides and feathers, and to harm one another. As the burden of wrongdoing accumulates day by day, Yin-Yang falls out of balance, and rain and drought become irregular. In winter people live in caves; in summer they lodge in nests in the trees, so as to avoid the harms of the seasons. At that time there are still no established norms of clothing, food, and ritual propriety. After death they fall into the hells and cannot ascend to heaven.

After yet another trillion years have passed in this way, among living beings there appear persons of sagely brilliance and wisdom. In response to the will of Heaven they descend into the world to teach and transform the people. They teach people to tame oxen and horses, to produce fire, to till the fields and raise silkworms, and they establish institutions of food and clothing, of ruler and subject, and the like, in order to maintain social order and to form graded distinctions of high and low, noble and base. Those who can practice goodness with utmost sincerity, and whose conduct accords with Daoist teaching, are able to ascend to heaven. All others enter the hells and suffer in darkness for ten thousand kalpas, with no term set for their release.

For this very reason, the following verse is now proclaimed:

Sinners in hell endure bitter suffering, and even after passing through long kalpas they have no set term of release. These evil fruits were sown by themselves; this is truly so. Do not mock the matter lightly.

When the physical body perishes, it still returns beneath the earth, while the Shen (spirit) and soul find their resting place according to the conduct and merits of one’s former life. The days between heaven and earth are already brief, yet you do not know to correct your faults in good time.

Heaven above carries out its teaching so that the myriad things may come into being, and it takes the harmonizing of Shen as its standard. Revere and follow this numinous Jing (scripture), and both heaven and the human world will honor and look up to it. It can uphold the blessings of the Three Realms and clear away your offenses. Whoever dares to destroy or neglect this scripture will find no pardon under the penal laws of hell. Ji ji ru lü ling (a command-style closing formula commonly used in Daoist Zhaijiao (purification ritual) rites, indicating that the order must be carried out at once).

The sixth piece of the Category of the Hells of the Ninefold Darkness.

The Dao (the Way) says: Beneath Huangzeng Heaven (one of the celestial realms spoken of in Daoism) lie the Nine Provinces, surrounded on all sides by lesser seas and linked with the great sea of Kunlun. The place where I now teach and transform is called the small continent of Chixian; its center is divided into nine provinces, established in imitation of that greater continent.

The people of these nine provinces are clever and ingenious, yet often cunning and false, and seldom sincere. Few wish to ascend to heaven, while many fall into the Hell of the Nine Darknesses (a hell dark, deep, and remote). The hell stretches several hundred thousand li in length and breadth; within, it is dim and without light, filled entirely with those undergoing punishment. Some have molten copper poured down their throats; some are placed in great cauldrons and boiled; some are burned by fierce fire; some are pierced by iron forks, struck with iron hammers, or beaten with fiery rods; some have their bodies dismembered and their heads hung upside down; still others carry sand and bear stones in order to fill rivers and block up seas. The great deities who preside over the punishments of hell chastise according to each offense, and those who are punished receive no pardon.

Some of these punishments last one kalpa, two kalpas, three kalpas, or four kalpas, and some as many as a hundred kalpas. The Jing (scripture) uses two analogies to show how long a single kalpa is. There is a deep pit, forty li wide and forty li long; every hundred years a sinner places one mustard seed into it, and only when the pit is filled does this count as one kalpa. There is also a great stone, forty li wide and forty li long; every hundred years a sinner lightly brushes it once with a celestial robe, and only when the stone is entirely worn away does this count as one kalpa.

The sinners weep and say to one another: “The mustard seed is so small, yet the pit is so deep and vast—when will it ever be filled? The stone is so hard, and the celestial robe so light and thin, brushed only once in a hundred years—when will it ever be worn away?” Hearing this, the wardens angrily tell them: “A kalpa of this kind must be undergone twenty times, and even that does not amount to half of a lesser kalpa.” When the sinners hear this, they grieve and choke with sobs, as if dying and then returning to life; afterward they are led away to continue their punishment, with no day in sight when the penalty will end.

Only then do they regret that in former lives they were unfilial and unrighteous, committed evil and rebellion, killed and took lives, slandered the Jing and the Dao, owed others money, practiced fraud and theft, and failed to revere and serve Shen (spirit) and the Dao—and thus brought such retribution upon themselves. Seeing these things, and reflecting that you, men and women, must not create offenses, I therefore utter the following gatha (a verse intended for recitation):

To be driven into a pit and crushed beneath stones is not one of the famed great calamities. Across the long ages, living beings merely suffer in vain amid their sinful karma, yet their Shen (spirit) is not extinguished on that account.

In a moment the body arises anew, only to be slaughtered and cut apart again. They are cast into the boiling cauldron—a great pot of seething liquid—to be steamed and cooked, and are sliced by knife-winds, winds sharp as blades, as if laid upon a chopping block.

Pitiful are the living beings of the lower world. Why do they not accumulate blessings and cultivate goodness? Cultivating blessings can bring the karmic reward of rebirth in heaven, and beyond that there are methods for attaining divine immortality.

Chapter Seven: Addressing the Assembled Sages

After the Most High Celestial Worthy had finished expounding this scripture, the assembled sages, the various lord-elders, the Nine Elders Lord of the Immortal Metropolis, the Elders of the Nine Qi (vital energy), and the others all praised him, saying, “Well spoken!” They addressed the Celestial Worthy: “A teaching such as this is worthy of veneration. We wish to ask whether, among the worlds of the various heavens, there is any instruction still more profound.”

The Celestial Worthy replied: “I have studied the Dao (the Way) for ninety-one kalpas, and have taught six billion two hundred million worlds, as numerous as dust and sand. At times I emanate, dividing spirit-consciousness and bodily form, and pass through birth and death together with living beings; at times I transform into a light like adamant and crystal; at times I appear as emperors and kings, sages and worthies, elders, or youths; and I have also transformed into benevolent beasts that bring auspicious signs, such as lions, white deer, qilin, and phoenixes. In every manner I teach living beings; nothing lies beyond my capacity.

“It is only that the sinful karma of living beings under heaven is deep and heavy, and the time of their deliverance has not yet come. Therefore they cannot receive the teaching, and in the end they fall into hell. Those who do receive the teaching all realize the Great Dao and are never again born in the Three Realms—the Realm of Desire, the Realm of Form, and the Formless Realm.

“Since you have personally beheld this sanctuary, you ought to propagate the Daoist teaching, save and deliver living beings, and make a great vow: that sovereigns and emperors, and all subjects within the dharma-realm of heaven and earth, even living creatures such as flying insects, crawling things, mosquitoes, and ants, may universally awaken; that they may not fall into the Three Paths—the three evil destinies of hell, hungry ghosts, and animals—nor suffer the ten sufferings and eight hardships; that after death they may obtain the bliss of the Limitless (Wuji), and in life possess a Dharma-body of immeasurable lifespan, the body accomplished through cultivation. They may also dwell in palaces of the seven treasures, with nothing they require left unprovided.

“If you can deliver living beings in this way, you will become teachers of celestial beings and of the people of the world. How, then, could you fail to exert yourselves?”

The Celestial Worthy (Tianzun) said, “Once this scripture (Jing) has appeared in the world, it must not be hidden away and left untransmitted. It should be passed on to those who share the same aspirations, and in this way blessings and virtue will increase. If it is wrongly transmitted to ordinary worldly people, it will bring guilt and calamity.” Thereupon all the sages bowed their heads together, praised it with one voice, and reverently accepted it and put it into practice.