《洞玄靈寶諸天世界造化經》

The first part of the Dongxuan Lingbao Zhutian Shijie Zaohua Jing (Scripture of the Creation of Worlds in the Heavens) recounts how the Supreme Dao Lord (Taishang Daojun), one of the highest deities in Daoism, expounded the mysteries of cosmic evolution to celestial beings in the Lingniao Mountains. Manifesting as a lay practitioner, the Dao Lord displayed boundless wisdom and revealed to the assembly:

"I have cultivated the Dao through ninety-one kalpas (a kalpa being an immense cosmic cycle in Daoist cosmology). By severing distracting thoughts and realizing emptiness, I ultimately attained the achievement of 'non-conceptual samadhi' (a profound meditative state). As the supreme among sages, with penetrating insight I observe that heaven and earth perish and are reborn, beings die and reincarnate—this process is endless, like the sun and moon eternally circling Mount Kunlun."

The scripture describes the grand structure of the cosmos: four thousand sacred Kunlun mountains, four thousand suns and moons, four thousand "worlds below heaven" (referring to different realms), along with four thousand dragon palaces and garuda king palaces, divine mountains ten thousand li high, sacred trees a thousand li tall, and various hell realms. These constitute a "minor kalpa world." One thousand minor kalpa worlds form a "middle kalpa world," and another thousand middle kalpa worlds complete the full "three realms great kalpa world."

The universe undergoes cyclical destruction: at the end of each great kalpa, seven days of conflagration consume all existence before regeneration begins anew, repeating endlessly. Just as beings die and are reborn, though the lifespan of divine beings is so vast that ordinary people cannot perceive it.

When beings die, their physical forms perish but their consciousness (shen) remains indestructible, transmigrating through the five paths (five modes of existence) according to their accumulated karma from past deeds:

1. The celestial path: Those who performed great virtue are reborn as heavenly deities, enjoying long lifespans, majestic forms, boundless bliss, and knowledge of past causes.

2. The human path: Those with moderate virtue are reborn as humans, attaining wealth and abundant lives.

3. The hell path

4. The hungry ghost path

5. The animal path (including insects and creatures)

Those who accumulated little merit but committed many misdeeds will be reborn into impoverished families, suffering various hardships.

This scripture describes how beings are reborn into different realms of existence (the six paths of samsara) based on their actions during life, and how one may transcend this cycle through spiritual practice.

It first explains that some beings are reborn with blindness, deafness, muteness, severe illness, disfigurement, servitude, or in impure environments. While these conditions vary in severity, they are still preferable to the three most miserable rebirth paths: the realms of hungry ghosts, hell beings, and animals.

The text then details the karmic retribution of these three lower realms:

1. Hungry Ghost Realm: Those who were miserly and greedy in life, refusing to give alms to the poor and thirsty, become hungry ghosts after death. With bellies swollen like drums and throats thin as threads, they see food but cannot eat, enduring perpetual starvation with hideous appearances - suffering that persists for vast periods.

2. Hell Realm: Those who were unfilial to parents, cruel to kin, and committed evil deeds that provoked universal hatred fall into hell. There they endure indescribable torments through various tortures.

3. Animal Realm: Those who delighted in killing, making their living through hunting or butchery without cultivating virtue, are reborn as animals. Becoming oxen, sheep, pigs, geese, chickens or ducks, they are slaughtered and sold to repay their karmic debts.

The scripture reveals that only realized beings fully comprehend these truths of rebirth. To inspire faith, it includes a gatha (Buddhist-style verse):

"Heaven and earth will change - what lasts forever?

Where there's birth, death follows;

Souls cycle through the five paths [heavenly, human, animal, hungry ghost, hell].

Those who disbelieve and deceive

Will find hell awaiting.

Practice good diligently,

Repent to sever evil's roots."

Finally, it teaches that persistent cultivation of the "Supreme Luminous Numen Talisman" (a Daoist ritual instrument) enables transcendence beyond the Three Realms (of desire, form, and formlessness), liberation from the Five Sufferings (birth, aging, sickness, death, and separation), and ultimate attainment of Zhenren (Perfected Being) status beyond rebirth.

The concluding reference "Kunlun Mountain King's Fourfold World, Lower Grade Section Two" indicates this text's classification within the Daoist Canon.

The scripture describes the mystical landscape of Mount Kunlun (the sacred mountain in Daoist mythology) and its surrounding Four Great Continents within the Daoist cosmological framework:

The Dao Ancestor (Taishang) proclaimed: Before heaven and earth took form, I already existed. At that time, Mount Kunlun was constructed from treasures—gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and crystal—soaring to a height of 3.36 million li. Encircling its base lies an ocean equally deep and wide at 3.36 million li. The earth extends downward for 2 billion li, layered as follows:

• A 2-billion-li-thick stratum of soil
• A 2-billion-li-thick stratum of golden sand
• A 2-billion-li-thick stratum of refined iron
• An 8-billion-li-deep aqueous layer
• A 52-billion-li-thick stratum of wind

These wind strata uphold the earth, preventing its collapse. The earth floats upon water, which in turn rests upon wind, with the void of emptiness beneath—a realm entirely distinct from our known heaven and earth.

Mount Kunlun illuminates the Four Great Continents from its four directions:

1. North: Bathed in golden light lies Uttarakuru (Yudanyue Zhou), spanning 400,000 li. Its inhabitants live a thousand years, with deep blue hair and equal stature among genders. All uphold virtue without evil, making it the most sublime of the four continents.

2. West: Illumined by crystal light is the Great Tang Realm (Datang Jie), crescent-shaped and 320,000 li wide. People here live two hundred years, experiencing ordinary mortal cycles of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

3. East: Shimmering under silver light is the Azure Heaven Realm (Biluo Jie), perfectly circular and 460,000 li in span, where lifespans reach three hundred years.

4. South: Radiating lapis lazuli light is the Renounced Sage Realm (Qixian Jie), extending 280,000 li. Its people endure the harshest lives with uncertain lifespans, yet possess one advantage—they cultivate the Dao with greater fervor than the other three continents or even celestial beings. Those who practice Daoist cultivation and virtue may ascend directly to heaven or transcend the Three Realms; evildoers, however, plunge into hell immediately after death.

Finally, the text reveals Mount Kunlun resides within the Heaven of Yellow Origin (Huangzeng Tian, one of Daoism’s Thirty-Six Heavens), governed by the Supreme Emperor of the Great Subtlety (Taiwei Dijun), a high-ranking celestial deity.

This scripture elucidates the Daoist cosmological framework of celestial deities overseeing human affairs, while exhorting people toward virtuous conduct.

At the celestial realm's center, four heavenly kings guard the four cardinal directions, each governing a quadrant of the world. On appointed days, they dispatch envoys to descend and inspect the mortal realm:

• 1st and 8th of each month: Ordinary envoys descend to scrutinize the words and deeds of all beings—emperors, officials, common folk, even dragons, ghosts, insects, and ants—judging their good and evil actions.
• 14th: Zhenren (high-ranking immortals) descend.
• 15th and 18th: Immortal kings descend.
• 23rd and 24th: Envoys descend once more.
• 28th and 29th: Immortal kings descend again.
• 30th: The four heavenly kings descend in person.

During these inspections, the sun, moon, stars, and the twenty-eight lunar mansions join the celestial assembly, meticulously recording human transgressions. The scripture admonishes devotees to observe these fasting days (zhairi) with sincere repentance, scripture recitation, discipline, and virtuous deeds. By doing so, they receive heavenly protection, prolong their lifespan, and ascend to paradise after death to enjoy eternal bliss.

The subsequent hymn (a religious verse) employs stark contrasts to emphasize:

• Human life is fleeting as a lightning flash.
• Those who neglect virtuous deeds will plunge into hell, suffering for eons.
• Celestial law (tianlü) is impartial and unrelenting—no transgression goes unpunished.
• Only by following the Dao (the Way) can one ascend to the heavens.

Finally, the text mentions that Mount Kunlun (a sacred Daoist mountain) lies 360,000 li above, where the gods reside—a symbolic representation of the celestial realm’s sublime sanctity. Through the dual forces of divine surveillance and the stark contrast between heavenly reward and infernal punishment, the scripture urges humanity to abandon evil and embrace virtue.

This scripture presents Daoist perspectives on celestial realms and forms of existence, along with methods for cultivation and attaining the Dao. The core teachings can be understood as follows:

The celestial realms each occupy distinct cosmic positions, with the sun and moon illuminating the earthly plane. Within the lunar sphere, five cyclical winds circulate, while the Moon Palace contains four celestial halls inhabited by five divine consorts. At the moon's center grows the magnificent Qian Tree, a celestial plant reaching four thousand li in height, whose shadow manifests upon the lunar surface—visible only to those of virtuous disposition. This sacred tree bears indescribable fruits and is surrounded by seven immortal abodes, seven jeweled mountains, and seven jeweled trees. The immortals dwelling here constantly practice this Daoist path, thereby transcending premature death and shortened lifespans.

The scripture instructs that those aspiring to ascend to the longevity heavens must cultivate five essential practices: 1) Maintaining compassionate non-harm to living beings; 2) Upholding integrity through non-theft and aiding the impoverished; 3) Preserving purity through sexual restraint; 4) Observing purification rituals without negligence; 5) Practicing honesty without deception while moderating alcohol consumption with prudence. Fulfilling these five disciplines ensures celestial ascension.

A following gatha verse warns humanity: Human life is fleeting and uncontrollable; transgressions are recorded by celestial officials, condemning the soul to hell's depths beyond redemption after death. It urgently advises cultivation for heavenly rebirth to avoid falling into the three wretched paths (hells, hungry ghosts, or animal realms).

The Supreme Venerable's sacred scripture universally delivers sentient beings and enlightens the ignorant. Devotees who reverently worship while cultivating mind and nature may attain the golden light dharma-body and immeasurable longevity.

Finally, the text describes three birth-modes for beings within the Three Realms:

1) Lotus birth: Those with accumulated merit manifest as celestial beings through lotus blossoming;

2) Transformation birth: Blessed individuals with divine power emerge through spontaneous manifestation;

3) Womb birth: Those with shallow virtue take fleshly form through conception, possessing brief lifespans—the lowest grade of existence.

The scripture clarifies that while celestial beings experience bliss, they remain within samsaric cycles—after exhausting their celestial lifespan, they may descend to lower realms. Only realized adepts (Zhenren) transcend birth and death, achieving diamond-indestructibility and immunity to cosmic forces.

This scripture primarily expounds on the stages of Daoist cultivation for attaining immortality and the cyclical process of cosmic calamities.

Regarding cultivation:

Those who attain the Dao (the Way) merge with the void, transcending disasters of fire and water, surpassing celestial barriers with boundless wisdom, compelling spirits and deities to submit. To ascend as an immortal, one must pursue truth with self-sacrificing devotion, accumulate virtue (De), sever worldly attachments, retreat to mountain forests, maintain purity through daily fasting and ablutions, abstain from meat, harm no living beings, and single-mindedly devote oneself to the Dao. By persistently practicing the Ten Virtues and Five Precepts while avoiding the Ten Evils, practitioners may attain longevity or even immortality. These teachings address ordained Daoist priests (Xianguan Daoshi), though ordinary people who observe basic precepts may still receive blessings.

Concerning cosmic calamities:

The world undergoes minor (xiao jie) and major (da jie) kalpas. During minor kalpas, Yin-Yang imbalance brings droughts and floods, famine ensues, vegetation becomes blade-sharp, and mutual slaughter leaves few survivors within seven days. A cataclysmic flood then purges the world—mountains shift, lands flatten—until the luminous Zhenren (Perfected Being) named Kunlun descends. After the deluge recedes, the renewed world features sweet waters, abundant harvests, lifespans extending eighty thousand years, women marrying only at five hundred, and heavenly bliss prevailing.

Yet after millions of years, accumulated sins refill hells, heralding the great kalpa. This describes Daoist cosmology's cyclical destruction and regeneration of the cosmos.

This scripture depicts an apocalyptic era of moral decay and rampant disasters:

In the darkest age, emperors and subjects, fathers and sons turn against each other. The people lose all sense of loyalty and filial piety, rulers lack benevolence, bandits run rampant, and violence prevails. These atrocities surpass even the calamities preceding the great cosmic cataclysm. Human morality completely collapses, and all traces of simple, virtuous customs vanish.

Then celestial anomalies appear: first two suns shine simultaneously, then three to seven suns hang together in the sky. After countless eons, rivers and seas dry up, and all living beings perish. The Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun, highest Daoist deity) witnesses the human realm's misery: people can only eat bitter wild grasses, losing their spiritual radiance, their bodies becoming so heavy they cannot ascend.

Moved by compassion, the Celestial Worthy restores cosmic order: sun and moon resume their courses, stars return to their positions, winds and rains harmonize. Sweet dew falls from heaven, sweet springs bubble from earth. People regain health and vitality, their lifespans extending to sixty thousand years, clothed in spontaneously growing garments and fed by naturally yielding crops.

Yet human nature gradually corrupts again. Sins multiply, lifespans shorten. People begin hunting animals for food, wearing furs and feathers, harming one another. Yin and Yang fall into disharmony—droughts and floods become unpredictable. In winter they dwell in caves, in summer nest in trees, completely losing civilized rites. After death, they descend into hell realms, denied celestial ascent.

After countless eons, sages finally emerge to teach humanity: domesticating oxen and horses, drilling wood for fire, cultivating mulberry trees and silkworms, establishing monarchic systems and social hierarchies. Only those accumulating virtue through Daoist practice may ascend to heaven—all others remain eternally in hell.

The text concludes with a gatha (Buddhist/Daoist verse) as warning: hell's torments know no end, all suffering self-inflicted. The physical body decays, but the spirit's destination depends on earthly deeds. Heaven and earth move as swiftly as a white steed's fleeting shadow—urging timely spiritual practice.

This scripture emphasizes the cultivation method of "primordial harmony with the divine," declaring this Lingbao scripture can make heaven and earth rejoice together, blessing all three realms (desire, form, and formless realms) while erasing karmic debts. Those who slander this text will face strict punishment according to hell's statutes.

(Note: "Jiuyou hell" refers to Daoism's deepest hell realm; "urgently as the law commands" is a standard Daoist incantation phrase indicating immediate execution of divine will)

This scripture describes the terrifying visions of hell in the Daoist worldview and the punishments endured by sinners.

The scripture states: The Dao Ancestor (referring to the supreme deity of Daoism) reveals that beneath the Heaven of Yellow Primordial (one of Daoism's Thirty-Six Heavens) lie nine continents, all surrounded by small seas connected to the Kunlun Ocean. The land where I now teach is called the Red County Divine Province (Chixian Shenzhou), modeled after the great continents and divided into nine regions. Yet most people here, though intelligent, are hypocritical, with few being sincere. They rarely ascend to heaven, and most fall into the Nine Nether Hells after death.

These hells span hundreds of thousands of miles in all directions, boundless in their darkness, filled entirely with sinners. They endure various tortures: having molten copper poured down their throats, being boiled in cauldrons, burned by raging fires, pierced by iron forks, pounded by iron hammers, beaten with fiery rods, or dismembered with their heads hung up. Some are forced to carry sand and stones to fill the seas under the supervision of great deities, with no mercy shown for their crimes. The duration of punishments is measured in "kalpas" (a Buddhist/Daoist concept of cosmic cycles), ranging from one to a hundred kalpas.

The scripture details two exemplary punishments:

1. A great pit forty miles deep, where sinners must drop a mustard seed once every hundred years—only when the pit is filled does one kalpa end.

2. A massive stone forty miles wide, which sinners must wipe with celestial garments (clothing of immortals) once every century—only when the stone wears away does one kalpa conclude.

The sinners wail in despair: "How can such tiny mustard seeds fill this enormous pit? How can this unyielding stone be worn down by such delicate celestial robes, touched only once every hundred years?" The jailers roar back: "You must endure twenty such kalpas just to complete half a minor kalpa!" Hearing this, the sinners weep bitterly, dying and reviving repeatedly, regretting their past misdeeds: failing to honor parents, committing evil acts, killing living beings, slandering scriptures, scheming for wealth and lives, deceit and theft, and disrespecting the divine.

Finally, the Dao Ancestor, in compassion, admonishes the living through gatha verses (Buddhist/Daoist poetic form):

"Filling pits and wearing stones is nothing—twenty kalpas are but a minor trial.

The soul endures punishment unceasing; no sooner is the body restored than torment resumes.

Boiling, slicing—no end in sight; pitiful are these fallen ones.

Why not cultivate virtue and accumulate merit? Good deeds surely lead to heavenly ascent,

How much more so through cultivation of the immortal path!"

This scripture warns people to practice virtue, revere the divine, and accumulate merit—lest they suffer endless torment. The concept of "kalpa" (jie), drawn from Buddhist and Daoist cosmology, refers to immeasurably long cosmic cycles.

When Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun, one of the supreme deities of Daoism) finished expounding this scripture, all the assembled immortals—including the various celestial lords, the Nine Elders and Celestial Lords (high-ranking divine officials), and the Nine Qi Patriarchs (immortals governing the celestial energies of the nine heavens)—unanimously praised, exclaiming, "How profound and wondrous!" They then inquired of Lord Lao, "Are there even more profound teachings beyond those of the heavenly realms?"

Lord Lao replied, "Since I first embarked on the cultivation of the Dao, I have traversed ninety-one kalpas (an immeasurably long cosmic cycle). During this time, I have taught and transformed sixty-two billion worlds, as countless as the sands of the Ganges. At times, I have divided and dispersed my form, sharing life and death with all beings. Other times, I have manifested as an indestructible Vajra body or as pure, luminous radiance like crystal. I have taken rebirth as emperors, sages, elders, and even children. I have also appeared as auspicious divine creatures—lions, white deer, qilin, or phoenixes. I have exhausted every possible means to universally deliver sentient beings. Yet, due to the heavy karma of worldly beings and their lack of readiness, many remain beyond deliverance, ultimately falling into the hell realms. Only those who are delivered attain the supreme teachings of the Dao, transcending the cycle of the Three Realms (the realms of desire, form, and formlessness)."

Lord Lao then admonished the assembled immortals: "Since you have witnessed this Dharma assembly, you must propagate the Daoist teachings and universally deliver all beings. You must vow with great resolve that rulers of all nations, as well as every living creature—down to the smallest insects and crawling beings—may awaken to liberation, avoiding the Three Evil Paths (hell, hungry ghosts, and the animal realm) and escaping the Ten Sufferings and Eight Calamities. Ensure that the deceased attain bliss, while the living achieve the Dharma Body (the eternal body of spiritual attainment) and immeasurable longevity, dwelling in palaces adorned with the Seven Treasures (heavenly abodes of divine splendor). Those capable of such universal deliverance shall become guides for both heaven and earth. Strive diligently!"

Finally, Lord Lao instructed: "Once this scripture enters the world, it must not be concealed selfishly. It should be transmitted only to those with the proper affinity, for this will bring blessings. But if it is carelessly disseminated to the unworthy, calamity will follow." Hearing this, the immortals bowed reverently, pledging to uphold and practice the teachings of this scripture.

(Additional note: This passage illustrates the core Daoist ideal of "universal deliverance," emphasizing the use of diverse manifestations to guide beings toward liberation while acknowledging the challenges posed by their karma and readiness. Practitioners are urged to make great vows and employ skillful means to lead all beings to transcend suffering.)