《太上說酆都拔苦愈樂妙經》

The Wondrous Scripture of Alleviating Suffering and Bestowing Joy from Fengdu as Expounded by the Supreme Lord:

At that time, the Heavenly Worthy of Alleviating Suffering and Bestowing Joy (a revered Daoist deity) dwelled in the Eastern Pole Palace of the upper realms of Fengdu (the Daoist underworld). Radiating five-colored circular light, he illuminated the ten directions of the world. Throughout Fengdu’s thirty-eight thousand hells and twenty-seven thousand shadowy prisons, countless suffering beings were seen tumbling endlessly upon mountains of blades, enduring torment day and night in cauldrons of boiling oil and charcoal fires, trapped in an unceasing cycle of ten thousand deaths and rebirths.

Moved by compassion and pity for the suffering of sentient beings, the Heavenly Worthy proclaimed this wondrous scripture to universally aid the lost souls of Fengdu. This scripture has the power to grant condemned spirits rebirth, enabling them to ascend to the Vermilion Mire Paradise (a Daoist celestial realm) and reincarnate as blessed individuals. Its meritorious virtue transforms mountains of blades into lotus thrones and forests of swords into auspicious groves, dissolving the torments of the Six Paths (heaven, human, asura, animal, hungry ghost, and hell) and the Three Miseries (fire, blood, and blades). Even sins as countless as the sands of the Ganges River are reduced to dust. With sincere devotion to the true Dao, one may transcend the sea of suffering and ascend to the Purple Tenuity Heaven (one of Daoism’s highest celestial realms).

(Background note: This is a Daoist scripture for the salvation of lost souls, teaching that the merit of reciting it can liberate spirits from hell. "Fengdu" refers to the administrative center of the Daoist underworld, while the "Six Paths and Three Miseries" reflect the integration of Buddhist concepts with Daoist hell cosmology.)