辯正論 8.7

8.7

The Lingbao zhutian lingshu duming miaojing (Wondrous Scripture of the Numinous Books of the Various Heavens of Numinous Treasure for Delivering Life) claims that the Heavenly Worthy said: 'When the great kalpa completes its cycle, heaven collapses and earth sinks away. Within the six heavens, inside the desire realm, the miscellaneous dharmas are completely extinguished without anything remaining. The Taiping daojing (Daoist Scripture of Great Peace) and the Fahua and Large and Small Prajñā Sūtras spoken by the Buddha travel up and down within the eighteen heavens inside the form realm; when the great kalpa completes its cycle and heaven and earth are altered and abandoned, those texts then vanish. However, the true texts, golden writings, jade characters, and true scriptures of Numinous Treasure of the Supreme Dao of Jade Purity and the Three Caverns all issue from Primordial Beginning, dwelling above the twenty-eight heavens and above the formless realm. When the great kalpa completes its cycle, they all return to Mount Yujing and the seven-jeweled Mystery Terrace in the Daluo Heaven above heaven, where calamity does not reach. The Daluo Heaven is the heaven above five hundred and fifty-five million, five hundred and fifty-five thousand, five hundred and fifty-five heavens. Therefore the spontaneous texts are born together with the cosmic cycles and extinguished together with the cosmic cycles. Those who are able to revere them will have seven generations of ancestors reborn in heaven, and wheel-turning sagely kings will continue generation after generation without interruption.' The Lingbao zhenwen duren benxing jing (Scripture of the Original Deeds of Delivering People through the True Texts of Numinous Treasure) says: 'The great sages of the ten directions spoke thus among themselves: "By what cause and condition did he obtain this office of the Most High?" The Dao proclaimed of itself: "From when Primordial Beginning first opened the radiance down to the first year of Chiming, passing through 9,999,000,000,000 kalpas, I saved beings [as numerous as] the sands of the Ganges. From Chiming onward down to the first year of Shanghuang, I saved immeasurable people. I underwent birth and death following the kalpas, generation after generation without cease, constantly appearing together with the Numinous Treasure. Passing through seventy billion kalpas, meeting the kalpa of the Blue Thearch, when the nine qi ended and transformed the cycle, I then took womb in the Hong family, accumulating 3,700 years. Reaching the opening of Chiming in the jiazi year, I was born in Zhuangligaotian. Again I appeared together with the Numinous Treasure and saved immeasurable people. Because of my causes and conditions, the Heavenly Worthy of Primordial Beginning conferred upon me the title of Most High, residing in the Jade Capital of Xuandu, because I had faith in the Numinous Treasure."'