[Prologue: The Degenerate Age] The Buddha said: Seven hundred years after my Parinirvana, Mara, the demon king, will disrupt my true Dharma. Just as a hunter wears monastic robes, so too will Mara, the demon king, appear as a monk, nun, layman, or laywoman, and even as a Stream-enterer, an Arhat, or a Buddha. With these defiled forms, Mara will create an undefiled form, thus corrupting my true Dharma. Seven hundred years after my journey to the West, I returned to Flower Fruit Mountain. Who am I? I am none other than the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Victorious Fighting Buddha. Traveling westward, subduing demons and monsters, I gradually realized how naive I had been! Born from the ancestral lineage of the ten continents, I enjoyed three hundred years of innocent bliss.
