The vast cosmos, the void of the Dharma realm, the boundless firmament. The ten directions contain world upon world, without end. Is there a true path of the True Dharma?
May the body endure forever, never perish through endless kalpas. In Buddhist scriptures, one attains nirvana; in Daoist scriptures, one becomes an immortal. Is it reality or fantasy? How long is a kalpa?
The scriptures say that the world goes through four kalpas: formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness. Together they form one great kalpa, cycling endlessly. The highest of the three realms is the Formless Realm, the Heaven of Neither Thought nor Non-Thought, where one lives for eighty thousand great kalpas in blissful longevity.
Li Xiao lives on the lowest of the three Earthly Heavens, the Firmament of Resolve Continent.
To the west lie esoteric teachings: the Light-Gathering Dakini Upasika (a term for a female practitioner), the Vidya of the Vajra Summit Seal, and the Womb Realm Mandala. The Vajra of Majestic Power, the sacred assembly of the mandala, the Mani Jewel and the Great White Parasol. The Forty-Two-Handed, Thousand-Eyed Great Compassion Mantra raises the banner of the True Dharma. The Twenty-One Taras bring gentleness and joy.
To the east lies the Great Dao, the Xuanjie Daoist Sect: the Primordial Thunder of Mysterious Unity, Emerald Heavens, and Brahma Qi. The Golden Light Dao Fruit of the Divine Firmament and Jade Clarity, the Jade Emperor's talismanic rites for praying and warding off calamity, the Secret Essentials of the Spiritual Terrace from the Cavern of Truth, the Direct Instructions on the Great Elixir of the Primordial Golden Immortal, and the Sea-of-Earth Chakra Qi Channel Method. (The teachings listed above are explicitly recorded in the classic texts of Buddhism and Daoism. I did not make them up; please see the preface.)
To the south are immortal islands across the sea, cut off from the world.
To the north lies the Asura realm, with strange beasts along the border.
The world of this book has a total of twenty-eight levels of heaven. The three Earthly Heavens are the first, the Firmament of Resolve; the second, the Firmament of Sustenance; and the third, the Firmament of Shadowlight. Above them are the Heavens of the Sky-Dwellers, twenty-five levels in all, suspended in the air. At the very top is the Palace of Luo Heaven.
The Primordial Record of Mystical Truth
The Supreme One Is Heartless
The Dao Ancestor's Abandoned Disciple