PureInsight | August 27, 2023
[PureInsight.org] In the summer of 2011, in July, my husband, daughter and I took a two and a half day trip to Dalian. When I saw the sea for the first time, a sense of joy and lightness welled up inside me, and I could not help but exclaimed in my heart, "I'm here!" It was a subtle yet familiar feeling, but I could not quite put my finger on why.
When we arrived in Dalian, it was already afternoon. The next morning, while sending forth righteous thoughts, I saw a large black spider, which I knew was called the "king of spiders," and I quickly eliminated it. The following morning, while sending forth righteous thoughts again, I saw two soldiers in full armor exchanging posts, and I saw an ancient castle and the ice breaking apart, revealing a thousand-year-old dragon leaping out from the shattered ice and saying, "You've finally arrived! We have been waiting for you for so long! We are saved!" Throughout the day, every time I sent forth righteous thoughts, I saw the ancient castle, a very old and square building with a high pointed roof, in an ancient and simple shade of yellow. I knew that there had been an ancient castle built in Dalian in the distant past.
A Distant and Bittersweet Memory Is thus Opened
In the middle and lower part of the universe's great dome (as perceived by my personal level), there is a heavenly world called the Mirror Heart World, which is a heavenly world created by the Lord of Buddhas in this level. The image of the Lord of Buddhas in this level is the Mirror Heart Dharma King. The Mirror Heart Dharma King is adorned in a dignified form, draped in a constantly changing and soft radiance, and a large crystal-clear and round jewel sits atop his head, called the Perception Jewel, which is in tune with the Dharma King's thoughts.
At the beginning of the creation of the Mirror Heart World, the Dharma King preached the Dharma to the sentient beings in the world and made gentle and profound mudras. As the mudras were made, a gesture of a large lotus flower appeared, and the Perception Jewel on top of his head perceived the profoundness of the Dharma and emitted a beautiful radiance. The supreme essence in the radiance separated from the jewel and formed a mirror, standing in the void, which could reflect the beautiful scenery of the great dome and display infinite mysteries. When sentient beings looked at this mirror, they saw different landscapes and were filled with different joys. The Dharma King told sentient beings with his mudras: this mirror is called the Nurture Mind Mirror, the mind moves and the mirror moves, the mirror follows the mind and can reflect the true nature of the mind. All sentient beings were amazed and overjoyed upon hearing this. The Dharma King then made another mudra, and a crystal lamp appeared in the air. The divine mirror was moved onto the lamp, and the lamp and the divine mirror shone brightly, adding more infinite joy to sentient beings.
The divine mirror was taken care of by two children under the throne of the Dharma King. The two children, a boy and a girl of eleven or twelve years old, are called Mu Tong and Ma Tong respectively, and are adorned in shiny blue clothes, with divine and pure appearances. The two children occasionally wipe the crystal lamp and the divine mirror, and sometimes play with them.
On this day, the Mirror Heart Dharma King preached the Buddha's teachings and made mudras for a long time. Finally, the meaning of the mudra was: I will descend in my true form to spread the Dharma and save countless sentient beings from bad karma and destruction.... The two children and the gods knelt before the Dharma King, ready to follow them down.
At this moment, the divine mirror displayed an anomaly and emitted a sound. The gods all focused on the mirror, and saw a big teardrop emerging from it. The Mirror Heart Master understood the meaning of the divine mirror, and wanted to go down, but in the Dharma Realm, the divine mirror had its own responsibilities and was not in the category of going down. After a slight pause, the Mirror Heart Master flicked his finger, and the teardrop separated from the divine mirror, quickly spinning. When it stopped, it had turned into a small mirror exactly the same as the divine mirror. The Mirror Heart Master said to the divine mirror while making a hand mudra, "This mirror came from your thought and was formed by my magical power. It communicates with your mind. Let it represent you to go down, and you can also increase your power." The divine mirror was overjoyed and bid farewell to the small mirror and the two children.
The Mirror Heart Master, the two children, the small mirror, and the gods went down together.
When they reached a certain level, the two children turned into male and female gods with similar attire but different colors - yellow and purple - respectively named Miao Tong and Zi Ying. In this level, the two gods communicated with each other, joined hands in a mudra, and jointly created a heavenly world called the Purple Heaven World. The two gods smiled at each other, climbed the Lotus Platform together, and preached the Dharma to all beings with hand mudras. The architecture in this heavenly world was in the form of a castle, and there were countless beings inside. These two gods were known as the Purple Miao Double Honored Ones. In this level, they had to go down again and accepted the arrangement of the old forces.
Going down layer by layer, memories were gradually erased; going down layer by layer, radiance was gradually diminished; going down layer by layer, arrangements were made again and again, lasting for a long time, until they entered the Three Realms.
Long before in the thirty-two heavens of the Three Realms, there were two fairy pavilions. One was called the Phoenix Moon Palace, with the Fairy Maiden Phoenix Moon (Fengyue) as the master. She dressed extremely elegantly with a moon-white garment and a crescent-shaped seal on her forehead. When flying in the air, she often transformed into a translucent jade phoenix. The other was the Purple Immortal Pavilion, with the Fairy Maiden Zi Yue as the master. She wore purple clothes, with a V-shaped decoration on her forehead and a half fan-shaped costume behind her. The fan surface was golden-yellow, with twelve dragons in a row, forming the fan's bones. These dragons could be big or small, moving according to the fairy's will and could change into infinite shapes. Zi Yue would sometimes play the Yaoqin, read the Golden Sutra, and lived a carefree life. These two fairy maidens had occasional encounters. These two fairy maidens were the two children mentioned earlier in the Mirror Heart World - Mu Tong and Ma Tong, and they were also the creators of the Purple Heaven World - Miao Tong and Zi Ying.
One day, the Phoenix Feather Envoy from the Palace of the Gods invited Fairy Maiden Phoenix Moon and Fairy Maiden Zi Yue to the meeting of the gods. The Phoenix Feather Envoy had beautiful wings like a phoenix and was as magnificent and colorful as a phoenix when flying. When her wings were folded, she looked like a fairy wearing feathered clothes, with a dignified and noble demeanor.
Fengyue Fairy and Ziyue Fairy accepted the invitation and went to the Gathering of Immortals. The gathering was solemn and was held to discuss the arrangements for the immortals to descend to the mortal world. Fengyue Fairy and Ziyue Fairy were among them. After the arrangements were made, each immortal who was to descend first returned to their respective abode to settle down before preparing to go down. Ziyue Fairy did not want to bring her baggage and the Twelve Dragons behind her, but they insisted on accompanying her. Ziyue Fairy hesitated and said, "Going down to the mortal world is very difficult. Our magical powers will disappear, and we may make mistakes in confusion." The Twelve Dragons begged her repeatedly, and Ziyue Fairy finally agreed.
Seventy million years ago, in what is now the northern Chinese city of Dalian, there were mountains and rivers, beautiful scenery, and a dense population with a simple and honest heart. At that time, people had golden hair, blue eyes, and fair skin with small, Barbie-like noses. The people living here at the time all hoped to establish a castle and wanted to choose a venerable person to be their king.
At that time, people leaned towards the merchant Haoran. Haoran was fair-skinned, tall and sturdy, with bright eyes and a faint crescent-shaped mark on his forehead. He was humble, enthusiastic, and very good at business. He used most of his earnings to help the poor. When he ran out of money, he went to earn more and used it to help the poor again. At that time, a children's rhyme was popular: "He who gets the most shall be the king." People believed that since Haoran made money and gave it away to help the poor, accumulating virtue and doing good, he should be the king. Many people told Haoran their thoughts, but Haoran did not want to be king. He deliberately declined, saying, "Perhaps you have misunderstood. It might be 'he who gets the mirror shall be the king.' Maybe you have to obtain a mirror to become king." A few days later, Haoran dreamed of an old man with a white beard who told him to go up the mountain to find the Mirror of Heart and Spirit, which would better help others. When Haoran woke up, he thought that it might be true and that it would be a good thing to help others better. So, he prepared some food and went up the mountain. He searched for 81 days before finding a mirror in a certain place. He went to take it, but he could not move it. He realized he should kneel before the gods, and after doing so, he was able to take the mirror. The mirror was the size of a palm, very light, with a small hole in the edge. It felt warm to the touch, and the texture was like jade but much better. At this moment, the mirror shone, and an old man with a white beard appeared in the light, just like in his dream. The old man called himself the Mirror Master and told Haoran, "This mirror is called the Mirror of Heart and Spirit. Only people with high morality can obtain it. The person who obtains it will increase their blessings. Go be the king and establish a castle! The mirror will protect the castle." After saying this, the old man disappeared, and the light stopped flashing.
Haoran went down the mountain with the Mirror of Heart and Spirit. When people heard about his experience, they suddenly realized, "We misunderstood the children's rhyme. It should be 'he who gets the mirror shall be the king'." So, they eagerly supported Haoran as their king. Haoran also felt that this was destiny, and destiny is hard to defy, so he no longer refused.
Haoran began to command people to build castles on flat ground. When digging the foundation, a turtle was found at a depth of twenty meters. The turtle shell was dark green with a slight yellow tinge. Haoran wanted to release it, but suddenly felt the divine mirror hanging around his neck move. He looked at it and saw words appear on the mirror: "Kill the turtle and bury its four feet in the four corners of the castle to make it solid." Haoran followed the instructions of the divine mirror.
When the castle was built, Haoran noticed that the divine mirror emitted purple gas, so he came up with the idea of naming the castle "Zitian Castle."
Under the governance of King Haoran, Zitian Castle prospered.
King Haoran lived to be eighty-four years old and was succeeded by his son. The castle was passed down from generation to generation until the twenty-fourth generation when the king was named Ziji, the queen was Liuxiang, and they had a daughter named Ziwei. Princess Ziwei loved purple and was lively, clever, and extraordinarily beautiful. The king and queen loved her very much and even selected twelve guards from the palace guard to protect her, with the two leaders named Gulong and Yinglong.
At the age of eleven, the princess discovered a bright spot on a distant mountain from the castle tower and found it strange. She took her guards up the mountain to investigate and found a flat, glass-like object the size of an adult palm on a protruding stone, which reflected an image inside. The princess was curious and circled around it to watch. At a certain angle, she unexpectedly saw the full view of the castle and the people inside were clearly visible, which surprised her greatly. The guards also took turns to observe and were all amazed.
At night, the princess had a dream in which she saw a very kind person with a crescent-shaped mark on his forehead. By instinct, she knew that this was the first generation king, Haoran. The feeling that Haoran gave her was not awe-inspiring, but a familiar and friendly feeling. Then the scene in her dream changed, and she saw how Haoran found the divine mirror. She also saw the year she was born, when a round little thing suddenly grew out of the place where Haoran found the divine mirror. It gradually grew into the shape that she and her guards saw on the mountain during the day. She also saw a shepherd boy curiously circling around the little thing, watching it intently. Suddenly, his mouth widened in surprise, and he stared at the little thing fixedly. Then, the divine mirror appeared in her dream, and words were quickly flipping inside. Finally, a line of words appeared, "Two kings meet, perfect and flawless."
After waking up, the princess felt that this dream was very strange. After breakfast, she told her parents. The king and queen were very happy after hearing it. The king said, "No one in the castle's records has ever dreamt of the late king. Haoran's reputation makes him respected by future generations, and you dreamed of him. You're so lucky." The king wanted his daughter to take him to the mountain to see the strange thing, but a force prevented him from doing so, and he gave up the idea.
Later, when the princess was twelve years old, two street performers came to the castle and performed in the square, attracting many people to watch. The king had a vague sense of unease in his heart, feeling that a disaster was about to occur, and the queen was also inexplicably anxious. However, the princess was unusually excited and wanted to go watch the street performers. The king refused, and the princess was moody all day long. The square was often filled with thunderous applause, and people talked about the wonders of the street performers. On the third day, the king finally allowed the princess to go out and gave her the divine mirror, telling her not to take it off. Twelve guards escorted the princess.
Two jugglers heard that the princess was coming, so they performed even more vigorously. One tall juggler said to the princess, "Your Highness, I know you have a mirror. I can turn it into something else. If you don't believe me, take it out." The princess was excited and was about to get her magic mirror, but then she remembered her father's instructions and said, "No."
The short juggler said, "I can do it with the golden hairpin on your head." The princess took off her golden phoenix hairpin and handed it to the juggler. He turned the hairpin into many things and created an array of soldiers, demons, and monsters in a small area in the air. The princess suddenly felt very scared. When the juggler returned the hairpin to her, she refused to take it and left with her attendants. The jugglers were disappointed, and the tall one said to the short one, "Let's turn the hairpin into a door and put it in the square!" So the two of them muttered some words and turned the hairpin into a door, which they placed in the square. Then they left.
When the king and queen learned of this, they felt uneasy and hesitated for a long time before deciding to go see the door. When they looked at the door, the king's mouth felt numb and the queen's eyes could not see well. The king ordered people to dismantle the door, but they could not move it, and the people who tried to dismantle it suddenly became disabled. The king and queen stayed up all night worrying. The next morning, the king's mouth was crooked and the queen had lost her sight. When the people in the castle found out, they thought that the castle was going to be destroyed, and some people moved away. The king allowed them to leave and hurriedly worshiped the magic mirror.
The magic mirror showed that the turtle killed by the Haoran king had practiced for 12,000 years and was very spiritual. When it slept, its soul traveled outside its body and was captured. When the turtle spirit returned, it had nowhere to go and wanted to revenge on the castle. So it possessed a wizard and generations of wizards took revenge. When the castle's luck was strong, the wizard could not harm it. In the 24th generation of kings, the turtle spirit sensed the information from the turtle feet underground and knew that the castle's luck was weakening, so it came to take revenge again. The wizard possessed by the turtle spirit disguised himself as a juggler. Whenever a member of the royal family handed him a personal item, he would leave evil factors in the castle and cause terrible changes.
The magic mirror also showed that the castle would exist for a long time and eventually turn white.
After kowtowing to the god mirror, the king and queen returned to normal. The king told the people about what the mirror showed and everyone felt relieved. The people who had left gradually returned. The door in the square became smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing. However, the princess underwent a huge change, no longer lively and cute, but instead depressed and melancholic.
Eleven years later, the king and queen passed away one after another, and the Princess Ziwei became the queen of the Zitian Castle.
The queen enjoyed reading old books. One day, she discovered a very dusty book in the depths of the castle. It was thin and yellowed, with incomplete sentences. The queen spent a long time sorting it out and found that there was a prophecy left by a wise person during the reign of the eleventh king, predicting the castle's future, with the words "Witchcraft is coming, the castle will undergo huge changes." The queen pondered: where did this book come from, who wrote it? Why isn't it recorded in the castle's history? Since the turtle feet could bring stability and disaster to the castle, was all of this predetermined by fate, or was there some other mystery? The queen spent a long time pondering but did not come to any conclusion. Her hair turned white at the temples. The guards advised her to stop thinking about it, but the queen could not stop her thoughts.
Two years later, two strangers arrived at the castle. The queen had a feeling that they were the two performers from thirteen years ago. She sent her twelve guards to drive them away, but the strangers transformed into wizards and laughed maniacally, turning the Gulong and Yinglong into actual dragons and slandering the queen as a monster. The ten guards charged at the wizards, but were also transformed into dragons. However, the dragons did not surrender and continued to attack the wizards. The wizards shouted loudly, "Freeze! Freeze!" and froze the twelve dragons and the arriving warriors. Subsequently, the entire castle was gradually frozen. The queen quickly kowtowed to the god mirror, only to see a crystal-clear image. The queen knew the end that the castle was about to face and was tearless in her sorrow. She walked to a high point in the castle, watching the panicked people running in all directions. In the end, no one survived, even the birds that had just landed on buildings could not escape the fate of being frozen. The queen felt sad and helpless, closed her eyes, and waited for the final outcome quietly. That moment was both short and long. After a while, she opened her eyes and was surprised to find that only the ground beneath her feet was not frozen, and the entire castle had turned white.
Two wizards were still shouting arrogantly when a huge hand reached out from the sky and grabbed them. The queen quickly knelt down and made a request, hoping for a miracle to restore everything to its original state, but the sky did not respond. The divine mirror on the queen's body emitted a light, and an old man with a white beard appeared. He told the queen in a hoarse voice, "All of this is the arrangement of the heavens, destined to be so, and no one can change it. After many years, only you can resolve the frozen things. When the wheel with nine rotating patterns appears on your body, it will have boundless magic and power, and everything can be resurrected. Otherwise, everything will be destroyed." After speaking, the old man disappeared, the light disappeared, and the divine mirror turned into a cloud, carrying the queen away. The queen felt incredibly light and wondered if her body was left in the castle while her soul came out. Looking down from a high place, she saw her frozen body standing on the castle and felt horrified. The cloud carrying her flew farther and stopped at a place. When the queen looked down, she saw a family giving birth to a child and wanted to take a closer look. Suddenly, she slipped and fell, and was reincarnated into this family.
Just as the cloud carrying the queen flew far away, the castle disappeared in an instant and was closed in another space. The location of the castle became a deserted depression.
Three days before the castle was frozen, an 11-year-old shepherd boy in the castle, who was grazing on the mountain, accidentally found the strange mirror-like thing that the princess had seen on the mountain. He saw the entire castle from a certain angle and was very curious. So every day, while grazing, he watched this mirror to pass the long and boring time. When the castle underwent a huge change, he was watching the castle through the mirror. He witnessed the entire process of the castle being frozen and saw the castle disappear. He was surprised and quickly rode his cow down the mountain. Walking on the familiar way home, the shepherd boy found that the castle had really disappeared, and the location of the castle had become a deserted depression. He could not believe his eyes, and his heart was extremely frightened. Even the cow was frightened and kept backing away. The frightened shepherd boy did not know what to do.
The castle was gone, the home was gone, and the loved ones were gone. The frightened and helpless shepherd boy rode his cow towards a distant place. When he arrived where people lived, he told them about this matter. At first, no one believed him. Curious people went to see the Purple Sky Castle, but they did not see it. Even the merchants who passed by found that the castle had disappeared and thought they had lost their way. In this way, more and more people knew that the castle had disappeared.
So where did the castle go, and what happened to the queen and the people? No one knows. Later, someone wrote a book based on the shepherd boy's account, called "The Legendary Castle." People passed down this story from generation to generation, and as time passed, later generations gradually believed that this was a legend full of rich imagination.
Today, the former Haoran King, Princess Ziwei, and the Cowherd have all become disciples of the Lord of Buddhas and are practicing in the Dafa. Princess Ziwei is me, who was once the Zi Yue Fairy in the Upper Realm. The twelve guards are the twelve dragons that followed Zi Yue Fairy down. The Cowherd is my daughter. Haoran King, formerly known as Phoenix Moon Fairy, is a fellow practitioner by my side. We often help each other, make up for each other's deficiencies, and he also helps me submit articles. This corresponds to the display of the Dream Mirror in the past: "Two kings meet, perfect and flawless."
The frozen castle has been sealed in another space with its own space field. The castle has been sealed for 8,000 years in that space, while in the world, it has gone through vicissitudes, changes, and has passed 70 million years.
On my third day in Dalian, the castle that had been sealed in another space was completely unfrozen, and the twelve dragons that had been sealed were unfrozen. All the frozen lives, like waking up from hibernation, came back to life. After the queen's body was unfrozen, she remained motionless like a sculpture, and I appeared in my cultivated form, like a female Buddha statue. With a wave of my hand, a white light entered the queen's body from her head. In this white light, there was a complete image of me when I was Queen Ziwei, with thoughts and yawning like a newly awakened baby, entering the queen's body under the protection of the white light, and merging with her body. In an instant, the queen's gaze turned, and she looked noble and elegant as she joyfully greeted the people in the castle.
The once ancient castle, now in that space, is shining brightly, full of vitality, and prosperous, like a holy paradise.
Afterword:
On the day the castle was unfrozen, I was still in Dalian when four dragons arrived at my home, shrank to a small size, and lay on the tables in the living room and kitchen. Another eight dragons followed me, and at that time, the dragons from the mountains and the sea all came out to greet me. When they saw these eight dragons, they were very surprised, as if they had never seen such ancient dragons before, and they were very respectful towards them. When I returned, these eight dragons followed me back.
After returning, I said to them (the twelve dragons): Dalian is a good place with mountains and water, but this place may not be suitable for you without mountains and water. I will give you the best, but you should go back. At this time, the sky was densely covered with clouds and it started to rain. At 6 o'clock in the evening when I was sending forth righteous thoughts, the twelve dragons lined up and said goodbye to me, reluctant to leave and shedding tears. I did not realize it, but my tears were also flowing. After sending forth righteous thoughts, I bowed to Master's portrait and thanked Master for saving the castle and resolving this crisis.
On the sixth morning after returning, it rained again, and I saw the dragons come again. They prostrated themselves and looked at me with admiring eyes. The Yinglong said, "I really want to carry you and fly, but I can't because you are sitting on a lotus seat, and I can't be presumptuous." I knew that in the days when they went back, they all wanted to come again. They had discussed whether to come one by one, in groups of several, or all-together, but they were afraid that I would let them leave again and were at a loss. In the end, they all came together. I said to them, "Remember 'Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.' I will give you abilities, and you can join me in assisting Master in rectifying the Fa in another space." When they heard me say this, they were both happy and moved, standing up like humans, crying and hugging each other tightly. Since then, they have never left me again.
Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/79622
