The karmic retribution for licentious evil is exceedingly bitter, hence the “sea of suffering”. To escape means to get free. Demonic delusions describe the state in which one is obsessed with wine and lust, as if beset by evil souls. If you desire to flee the sea of suffering, you must cut off delusive demonic thoughts and no longer be ensnared by them.
Since you seek to cover up your former transgressions, you must eradicate your karmic hindrances.
Former transgressions refer to faults committed in past lives and in days gone by. To cover up means to conceal. Karmic hindrances are grave sins that act like barriers, obscuring one’s good mind. To eradicate means to exterminate. The text means that if you wish to conceal all your past misdeeds, you must quickly curb licentious desire, accumulate many virtuous merits, and wipe away the karmic obstructions caused by your bygone wrongs.
If you spurn my exhortations, there is nothing more I can do.
The meaning is as follows: I have earnestly admonished you with kind words, yet you refuse to heed my counsel; what more can I do for you?
On Knife Mountain you shall roll; In the oil cauldron you shall boil; Upon the Blood River you shall sit; Molten iron you shall swallow.
When karmic retribution befalls, the King of the Underworld commands ghost enforcers to hurl you onto the Mountain of Knives, leaving you to tumble helplessly. You are cast into the boiling‑oil cauldron to suffer scalding torment. You may be submerged in the River of Blood, afflicted by bitter cold and fetid stench. Molten iron may be poured down your throat, searing your viscera as though simmered in boiling oil — you shall endure every such agony.
At that hour, even should you seek to read my Scripture on Abstaining from Licentiousness, you shall hardly escape the pit of fire; even should you wish to read my Admonitions against Licentiousness, you shall scarcely gain entry to the Heavenly Court.
“At that hour” refers to the moment one endures torment in hell. “The pit of fire” stands for the sufferings upon the Mountain of Knives and within the Oil Cauldron. “You shall hardly escape the pit of fire” means deliverance will no longer be possible, even if one turns to the scripture at that late moment. “The Heavenly Court” is the blessed realm reserved for souls without sin. “You shall scarcely gain entry to the Heavenly Court” signifies that reciting these admonitions when doom has fallen cannot bring spiritual transcendence.
I abide in the Azure Firmament, dreading lest you should harbor resentment toward me, while you writhe in hideous torment within the netherworld.