妙法蓮華經 5.10

5.10

A bodhisattva should not Become intimately acquainted With widows, maidens, Or impotent men. Nor should he consort With slaughterers, butchers, hunters, Or fishermen who kill for profit. He should not consort With people such as those Who make a living From selling meat Or from pandering prostitutes. He should never become acquainted With dangerous wrestlers, Or the varieties of jugglers or courtesans.

He should not teach the Dharma To a woman alone in a quiet place. When he teaches the Dharma He should not joke or laugh. If he enters a village to beg for food He should be accompanied by a monk. If there is no monk he should Singlemindedly contemplate the Buddha. This is what is known as The sphere of the bodhisattva practice And the sphere of relationships. Within these two spheres He can teach at ease. He should not practice The superior, mediocre, or inferior teachings, The conditioned and the unconditioned, Or the teaching of the real and the unreal. Nor should he discriminate Between men and women. He should not acquire, comprehend, Or perceive any phenomenon. This is what is known As the sphere of the Bodhisattva practice. All dharmas are empty and without substance, Impermanent, without origination or cessation. This is known as the sphere Of the relationships of the wise. Through the error of discrimination One sees all existent things As existing or nonexisting, Real or unreal, Produced or unproduced. Being in a quiet place, the bodhisattva Carries out practices to control his mind

And remains as firm and unmoved

As Mount Sumeru.

He should regard all dharmas

As being without substance,

Like empty space

Which has no firmness.

All dharmas are neither produced

Nor do they emerge;

They are immovable, nonreturning,

And always remain in their single character.

This is known as the sphere of relationships.

Any monk after my parinirvāṇa

Who enters the sphere of practice

And the sphere of relationships

Will not be disheartened

When he teaches this sutra.

A bodhisattva, at proper times,

Should enter a quiet chamber

And contemplate all dharmas

With correct thoughts,

According to the meaning.

Arising from meditation he should reveal

And expound this sutra

To kings, princes, ministers, and brahmans.

Then his mind will be at ease and unafraid.

O Mañjuśrī!

This is the bodhisattva

Who firmly abides in the Dharma from the beginning

And in the world to come will be able

To teach the Lotus Sutra.

“Furthermore, O Mañjuśrī, after the Tathāgata’s parinirvāṇa, anyone who wants to teach this sutra in the Age of the Decadent Dharma should