妙法蓮華經文句 9.3

9.3

The gāthās have twenty-eight verses and three lines, divided into three: first, one verse summarizes and indicates the topic; next, twenty-two verses summarize practice; finally, five verses and three lines clarify the completion of practice. In the prose, the realm of action and the realm of approach were explained separately; in the gāthās, they are summarized together. To speak properly, their intent is the same, manifested alternately through opening and combining, so that understanding them broadly or in brief may be relied upon even further. In the above text, the two passages on action and approach each had three parts; now the gāthās summarize them together without following the sequential order. First, the fourteen verses from "should enter into the realm of action" summarize the practical aspects of far and near. Above, there were ten kinds of distancing; in the gāthās they are abbreviated without following the sequential order, as can be seen in the text. This also summarizes the realm of action regarding the emptiness of persons; taking the intent, it also combines the three senses of the realm of approach; therefore the gāthā says: "These are named the realm of action and the realm of approach." "Always staying away from kings": for a bhikṣu to be intimate with a king entails ten unlawful things: 1. plotting against the king's life; 2. the king executing a chief minister; 3. the treasury losing treasures; 4. palace ladies becoming pregnant; 5. the king's person being poisoned; 6. chief ministers contending with one another; 7. two countries going to war; 8. the king being stingy and not giving to the people; 9. levying goods from the people; 10. frequent epidemics, where it is said the bhikṣu cast incantations. When these ten matters occur, all the ministers and people say that they were done by the bhikṣu; making this slander against the bhikṣu amounts to slandering the Dharma and slandering the Buddha; therefore the Buddha does not allow intimacy with kings. "Heterodox brāhmaṇas": the Mātanga-sūtra says: "The first person, named Brahmā, made one Veda. The next, named Śuddhodana, turned the one into four: the first is named the Veda of Praise and Recitation [Ṛgveda]; the second, of Sacrificial Rites [Yajurveda]; the third, of Chanting [Sāmaveda]; the fourth, of Averting Calamity [Atharvaveda]. Each has 320,000 verses, combining into 1,280,000 verses, having 1,700 scrolls. The next, named Puṣya, had twenty-five disciples, each able to broadly differentiate one Veda, so that there came to be twenty-five Vedas. Next, there was a person named Parrot, who turned one Veda into eighteen. Next, there was a person named Good Path, who had twenty-one disciples, turning it into twenty-one Vedas. In this manner it evolved and transformed into 1,206 Vedas." The Veda treatise is called here the Treatise on Wisdom; Vyāsa made it, in four kinds altogether: 1. the Veda of the Power of Faith, clarifying fire rituals to extinguish sin; 2. the Yajurveda, clarifying making offerings to brāhmaṇas to obtain blessings; 3. the Sāmaveda, clarifying reconciling two countries; 4. the Atharvaveda, clarifying battle. Those who read these four treatises call themselves omniscient people. Vyākaraṇa is here called the Treatise on Grammar; Pāṇini made it, clarifying various scriptures and miscellaneous phrases. The Vaiśeṣika treatise was made by Ulūka, which is translated as "Most Superior"; appearing in the world eight hundred years [after the Buddha?], it clarifies the six categories (padārtha). Kapila is translated here as "Yellow Head," and also called "Turtle Clan"; he composed a treatise named Sāṃkhya; Sāṃkhya is translated here as "Peakless"; naming the treatise after the person, it is called Kapila, and explains twenty-five truths (tattva). "Those who study the Hīnayāna Tripiṭaka": when the Buddha was in Vārāṇasī, he first spoke the Sūtra Piṭaka for the five people; when the Buddha was in Rājagṛha, he first spoke the Vinaya Piṭaka for Sunīta; when the Buddha was at the Monkey Pond in Vaiśālī, he first spoke the Abhidharma Piṭaka for the Vajjiputtas. The five hundred arhats in the first watch of the night compiled the Abhidharma Piṭaka's Sūtra on Continuous Liberation; these are the studies of the Tripiṭaka. "Deeply attached to the five desires": as for the marks of desire, humans of the four continents, nāgas, asuras, and the Four Heavenly Kings all engage in physical contact of the sense organs; the Trāyastriṃśa devas use wind to fulfill it; the Yāma devas use approaching each other to fulfill it; the Tuṣita devas use holding hands to fulfill it; the Nirmāṇarati devas use gazing at each other to fulfill it; the Paranirmitavaśavartin devas use mental thought to fulfill it; the higher heavens are all free from desire. "Widows and maidens": Ānanda asked the Buddha: "After the Tathāgata's parinirvāṇa, how should we look upon women?" The Buddha said: "Do not meet with them; if you meet them, do not speak with them; if you speak with them, you must single-mindedly be mindful of the Buddha." "And all non-men": they are called paṇḍaka, translated here as eunuchs. Eunuchs have male or female form but cannot perform male or female acts. "Entering villages to beg for food": the Saṃyuktāgama states: "There was a sheep that went to a dung heap to eat its fill; returning to the flock, it was haughty: 'I got fine food.' A bhikṣu is also like this: having obtained the four requisites, he gives rise to tainted attachment and thoughts of desire, not knowing the way of escape; if he does not obtain them, he constantly generates thoughts [of craving]; if he obtains them, he is haughty toward the other bhikṣus and disdains others: 'I obtained them, while they could not.' This is a sheep bhikṣu begging for food. When a lion king encounters a large beast, he devours it without savoring or clinging; when he gets a small beast, he devours it without despising or deprecating it. A bhikṣu is also like that: obtaining offerings of the four requisites, he does not give rise to tainted attachment, has no thoughts of desire, and knows for himself the way of escape; if he does not obtain benefits and offerings, he does not give rise to turbulent thoughts and has no mind of increase or decrease. This is a lion king bhikṣu begging for food." In the four matters of begging for food, traveling on duty, and illness, the eight periods before and after clarify the eight diligences and eight negligences. Before begging for food, one reflects: 'To cultivate the path and repair the wound of hunger'; though begging and not yet obtaining it, one does not abandon mindfulness and practice; after having obtained food through begging, to repay kindness, one is mindful of the path without interruption; in the two periods before and after, one redoubles diligence. The other three matters before and after are also like this; the opposite of this is named the eight negligences. The Ratnamegha-sūtra explains that food begged is divided into four portions: one portion is offered to fellow practitioners of pure conduct, one portion is given to beggars, one portion is given to ghosts and spirits, and one portion is eaten by oneself.