觀音義疏 1.35

1.35

Regarding the sequence: fire and water lack consciousness, so their disaster is heavy; though ghosts have consciousness, being a different species, they are next; kings and bandits have consciousness and are of the same species, hence they are light. Yet ghosts and kings are alternated: first comparing ghosts to kings, kings are light and ghosts are heavy; then comparing kings to ghosts, kings are heavy and ghosts are light. These two resemble each other, and are therefore presented alternately. A certain master took wind to make eight disasters, but someone criticized this, saying the text states: "Reciting the name, all obtain liberation from the disaster of rākṣasas," and does not say wind is a disaster. Now we clarify: when the noble one responds to capacities, why must it follow such human conjectures of sequence? And why must it not have a sequence? What is said now differs from the former: this fundamentally explains responding to capacities to eliminate suffering, so how could one interpolate it with bestowing joy?