金光明經文句記 2.43

2.43

Second, from "if it pertains..." downward, clarifying the strengths and weaknesses of the biased and complete, in two parts: first, the biased, in three parts: first, humans and devas, in two parts: first, humans: their mind of observance is not yet pure, like a monkey wearing a chain. Carrying a bowl of oil—the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra uses the metaphor of a great crowd filling twenty-five li, where a king orders an official to carry a bowl of oil and pass through the midst of them without letting it spill; if a single drop is spilled, his life will be cut off. He also dispatches a man with a drawn sword to follow him. The official receives the king's command and walks with all his mind focused on holding it; though he sees the five desires, his mind feels no greed or attachment. That sūtra uses the twenty-five to symbolize the twenty-five states of existence. The drawn sword symbolizes impermanence. The present text uses it to symbolize an ordinary person keeping precepts; the drawn sword can symbolize the guilt of the three wretched destinies. Severing the coarse of the present to seek the subtle of the future is like exchanging the base for the noble.