大毘盧遮那成佛經疏 4.5

4.5

Regarding the sūtra saying: "Lord of Secrets! In examining and selecting that ground, remove gravel, broken tiles and potsherds, skulls and hair, chaff and husks, ashes and charcoal, thorny bones, rotting wood, and the like, as well as insects, ants, dung beetles, and venomous stinging creatures": next, the secondary components of preparing the ground are explained. That is, within the ground previously selected, one marks out the site where the altar is to be placed, digs down to a depth of about one cubit, and carefully examines the earth one bit after another; whatever unusable things, insects, and so forth are there must all be removed. If these are present, they can give rise to numerous difficulties and be obstacles to the rite. As for stones and gravel, if there are few to be sifted, they should be sorted and removed. If sand and stones are abundant—piled up here and appearing there as well—so that it cannot be sorted and purified, one should abandon it and look for another site instead. However, if there is a large, flat rock, there are holy teachings that say one may erect a maṇḍala on it; it is only what is mixed within the soil that should be removed. According to Western worldly custom, people mostly eat from earthenware vessels, and once done eating, they immediately discard them, regarding them as polluted and no longer usable. Such things and other broken utensils of various kinds, along with skulls, miscellaneous bones, various nails, hair, hides, fur, chaff, husks, foul weeds, as well as ashes, charcoal, thorns, stakes, and rotting wood—in brief, such various unusable items that are not the original clean earth must all be sorted out. If they are so numerous that they cannot be sifted, one should also abandon it and look for another site; hence it says "and the like." "Insects and ants" in Sanskrit is *kṛmi*; this term is comprehensive, referring in all cases to minute, small bugs, all of which are to be sifted out and removed. "Dung beetles" are the larger ones. There are further earthworms and the like, whose meaning may be understood by analogy. "Venomous creatures" refers to the likes of snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and house centipedes; one should apply expedient means in every case to drive them away. If they are too numerous to be removed, then it is a place of obstruction and difficulty, and it should be abandoned.