四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 3.380

3.380

Second, clarifying that encouraging renunciation is beneficial. The Kuśalamūlasaṃparigraha Sūtra states: A bodhisattva has four dharmas by which, upon changing bodies, he will become an ehibhikṣu, be born miraculously from a lotus, and have his lifespan increased in the present: first, taking delight oneself in leaving household life and also encouraging and assisting others to make them leave household life; second, seeking the Buddhadharma without weariness and also encouraging others; third, practicing harmony and forbearance oneself and also encouraging others; fourth, practicing skillful means and deeply giving rise to great vows. The Sūtra on the Merit of Leaving Household Life states: If one permits sons, daughters, male and female slaves, and subjects to leave household life, the merit is immeasurable. Suppose throughout the four continents, filled entirely with arhats, one made offerings to them for a hundred years; it would not compare to a person who, for the sake of nirvāṇa, leaves household life and receives the precepts for one day and one night, whose merit is boundless. Furthermore, it is like erecting a seven-jeweled stūpa reaching up to the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven: it does not equal the merit of leaving household life. The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: Although a renunciant may break the precepts, and breaking the precepts leads to falling into offenses, when the offenses are exhausted he attains liberation, as recounted in the Utpalavarṇā Bhikṣuṇī Jātaka. It is like the Buddha delivering the drunken brahmin: through immeasurable ages he had never had the mind to leave household life, but because of drunkenness he gave rise to the mind, and later he would attain the Way; on that account, the Buddha spoke the gāthā on leaving household life. The Jātaka Sūtra states: Because of leaving household life for one day and one night, for twenty kalpas one does not fall into the three evil destinies. The Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya states: Leaving household life and cultivating the brahma-faring for one day and one night frees one from the suffering of the three destinies for six hundred six thousand and sixty years.