四分律行事鈔資持記 2.734

2.734

In the third section: The previous Vinaya prohibitions were based only on silkworm households; the great teaching came around and does not permit enjoying them. Thus one knows that the śrāvaka practice is inferior, merely adopting separation from wrongdoing; the bodhisattva's compassion is profound, tracing far back to its origin. Although one is free from the slaughtering hand, none of it is not from slaughter; stepping on it with one's feet or wearing it on one's body, all share in the karmic share. This is not something a great being can endure; how could it be suitable for a bhikṣu? Please examine the sūtra passages and foster a little faith; the advantages and disadvantages are narrated at length, fully provided in the *Zhangfu yi* (Rites of Garments). The sūtra text first clarifies that the one capable of giving is in accord with the Dharma. "Being free from the slaughtering hand" is because they are not a silkworm household. From "Not" below, it clarifies whether what is given is acceptable. First, not receiving accords with the Dharma, because both the great and the small [vehicles] are complied with. Receiving is not compassionate, because it violates the great and complies with the small. The small emerges from the great; although it complies with respect to the prohibition, it goes against it in terms of principle. Thus one knows that maintaining precepts and practicing compassion only then tally with the sage's intent; indulging desire in use completely goes against the decorum of the Way. Thus the *Zhangfu yi* states: "For now, words of 'not compassionate' are ultimately words of 'permanent severance'"; to argue based on this quite clearly demonstrates its profundity and urgency. Next, the *Nirvāṇa-sūtra* is cited. This is the ultimate entrustment, the definitive correct teaching; since the clear text prohibits and severs it, how could one hesitate? From "Now" below, present matters are raised. This refers to the Tang dynasty. In the *Biographies of Eminent Monks*, it narrates that the two masters of Nanyue, Daowen and Xiubai, did not wear floss or silk, both wearing mugwort wadding. Thus the Patriarchal Master said: "The Buddha-Dharma flowed east for almost six hundred years; only at this Hengyue can compassionate practice be taken as refuge!" Modern practitioners of Chan and lecturing call themselves Mahāyāna and are not bound by external marks; brocades and damasks contend in beauty, purples and blues compete in brightness; indulging greedy desires, they contradict and violate the holy teaching. Have you not heard that Hengyue merely wore mugwort wadding to ward off wind and frost; Tiantai for over forty years covered himself with only one patch-robe; Yongjia ate without tilling the soil and wore without silkworms' mouths; and Jingxi wore coarse cloth and dwelt on a single bed? Truly because of profound understanding of the Mahāyāna, they only then exclusively exalted ascetic practices. Please observe the ancestral virtue and do not be tainted by perverse winds; then, receiving the teachings and cultivating the person, one is a true son of the Buddha!