四分律行事鈔資持記 2.9

2.9

In the fourth [part], establishing the sections, first the basis of karma and retribution is recounted. Karma is the cause, referring to the two completed violations; retribution is the fruit, referring to the number of kalpas spent falling into hell. Cause and fruit are both mind, a statement common to both the Great and Small [Vehicles]; one must determine the shallow and the deep by relying on the limits of the teaching. 'Certainly...' and what follows sets forth the intention of the composition. The first two lines indicate the text. Looking forward to the chapter 'Explaining the Marks', it is therefore said, 'First layout cause and fruit'; that is, in the subsequent section on 'Violations and Retribution', first distinguishing the arising of karma is clarifying the cause, and subsequently quoting the texts clarifies the fruit. The names of the marks are the names and meanings of the six clusters, corresponding to the subsequent two headings; the order of the text's exposition is not strictly sequential, following the convenience of expression, with truly no other intent. 'Causing...' and what follows reveals the intent. The words 'disciples of the Buddha' refer broadly to those who uphold the Dharma in the final age; praising them in terms of the Great [Vehicle] deeply accords with the sect's intention. 'Observing the fruit' means beholding the painful retribution of long kalpas; 'knowing the cause' means examining the karmic wrong of a brief moment. Knowing it through the teaching, once known, there must be fear. Furthermore, the mind arises by conditioning objects, and the fruit comes to fruition from the cause. Commission and reception mutually reinforce one another, sinking into transmigration for long kalpas; when causes and conditions converge, they do not differ in the least, just like form and its shadow. As for being scorched by fire and boiled in scalding water, the pain cannot be endured; in the frost and freezing ice, the cries cannot bear to be heard; ten thousand pains assault the heart, like a mass of molten iron; reflecting back on past karma, though one repents, how can it be undone! How much more so when wearing horns and bearing fur, flying in the sky and diving into water, one's life and breath tied to butchers and hunters, flesh and blood abandoned in kitchens! Or with torch-like mouths and needle-thin throats, hunger and emptiness piercing the body, eating foul pus and dirty excrement merely to survive! Below, the recounting of Niraya discusses only the general retribution; the miscellaneous types of the three evil destinies, how could they ever be exhausted as they follow karma? Truly! Calamity and fortune have no fixed doors; rising and sinking depend on oneself. How much more so when the Buddha's sūtras extensively indicate this, and the patriarchs' instructions repeatedly display it, yet with evil accumulated over time, there is almost no faithful adherence! Alas! Sentient beings are foolish and blind; life and death are vast and distant. Skillful means have many gates—who is there that awakens once? How can one, beneath the kāṣāya, not cherish the human body! How can one, within the good field of merit, personally sow thorns and briars? Moreover, those of middling capacity can be spoken to about what is higher, and the wise must think thrice before speaking; seeing evil should be just like dipping into boiling water, and encountering good should always be as if one could not reach it; only then can one be named a disciple of the Buddha, scarcely answering to [the name of] a śramaṇa; observing the fruit and knowing the cause, he has found the right person! Although the words are verbose, how could the intention ever be exhausted?