四分律行事鈔資持記 3.905

3.905

In the third [section]: In the Mahīśāsaka-vinaya, "assignment of duties" refers to the monastery administrator appointing monks and assembly for Dharma or meals; it is not limited to these two alone, hence it says "and so forth." In the Dharmaguptaka-vinaya, "studying and reciting" refers to reciting external books and secular classics. "Worldly discussions" refers to arts, mathematics, and secular conversations. "Miscellaneous dharmas" refers to the "Miscellaneous Khandhaka" (Saṃyuktakkhandhaka). In the Daśādhyāya-vinaya, "literary eulogies" refers to the songs and poems of today. The phrase "to be feared" is because the Dharma is on the verge of extinction. Because calligraphy, mathematics, divination techniques, secular classics, and literary eulogies are all worldly dharmas and not the vocation of one who has left household life, they are only occasionally permitted on account of particular causes and conditions. Nowadays, Śākya disciples have lost both name and reality: if they can write, they call themselves "sage of cursive script"; if they are versed in secular texts, they style themselves masters of composition; if they choose sites, they call it geomancy; if they practice divination, they call it the "three destinies." How can they imagine having abandoned home to serve the Buddha, only to follow the fame of the secular current, originally aspiring to turn away from the world and transcend it, yet on the contrary practicing the karmic deeds of birth and death? Thus the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: Studying external texts is like cutting mud with a knife; the mud achieves nothing, and the knife itself is damaged. It is also like gazing at the sun's light, which makes a person's eyes go blind. However, eminent monks of the past also pursued varied studies: some were skilled in cursive and clerical scripts, some excelled in literary compositions, some were renowned for medical arts, and some were famed for yin-yang [divination]; yet all of them thoroughly mastered their fundamental vocation and merely touched upon other disciplines as side pursuits. None of them had any aim other than protecting and upholding [the Dharma], assisting in the propagation of the Buddha's transformation. Hence the Bodhisattvabhūmi-śāstra (*Śīlavyākaraṇa-sūtra*) says: If it is to debate doctrines to destroy heterodox views, or if two parts are sūtras and one part external texts, it is not an offense; the Dharmaguptaka-vinaya's allowance of recitation is entirely of this intent. Nowadays, some fish for fame and court profit, attach themselves to power, and boast of their abilities; their bodies mingle among square-robed [monks], but their minds are stained by frivolous secularity; wasting their whole lives in vain, it is truly lamentable! In the Mātṛkā, "a single phrase or a single verse" broadly refers to the doctrinal expressions of the Tripiṭaka. Even though it is the noble teaching, it instructs one to observe the time for applying or setting it aside, and one must not be obstinately rigid; thus it says, "if one should practice it, then practice it," and so forth. "Subsequent bhikṣus" refers to the transmission-ancestors after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa; whenever they have verbal instructions, one must also follow what is appropriate, hence it says "it is also like this."