四分律比丘含注戒本 1.10

1.10

I bow my head in worship to the Buddhas,
and to the Dharma and the community of bhikṣus.
Now I expound the Vinaya Dharma,
so that the True Dharma may long abide.
The precepts are like the boundless sea,
like gems sought without satiety.
Desiring to protect the treasure of the noble Dharma,
let the assembly gather and listen to what I speak.
Desiring to eradicate the four pārājika dharmas,
and to extinguish the saṃghāvaśeṣa dharmas,
and obstruct the thirty niḥsargika-prāyaścittikas,
let the assembly gather and listen to what I speak.
Vipaśyin, Śikhin,
Viśvabhū, Krakucchanda,
Kanakamuni,
Kāśyapa, and Śākyamuni—
these Bhagavats, the Great Virtuous Ones,
spoke these matters for my sake;
now I wish to speak them well,
may all you worthy ones listen together.
Just as a person with injured feet
is unable to walk anywhere,
so it is with breaking the precepts:
one cannot be born among devas or humans.
If one wishes to be born in the heavens,
or if one is to be born among humans,
one should constantly guard the feet of precepts,
never allowing them to be damaged.
Like a charioteer entering a perilous road
who worries about losing the linchpin and breaking the axle,
so it is with breaking the precepts:
at the time of death one harbors terror.
Like a person looking in a mirror
who feels joy or sorrow at beauty and ugliness,
so it is when the precepts are spoken:
intactness or violation gives rise to worry or joy.
Like two battle-lines clashing,
where the brave and the cowardly advance or retreat,
so it is when the precepts are spoken:
purity or defilement gives rise to ease or fear.
In the world the king is foremost;
among all streams the ocean is foremost;
among all stars the moon is foremost;
among all sages the Buddha is foremost;
among all the Vinayas,
the Prātimokṣa Sūtra is the highest and foremost.
The Tathāgata established the prohibitive precepts,
to be spoken half-month by half-month.