天台菩薩戒疏 1.8

1.8

First, opening to awakening: Now, the virtue of the precepts is difficult to measure; their merit is exalted above all phenomena, serving as the guide and raft for the nine vehicles, and operating as the ship and ferry for the Three Jewels. Therefore, a sūtra says: 'All sentient beings exist by relying on the precepts.' Hence the Satyaka Sūtra says: 'If one does not uphold the precepts, one cannot even obtain the body of a jackal, let alone a body of merit.' Furthermore, the Avataṃsaka says: 'The precepts are the foundation of unsurpassable bodhi; one must fully uphold the prohibitive precepts.' The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: 'If one upholds this sūtra but does not uphold the precepts, he is called a member of Māra's retinue, not my disciple, and I do not permit him to receive and uphold this sūtra.' The Samādhirāja Sūtra also says: 'Though one possesses bodily beauty, high birth, and extensive learning, if one lacks the wisdom of the precepts, one is still like a beast; though one dwells in lowliness with little hearing or seeing, if one can uphold pure precepts, one is called a superior person.' / Moreover, the precepts have many paths: five, eight, ten, and the complete [precepts]. When strictly discussing merit and recompense, they follow the receiver's mind. Now, the recompense of the bodhisattva precepts is the perfect Buddha fruit, with boundless marks and signs, the three knowledges, the five eyes, the ten powers, and the fearlessnesses—all meritorious virtues. Having already generated the great mind, one receives the bodhisattva precepts with the highest grade of mind. The bodhisattva precepts are the vinaya of the perfect bodhisattva vehicle of the fifty-one stages. Therefore, the sūtra says: whether in the borderlands or the central realms, whether human or non-human, as long as they understand the Dharma master's speech, all may receive them. Every person must have right faith and generate a mind of sincere resolve: all Buddhas have completely realized and perfected the four virtues, dwell in the Light of Eternal Quiescence, and from the ground of the dharmakāya give rise to unconditioned compassion, equally regarding the multitude of living beings like infant children. We, ignorant and benighted, live day by day without knowing; cycling in the three realms, sinking in the four modes of birth, only the perfect wondrous enlightenment completely exhausts ignorance. Therefore, generating the perfect mind and aspiring to perfect practice, knowing the cause and feeling the fruit, startling normal worldly habits into wakefulness—this is called opening to awakening.