菩薩戒本疏 2.24

2.24

If there is an exposition and one does not listen, one loses the path of advancing in good qualities; hence it was prohibited. The similarities and differences of the śikṣāpada are as before. Among the twenty-eight minor precepts, the eighth precept states: 'If an upāsaka has a place where the Dharma is expounded within forty li and is unable to go listen, he commits an offense of failing mindfulness.' In the text, 'expounding the Dharma and vinaya, sūtras and precepts' means: that which explains the Dharma is called sūtra, and that which explains the vinaya is called precepts; the rest of the text is easy to understand. Among the forty-four [precepts], the thirty-second precept states: 'If bodhisattvas hear the true Dharma being spoken, its arguments debated and determined, and, governed by arrogance, harboring resentment or malice in their minds, do not go to listen, this is called having an offense, having a transgression, and is a defiled transgression. If afflicted by laziness and indolence they do not go to listen, it is an undefiled transgression. There is no transgression: if one is unaware; if one has an illness; if one has no physical strength; if one knows [the teacher] expounds erroneously; if it is to protect the mind of that expounder of the Dharma; if one correctly understands the meaning expounded by him, having heard, retained, and comprehended it many times; if one has already heard much, is fully equipped with retention of what has been heard, and one's learning is amassed; if one wishes to be without hearing, fixing the mind on an object; if one strives to arouse the superior samādhi of a bodhisattva; if one knows oneself to be of the highest grade of dullness and stupidity, one's wisdom being sluggish and turbid, so that regarding the Dharma heard it is difficult to receive and retain, and difficult to gather the mind onto an object of focus to attain samādhi—if such a person does not go to listen, none commits a transgression.'