梵網經古迹記 2.142

2.142

述曰：經文二意：初放生以救死難，後齋講以資亡靈。皆我父母者，起普親觀。如世尊云：我不能見一切有情，長夜不曾為汝父母故。言「亦殺我故身」者，四大五常無曾不稟，皆是舊我二親之孫，無不與我分受氣故。如俗間有語：丈夫意氣寸心之中，自有風雲烈士交遊，四海之內皆為兄弟。言「一切地水是我先身，一切火風是我本體」者，此於萬物作同體想，大地無曾不捨身處故，火風存為身散即歸本故。常行放生及以方便，除能所殺現當苦也。「死亡之日講戒經」者，良由此戒有二德故：一、能遮惡故不墮三途，二、諸善本故見佛生天。戒中之戒謂菩薩戒，廣度眾生以理本故，是故偏說菩薩戒經。

Commentary: The sūtra text has two intents: first, liberating living beings to rescue them from mortal perils; second, performing vegetarian feasts and lecturing [on the scriptures] to aid departed spirits. 'All are my parents' means generating the contemplation of universal kinship. As the World-Honoured One said: 'I do not see any sentient being who throughout the long night has not been your father or mother.' The statement 'is also killing my former body' means that there are none among the four great elements and five constants that have not been received [by them], and all are descendants of my former two parents; there is none who has not shared in receiving life-breath with me. As the worldly saying goes: 'Within the square inch of a gentleman’s heroic spirit, there naturally stir wind and clouds; when valiant men associate, all within the four seas are brothers.' As for 'all earth and water were my previous bodies; all fire and wind were my fundamental nature', this means conceiving all things as of the same substance [as oneself], because there is no place on the great earth where one has not shed one's body, and when fire and wind remain, they constitute the body, and upon dispersing, they return to the source. Constantly practicing the liberation of living beings and using skillful means eliminates the present and future suffering of both the killer and the killed. As for 'on the day of death, expounding the precept sūtra', this is precisely because this precept has two virtues: first, it can ward off evil so that one does not fall into the three miserable destinies; second, it is the root of all goods so that one sees the Buddhas and is reborn in heaven. The precept among precepts refers to the bodhisattva precepts, which take as their principle and root the vast deliverance of sentient beings; therefore, the bodhisattva precept sūtra is singled out for exposition.