起信論疏筆削記 9.36

9.36

Second, the marks contemplated. Commentary: From "Before entering..." onward, it temporarily clarifies the mark of cessation that is awakened to. Before entering the stage of faith, when confused and deluded, the deeds one performs follow evil alone. The body has three kinds: killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. The mouth has four evils: false speech, frivolous speech, harsh speech, and duplicitous speech. Not understanding that this karma definitively incurs bitter retributions, out of not knowing, one blazes with action; this is the time when one does not recognize cause and effect and knows nothing of sin and blessing. From "Now, entering..." onward, it clarifies the function of that which is capable of enlightenment: believing in the karmic conditions of good and evil and that the retributions received as fair or foul are like echoes to sounds and shadows to forms, without the slightest error. "Awakening to the mark of cessation" means only then knowing the faults and perils of this mark to be like this. The text of the treatise only speaks of "awakening to and knowing the arising of evil," without the words "mark of cessation"; hence the commentary correlates them.