大乘法苑義林章 3.34

3.34

Tenth, distinction by questions and answers: Question: Do the two disciplines of absorption and the path, as mental associates, have the capacity to induce retribution? If they can induce it, being active manifestations, how could they bring about retribution? If one takes the seeds, then they would not be disciplines that conform to the mind. Explanation: They are able to bring about the fruit of retribution. The active manifestation cannot bring it about, but the seeds have the capacity to induce it; because they belong to the same category as absorption and the path, they are also called 'conforming to the mind'. Question: Regarding the ṛṣi's mental resentment, does non-manifest [action] arise or not? If it arises, originally there is no bodily or vocal [action]; how can one say it arises? If it does not arise, how could there be non-manifest [action] that does not arise depending on manifest [action]? Explanation: There are two views. One says: At that time there was also manifest action, because at that time his lips moved, so the ghosts and spirits knew the ṛṣi's thought, and heaven rained down stones. The second says: That is not so. Consider how, among the five heinous deeds, causing a schism in the Saṅgha is the gravest; among the five views, false view is the gravest; and among the actions of the three punishments, mental action is the gravest. If it were as stated previously, then bodily action would be the gravest. It was solely due to the power of the ṛṣi's merit that he caused the various spirits and [ghosts] to destroy his enemies. If it is like this, originally there was no bodily or vocal form; how could it produce non-manifest [action]? Explanation: There was also produced form, namely the celestial form such as the rain of stones. Question: Why is it that before the bhikṣu precepts only the one [stage of] śrāmaṇera is established, whereas before the bhikṣuṇī precepts both the sikṣamāṇā and śrāmaṇerikā are established? Answer: Because women have many afflictions; after receiving the śrāmaṇerikā precepts, they further receive the sikṣamāṇā precepts, training body and mind for two years, dwelling and maintaining them and experiencing joy within them, after which they may receive the five hundred precepts. Question: Why is it that in the śrāmaṇera precepts, abstaining from handling gold and silver is taught separately, while the upavāsa and other precepts do not do likewise? Answer: For one who has gone forth, two situations are utterly impure: first, falling into the pleasure of sensual desire and delighting in play and bodily adornment; second, accumulating much wealth and treasure. To cut off the first impurity, one receives [the precepts of] abstaining from singing, dancing, theatrical entertainment, and eating at improper times. To cut off the second impurity, one receives [the precept of] abstaining from holding gold and silver, because gold and silver are the most supreme root among all treasures. Question: Why is it that in the śrāmaṇera precepts, singing, dancing, making music, and anointing the body with fragrant oils are opened into two, whereas in the upavāsa precepts they are combined into one? Answer: For laypersons this is not an excessively grave fault; for renunciants it severely gives rise to ridicule and blame. To quell ridicule and suspicion, it is divided into two. Question: When one broadly receives the bodhisattva precepts, all precepts are subsumed completely, and the disciplines of absorption and the path are also among them. If a bodhisattva gives rise to a mind of greed, how can they be named 'disciplines that conform to the mind'? Answer: Because the seeds exist in the body, and moreover because they will be realized in the future, it can also be said that universally receiving them is named 'disciplines that conform to the mind'. Question: Take, for example, breaking the precepts during the causal stage: are they later still able to induce the fruit of retribution or not? If one says they can induce it, the precepts have already been broken; how could they induce it? If they cannot induce it, how can it be said that by upholding the precepts one is able to be born in heaven? Answer: It is also said that violating the precepts does not destroy the substance of the seed; it merely damages its function so that it no longer increasingly multiplies its power to prevent wrongdoing; hence it is called 'violating'. It is not that the previous seeds are absent; because their function remains, they can induce retribution. Question: Since there are good and evil disciplines in the mind, do both produce non-manifest [action] or not? Answer: There are two explanations. One says: In the good there is non-manifest [action], because the bodhisattva's arousal of the thought is extremely vast; evil cannot [produce it]. The second says: Evil also has non-manifest [action]; for instance, the ṛṣi's mental resentment killed the sentient beings of three kingdoms, which was the gravest. Question: Since it is said that what is manifest depending on the body is called bodily manifest [action], consider when a phantom person produces bodily manifest action: since there is no real body, how can it be called bodily manifest action? Answer: The manifestation is a provisional body; what contradiction is there in reason? Question: Since disciplines shared with absorption and the like are active manifestations that perish in a single kṣaṇa, are they able to induce [retribution] or not? If they cannot induce it, how can it be said that contaminated disciplines shared with absorption can induce retribution? Answer: Taking the seeds, they are able to induce it. If so, how are they called disciplines conforming to the mind? Answer: Because they are of that category. Question: The Bodhisattvabhūmi says: 'What is received by the seven assemblies is the renunciant discipline of the bodhisattva.' Why is it that when a bodhisattva develops dual sex organs or abandons the assembly-homogeneity, they still do not abandon it like a śrāvaka? Answer: When a bodhisattva receives the precepts, their mind is vast and spacious, exceedingly fierce and sharp; therefore, when dual sex organs develop or at the time of death, they definitely do not abandon them, because they are able to be born by transformation in accordance with types [of beings]. If received separately, they are abandoned; for one who receives them universally, the meaning is not like this. Question: The ṛṣi's mental resentment was merely mental action; why is it said in some places that the ṛṣi moved his lips and body, and this is what was called bodily and vocal manifest action? Answer: This is the meaning according to the Hīnayāna, not the Mahāyāna. In the Mahāyāna, it is purely by virtue of the mind that he caused the ghosts and spirits to rain down stones. This non-manifest form can also be said not to arise from manifest [action]. Question: However, the essence of the ten courses of action is volition; depending on what they produce and what they prevent, they are provisionally named form. Since in the Mahāyāna there is no bodily or vocal [essence], and they are merely produced and prevented by a single volition, they are purely mind. How can it be said that, with respect to those stones raining down in the sky, it is called non-manifest form? Regarding the distinctions in terms of the three realms, nine grounds, six destinies, and four continents: among manifest [actions], mental manifest [action] pervades the three realms; bodily and vocal pervade the form realm. If considered in terms of form produced by absorption and the bodily and vocal manifest form of śrāvakas of vast wisdom, it also pervades the formless [realm]. If based on the fruits of karma and purely ordinary beings, it is distinguished as before. Non-manifest is to be known by analogy with the above. Distinguishing by the nine grounds: mental manifest [action] pervades the nine grounds; vocal manifest [action] is only in the first dhyāna; bodily manifest [action] pervades five grounds. In the case of the Buddha and bodhisattvas, both bodily and vocal manifest actions pervade five grounds; absorption and the path both pervade the volition of the three realms and nine grounds. Regarding the six destinies: the prātimokṣa is only in the human destiny; the bodhisattva precepts pervade the six destinies. Although the five and eight precepts can be pervasive, they do not constitute the nature of discipline. Absorption and the path are only in the human and celestial destinies, because they have leisure. Manifest and non-manifest are to be known by analogy. Prātimokṣa in the four continents: the five and eight are in three continents; the bodhisattva [precepts] pervade the four continents. Manifest and non-manifest are to be known by analogy. Absorption and the path are also in three continents. Question: The nature of absorption and the uncontaminated is able to ward off evil; why not take absorption and uncontaminated wisdom as the essence of manifest and non-manifest? Answer: If one attains a mind of absorption or an uncontaminated mind, both have associated volition; both eliminate evil, and because volition is the essence of karma, it is based solely on volition. Question: Since the various Tathāgatas had already fully possessed the prātimokṣa in their prior causal stages, why is it said that upon becoming Buddhas they naturally obtain the precepts? Answer: There are two explanations. One says: It is spoken in accordance with the conventional pedagogical manifestation; in truth, the Tathāgata's prātimokṣa was already accomplished long ago in the past. The second says: Obtaining the superior and abandoning the inferior; the superior discipline that is accomplished does not derive from a master or others, so it is said to be naturally obtained, which also does not contradict reason. Question: If one receives and obtains precepts with a mind of applied good, and later severs the roots of good, at what time are they abandoned? Answer: One explanation says: They are abandoned simultaneously with applied good; that obtaining and abandoning correspond as opposites does not contradict reason. The second says: Although applied good is severed due to false view, at that time it merely causes the precepts to become gradually weak and feeble, which is not yet called abandoning; they are abandoned simultaneously with innately acquired good, for only following the exhaustion of the roots of good is it called abandoning. The former explanation should be considered superior.