勸發菩提心集 2.28

2.28

Next, instruct them to repent of the ten grave unwholesome karmas. Having repented of their faults, immediately confer the ten inexhaustible precepts upon them, saying: 'Listen well, all of you! Disciples of the Buddha, from this body until the Buddha body, exhausting the bounds of the future, in the interim you must not intentionally kill living beings. If there are any who transgress, this is not the bodhisattva practice. You will forfeit the qualities of the forty-two virtuous and noble stages; you must not transgress. Are you able to uphold it?' (The receiver responds, saying, 'I can.') 'Second, you must not intentionally steal; third, you must not intentionally engage in sexual misconduct; fourth, you must not intentionally tell lies; fifth, you must not sell liquor; sixth, you must not intentionally speak of the sins and faults of lay or ordained bodhisattvas; seventh, you must not intentionally be stingy; eighth, you must not intentionally give rise to anger; ninth, you must not intentionally praise yourself and disparage others; tenth, you must not intentionally slander the storehouse of the Triratna.' (All should be recited in a corresponding manner.) Next, say: 'Disciples of the Buddha, having received the ten inexhaustible precepts, the receiver will always transcend the four māras and cross over the suffering of the three realms. From birth to death he does not lose these precepts; they constantly accompany the practitioner until the attainment of Buddhahood. Disciples of the Buddha, if any sentient beings of the past, future, or present do not receive these bodhisattva precepts, they are not called those possessing consciousness; they are no different from beasts and are not called humans; they are perpetually separated from the ocean of the Triratna and are not bodhisattvas and the like. The bodhisattva has the Dharma of receiving them, but not the Dharma of renouncing them; even if there is a transgression, they are not lost.' To the end of future time, if there is a person who comes wishing to receive the precepts, the bodhisattva Dharma master first explains and recites them for him, causing that person's mind to open and understand and to give rise to a delightful attachment, and only thereafter confers them upon him. Furthermore, if a Dharma master in any land can transform a single person to go forth and receive the bodhisattva precepts, that Dharma master's merit surpasses the building of eighty-four thousand stupas, how much more so two, three, or even hundreds and thousands—his merit is unreckonable. As for the master, husbands and wives and the six kinds of relatives may serve as masters and confer them on one another. The person who receives the precepts enters the rank of bodhisattvas in the realm of all buddhas, transcending the sins of saṃsāra of three kalpas. Therefore, one ought to receive them. The receiving has ten parts: one may receive just one, up to the complete ten. Moreover, regarding these bodhisattva ten grave and eighty thousand deportment precepts, for the ten grave ones, if transgressed there is no repentance, but one may be made to receive the precepts again. The eighty thousand deportment precepts are all termed minor; if transgressed, one may be made to repent of the fault, and repenting face-to-face extinguishes them. All bodhisattva precepts, whether ordinary or noble, have the mind as their essence; therefore, when the mind is exhausted the precepts are also exhausted, and because the mind is inexhaustible the precepts are also inexhaustible. Sentient beings of the six destinies are all able to receive them.