勸發菩提心集 2.9

2.9

Question: “If others do not aggress against me, the mind of killing can be quelled; but if one is harmed or aggressed against, what should be done?” Answer: “One should weigh the grave and the light. If someone is about to kill oneself, one first reflects: ‘Is the benefit of preserving the precepts weightier, or is the benefit of preserving the body weightier? Is breaking the precepts the greater loss, or is losing the body the greater loss?’ Having reflected in this manner, one knows that keeping the precepts is weighty and preserving the body is light. If one merely seeks to evade death and preserve the body, what does the body attain? This body is called a lair of old age and death, and will certainly decay and collapse. If one loses the body for the sake of keeping the precepts, the benefit is exceedingly weighty. Furthermore, one reflects: ‘Countless times from beginning to end, throughout life after life, I have lost my body merely for wealth, profit, and various unwholesome deeds. Only now have I obtained the chance to keep the pure precepts. Therefore, not begrudging this body and giving up life to keep the precepts surpasses relinquishing the precepts to preserve the body by a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, or million times—it cannot be matched by any comparison.’ With the mind thus resolved, one should relinquish the body to protect the pure precepts. This is just like a certain srotāpanna who was born into a family of butchers. When he was approaching adulthood, he was expected to practice the family trade, but he would not turn to killing. His parents gave him a knife along with a single sheep, locked him inside a room, and said to him: ‘If you do not kill the sheep, we will not let you out to see the sun and moon or to have food and drink to live on.’ The son reflected to himself, saying: ‘If I kill this one sheep, I will end up pursuing this trade for life. How could I commit such a great sin for the sake of the body?’ Thereupon he killed himself with the knife. When the parents opened the door and looked, the sheep was standing to one side, and their son had already passed away. At the very moment he killed himself, he was reborn in heaven. Such a case as this is not begrudging one's lifespan in order to protect the pure precepts.”