佛制比丘六物圖 1.21

1.21

Next, selecting out what is not in accordance with the Dharma. Now the substance of the robe must be sought to be thick and dense, free from all ornamentation and finery. The Vinaya states: "If it is fine and thin, loosely woven (neither banana-fiber cloth nor raw ramie may be used), damask, silk gauze, brocade, patterned silk, light silk gauze, thin pongee, or raw silk, all are invalid materials." Nowadays many do not believe the Buddha's words and greedily wear these kinds of robes. The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: "The Tathāgata wore a saṅghāṭī of coarse cloth." In this land, the community on Mount Nanyue and eminent monks of high virtue from ancient times used cotton patched robes and mugwort padding, not mingling a single strand of silk; Zhiyi of Tiantai wore only a single patched robe; Daoxuan of Nanshan did not combine silk and floss; Zhanran of Jingxi wore coarse cloth; and Xuanjue of Yongjia wore nothing from a silkworm's mouth. Are these not the depths of compassion and pity, truly worthy of esteem! Nowadays people are lax and indolent, and moreover ignorant; contrary [to the rules], they use the robe properly prescribed by the Tathāgata as mourning attire. Furthermore, monks have no system of mourning clothes; how can they arbitrarily practice this? The Shishi yaolan and the Fujiao xiaolun follow one another in erroneous claims; be careful not to rely on them! Recently I saw people using white cloth as head fillets for mourning; this is yet another strange thing. Signs of the decline of the Dharma have gradually multiplied over generations. Those of discernment should reform this, so that the Dharma may remain a little longer.