摩訶止觀 4.136

4.136

Desire for forms refers to red and white, long and short, bright eyes with charming glances, fair necks and emerald brows, white teeth and vermilion lips; even environmental retribution, such as red, yellow, vermilion, and purple, and various precious treasures, which bewilder and agitate people's minds. It is as explained in the *Chanmen*. The harm of forms is particularly deep, driving people mad and intoxicated; the root of birth and death truly stems from this. For instance, Nanda maintained the precepts out of desire; although he attained arhatship, his lingering habitual tendencies were still numerous—how much more so for those who are fully bound? Kings indulge in dissipation without restraint, disregarding the gravity of ancestral temples and state altars, entering enemy states in person for the sake of sensual pleasure. In this land in previous ages, the ruin of states and the destruction of families mostly arose from desire. The illustrious ancestral Zhou was destroyed by Baosi—this is precisely the case. A sūtra says: "Sentient beings are ravenous for wealth and sex; because of this, they do not attain the path." The *Guanjing* says: "Driven by the proclivity of forms, one becomes a slave to affection, unable to attain independence." If one can know the faults and perils of forms, one will not be deceived by them. Having reproved them in this way, desire for forms will cease, conceptual thinking will not arise, and one enters samādhi with single-mindedness.