止觀輔行傳弘決 4.35

4.35

Regarding the fourth, "Harmonizing the Five Matters": the meaning of the passage is the same as before. The textual structure again has two parts: namely, unpacking and combining. From "As for harmonizing food..." onward, it directly explains [them], likewise first in terms of concrete practice and next in terms of principle. Sleep and food are each harmonized individually, while the remaining three are combined into a single harmonization. Under the first, "Harmonizing Food," "food that does not put the body at ease" is as explained in fascicle eight. As for "the Nirgrantha Sūtra," in that sūtra the Nirgrantha answered King Yan-chi: "King Prasenajit eats excessively, so his body is heavy and indolent. In both the present and future he loses benefit to his body; he suffers pain himself from slumber, and also vexes others. Confused and dull, he is difficult to awaken; one ought to measure food according to the proper time." As for "lazy and indolent" and the like: yu (pronounced *yu-ru*), Guo's commentary on the *Erya* states: "Toil with much negligence is called *yu*; it also means laziness. Just as when a person is lazy and therefore cannot rouse himself, like a melon or gourd in a burrow, hence the character is written with two melons beneath a burrow." It also states: "Habitual laziness is called *yu*." The *Bowuzhi* states: "Huangfu Mi asked the master of the green ox about methods for nourishing life, who said: 'Man should desire frequent toil, and food should always be sparse. Let toil not reach the extreme, and let sparseness not reach deficiency; eliminate greasiness, and moderate salt and sourness.'" If worldly methods for nourishing life still require one to toil oneself, how could one who aspires to the Way overeat and be indolent? Not only would he lose benefit, but he would also increase illness and damage his life. As for "Sleep is the food of the eyes" and the like: the *Ekottarika-āgama* states: "The Buddha was in Anāthapiṇḍada's park expounding the Dharma for many people. Aniruddha fell asleep therein. The Buddha uttered a verse, saying: 'Alas, alas, why do you sleep? / A creature of snails and clams!' The Buddha asked, 'Did you go forth into homelessness out of fear of the king's law, or out of fear of thieves and robbers?' He answered, 'No. Weary of birth, old age, sickness, and death, I sought to go forth.' [The Buddha asked,] 'Having gone forth with firm faith, why does your eye sleep while the Buddha himself expounds the Dharma?' Aniruddha rose from his seat and said to the Buddha: 'From this day forth, though my flesh dissolves and my body rots, I will never sleep before the Buddha.' Because of this, he remained awake until dawn without sleeping, and subsequently lost the faculty of his eyes. The Buddha said: 'Applying oneself with excessive vigor is associated with agitation; indolence and laziness are associated with fetters. You should practice the Middle Way.' Aniruddha said: 'I have already made a vow before the Buddha; I cannot violate my former covenant.' The Buddha ordered Jīvaka to treat him. Jīvaka said: 'If he had gone without sleep for only a little while, he could be cured by treatment; this cannot be cured.' The Buddha told Aniruddha: 'You ought to sleep and rest. Why? All things exist on account of food: the eye has sleep as its food, ... and up to the mind has phenomena as its food, while nirvāṇa has non-negligence as its food. By non-negligence I attained nirvāṇa.' Aniruddha said: 'I dare not disobey.' Later, by this means he attained the divine eye." Sleep is a retributive dharma of the desire realm; since one has not yet attained dhyāna, one can only moderate it. If one lacks dhyāna and yet does not sleep, one must be a ghost. As cited below in fascicle eight, the king was of the race of ghosts and therefore did not sleep. In the initial passage concerning "Harmonizing the Three Matters Together," this provides the reason for harmonizing them together. For what reason must the three matters be harmonized together? Because from beginning to end, the three matters are joined together. As for "changing every seven days": as in the *Sūtra of Ānanda's Inquiries*, the Buddha expounded at length for Nanda the dissimilarities of the six destinies in their embryonic forms, concurrently distinguishing the marks of the intermediate existence and so forth among the six destinies, up to the marks of whether conception occurs or not depending on the mutual presence or absence of the father's semen and mother's blood, and the marks of whether the semen and blood are clean or unclean, as well as the diverse marks of the initial entry, which is like wind and rain entering a house. For those who die in the mother's womb, one smears a hand with clarified butter and elm-bark juice, holds a thin knife, inserts the hand, and cuts the corpse of the child into pieces, extracting it piece by piece. Furthermore, through various afflictions of the mother's womb, one does not enter the womb. If after entry it does not deteriorate, it changes every seven days: In the first seven days, it is called *kalala*, like thin curds. In the second seven days, it is called *arbuda*, like thick curds. In the third seven days, it is called *peśī*, like a small medicinal pestle. In the fourth seven days, it is called *ghana*, like a warm stone. In the fifth seven days, it is called *praśākhā*, with five swellings opening out. In the sixth seven days, the appearance of the knees emerges. In the seventh seven days, the appearance of the hands and feet emerges. In the eighth seven days, the appearance of the fingers and toes. In the ninth seven days, the appearance of the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and the passages for urine and feces. In the tenth seven days, it becomes firm and solid; there is a gate of wind that blows into the fetus like a sack. In the eleventh seven days, the seven apertures open through, and the mother's nature departs from the ordinary. In the twelfth seven days, the large and small intestines are produced like threads, with three limbs and joints and one hundred apertures. In the thirteenth seven days, thoughts of hunger and thirst arise, and the mother's food provides nourishment. In the fourteenth seven days, nine channels are produced, intertwining and wrapping around. In the fifteenth seven days, twenty channels are produced, ten on each side; furthermore, there are forty channels, with eighty thousand names for the channels. In the sixteenth seven days, the breaths circulate. In the seventeenth seven days, the eyes obtain light. In the eighteenth seven days, the various sense faculties become clear. In the nineteenth seven days, the various sense faculties are complete. In the twentieth seven days, the various bones are produced. In the twenty-first seven days, the flesh is produced. In the twenty-second seven days, the blood is produced. In the twenty-third seven days, the skin is produced. In the twenty-fourth seven days, the outer skin is produced. In the twenty-fifth seven days, the flesh and blood grow. In the twenty-sixth seven days, the hair is produced. In the twenty-seventh seven days, due to the power of karma, handsome and ugly features are differentiated: a male sits on the mother's left, a female on the mother's right; a male faces inward, a female faces outward, both covering their faces with their hands and sitting in a crouch. In the twenty-eighth seven days, eight kinds of concepts arise, namely of couch, garden, forest, and so forth. In the twenty-ninth seven days, radiance and moisture are produced, with five colors distinct from one another. In the thirtieth seven days, the hair and nails grow. From the thirty-first to thirty-fifth seven days, human characteristics are perfected. In the thirty-sixth seven days, weariness arises, and the mind is unhappy. In the thirty-seventh seven days, thoughts of an unclean prison arise. In the thirty-eighth seven days, turned by the force of wind, the head faces the birth canal, and it extends both arms to emerge from the birth canal. In each seven-day period, there is a respective wind that blows to cause transformations; each wind has a name, fully detailed as in that sūtra. After birth, eighty thousand families of worms are born from the body, feeding freely in every direction; in the five hundred joints on the left and right, each has a certain number of worm families; through growth and aging, one always lives together with worms. Thus, the thirty-eight seven-day periods, calculated by days, total two hundred and sixty-six, which calculates to nine months. The reason it is four days short is because of half [months] being short. Question: Secular teachings and sūtras both speak of ten months; why are there only nine here? Answer: Nine is precisely ten. Why? Because it traverses ten months. If conception occurs on the first day of a month, then it is definitely only nine months. From the second day onward, when the count of days is full, it extends into the tenth. Although this is the general count, Rāhula remained for six years, and Venerable Pārśva for sixty; there are also those with fewer, even down to five months. Although there are differences in increase and decrease, nevertheless the three matters are certainly present. Question: Given that life-span, warmth, and consciousness are different from body, breath, and mind, on what meaning is this based? Answer: Warmth is precisely the body; because of warmth, the semen and blood do not decay, so it is called warmth in terms of its function. Life-span is the wind-breath; when first taking lodging in the womb, there is a hair's breadth of breath, but when the sense faculties are not yet complete, it follows the mother's breath; when the faculties are complete and the breath separates, it is called the child's breath. Because breath exists, it continuously sustains this body; spoken in terms of being able to sustain, breath is called life-span. Consciousness is precisely mind, spoken in terms of its actual essence. Since the initial consciousness is neither prior nor subsequent to the two—life-span and warmth—one should know that the three of body, breath, and mind have never been separated from one another; therefore, one must harmonize the three matters together. If one can moderate them and rely on them to enter the Way, this is to rely on a corpse to reach the other shore; all wholesome dharmas are produced from this, even to the completion of the secret treasury of the three virtues. Therefore it is said: 'If one can harmonize the three matters of an ordinary person, one completes the three dharmas of a sage'—this is precisely the meaning.