釋禪波羅蜜次第法門 9.39

9.39

答曰：是比丘自布施、持戒，怖畏即除。所以者何？若彼破戒，畏墮地獄；若慳貪，畏墮餓鬼及貧窮中，自念：「我有是淨戒、布施，則歡喜。上諸天皆是布施、持戒果報，我亦有是福德。」是故念天亦能令怖畏不生。十六行中，念阿那波那時，細心覺尚滅，何況怖畏麁覺？念死者，念五陰身念念生滅，從生已來，恒與死俱，今何以畏死？是五念，佛雖不別說，當知是為深除怖畏。所以者何？念他功德以除恐怖則難，念自功德以除怖畏則易。以是義故，不別說。

Answer: When this monk himself gives and upholds the precepts, fear is immediately removed. Why is this? If he broke the precepts, he would fear falling into hell; if he were stingy and greedy, he would fear falling into hungry ghosts or poverty. He reflects to himself: 'I have these pure precepts and giving, so I rejoice. The various deities above all attain their retributive fruit through giving and upholding the precepts, and I also possess this merit.' Therefore, recollecting the deities can also prevent fear from arising. In the sixteen practices, when recollecting ānāpāna, subtle mental vitarka is still extinguished, so how much more so coarse thoughts of fear? As for recollecting death, one recollects that this body of five aggregates arises and ceases moment by moment; since birth, it has always been together with death—why fear death now? Although the Buddha did not separately explain these five recollections [in that passage], know that they are for deeply removing fear. Why is this? Removing fear by recollecting the merits of others is difficult, but removing fear by recollecting one's own merits is easy. For this reason, they were not separately mentioned.