法界次第初門 3.15

3.15

Fourth, vīrya-pāramitā. Vīrya is in Qin language "diligence" (vīrya). Desiring, delighting in, and zealously practicing wholesome dharmas without self-indulgence or heedlessness is called diligence. There are two kinds of diligence: first, physical diligence; second, mental diligence. If the body zealously cultivates wholesome dharmas—walking the path, prostrating, reciting, lecturing, encouraging and assisting, transforming and guiding—this is physical diligence. If the mind zealously practices the wholesome path, with thought succeeding thought, this is mental diligence. Furthermore, zealously cultivating the wholesome dharmas of giving and precepts is physical diligence; zealously cultivating patience, meditative absorption, and wisdom is mental diligence. Such various distinctions between the marks of physical and mental diligence are different; they will not be fully expounded now. When a bodhisattva cultivates these two kinds of diligence with an upright, straightforward, and pure mind, it is therefore called vīrya. As for pāramitā, the translated name is as before. If a bodhisattva can fully cultivate five kinds of mental states in diligence, at that time vīrya is called pāramitā. What are the five? First, the bodhisattva knows that in the true characteristic of diligence, body and mind are ungraspable, yet is able zealously to cultivate all wholesome dharmas. The remaining four mental states are categorized as distinguished within dāna. If a bodhisattva can fully possess these five mental states within diligence, then in whatever wholesome dharmas they zealously cultivate, speaking of the fruit within the cause, they all possess the three meanings. Therefore, the bodhisattva's diligence is called practicing vīrya-pāramitā. Only when reaching the fruit of Buddhahood of unsurpassed bodhi is vīrya-pāramitā fully consummated.