樂邦文類 2.172

2.172

The God of the Eastern Sea wandered on land, ascended the slope of Mengzhu, and found two gourds there. He scooped them out, shook out their seeds to play with them, and filled them with sea water mixed with dung, soil, pinworms, and roundworms, so that the stench was unbearable. He plugged them with dense stones, picked them up, and cast them into the sea. After some time, he passed by them and said, "Is this discarded dung still here?" One of them called out loudly and said, "I am the great sea!" The God of the Eastern Sea laughed heartily and said, "Strange indeed! Now, as for the great sea, in its east there is no east, in its west there is no west, in its north there is no north, and in its south there is no south. At dawn it bathes the sun and brings it forth; at night it surges with the ranked stars, encompasses the moon, and raises the light of phosphoric fires, jewels, and treasures to serve as its radiance. It does not harbor the mingled dust and haze, but must deposit them on the western shore. Therefore, in its greatness, depth, purity, and brightness, none compares to me. Now you are but an abandoned drop of the sea, yet you share a body with dung and soil, dwell in the company of stench and rot, and abide with pinworms and roundworms. Your narrowness is only a few inches, and you are as pitch-dark as this; yet you equate yourself with the sea—is this not shameful and pitiable? Do you desire [to be otherwise]? I will pry out the stone and break the gourd for you, wash away the impurities on an island of the great wilderness, and make you identical to what I described earlier; would that be acceptable?" The dung water, cold and displeased, said, "I am inherently identical [with it]. What further should I seek from you? My nature is just like this and nothing more. What is defiled is defiled of itself; it is not enough to harm my purity. What is narrow is narrow of itself; it is not enough to harm my vastness. What is murky is murky of itself; it is not enough to harm my brightness. Defilement too is the sea; narrowness and murkiness are also the sea. Suddenly departing, casually arriving—what is not the sea? Begone, and do not disturb me!" The other one, hearing the words of the Sea God, cried out and pleaded, "I have suffered bitterly from this for a long time. I assumed that this was just naturally so and could not be otherwise. Now that you have told me of the vastness of the sea and also regarded me as abandoned dung of the old sea, I am all the more anxious. Churning my foam is not enough to open the plug; swirling my waves is not enough to hollow out the belly of the gourd. Even if I could accomplish it, it would exhaust months and years. May you take pity and have mercy on me!" The God of the Eastern Sea then pried out the stone and broke the gourd, cast it onto the land of Mengzhu, washed away its impurities on an island of the great wilderness, and the water returned to the sea, fully attaining all that was described earlier. Yet the previous one remained in company with stench and rot to the end, unchanging. Now there are two persons who cultivate buddhahood. Both emerged from the ocean of Vairocana, yet they dwell in the dung of the five turbidities, are enclosed in the gourd of the three realms of existence, are plugged by the stone of avidyā, and are intermingled with the pinworms and roundworms of the twelve classes of living beings. Someone questioned them, and one of them said, "I am a buddha. In Vairocana, the five turbidities, the three realms of existence, avidyā, and the twelve classes are all empty; completely without good and without evil, without cause and without effect, without cultivation and without realization, without buddhas and without sentient beings—all are nonexistent. What should I seek?" The questioner said, "What you speak of is the nature; yet there are phenomena. Nature and phenomena are one yet two, two yet one. If you cling to the one and fix upon it, then great calamity will arrive." That person said, "Begone, and do not disturb me!" The other one said, "Alas! I have suffered bitterly from this for a long time. I exhaust my strength, yet it is not enough to eliminate avidyā; I exhaust my wisdom, yet it is not enough to transcend the three realms of existence, part from the five turbidities, and differ from those twelve classes. Even if I could accomplish it, the multitude of major and minor kalpas required is beyond knowing. What can be done?" The questioner then expounded the affairs of the Western Direction to him, causing him to cultivate the buddha-mindfulness samādhi and unify the explanations of emptiness and existence. Thereupon the sage pitied him, received him, and brought him to the realm of Ultimate Bliss, where he was able to eliminate all evils, amass the ten thousand practices, dwell in the stage of the sagely, and share the vision and knowledge of the buddhas. The former one, however, remained to the end identical with the twelve classes, unchanging. Is not the disparity between these two persons just like that of the water in the two gourds? Today, not knowing to abandon the one and take up the other—how extreme [their delusion] is!