廬山蓮宗寶鑑 1.59

1.59

Buddhānusmṛti is the essential of all dharmas, and filial support is the foremost among the hundred conducts. A filial mind is none other than the Buddha's mind; filial practice is nothing other than the Buddha's practice. If you wish to have your way identical to all buddhas, you must first filial-mindedly support your two parents. Therefore, Chan Master Qi said: "The single word 'filial piety' is the door to myriad wonders. The Buddha's words take filial piety as their ancestral principle; the Buddhist scriptures take filial piety as their precept. Being unconfused in speech, from the mouth issues the light of the precepts; directly clear and distinct, one suddenly opens the mind-ground." Now, as for filial piety, there is the filial piety of the householder, and there is the filial piety of the monastic. As for the householder's filial piety: when parents love them, they rejoice and do not forget it; when parents dislike them, they labor and bear no grievance, according with their expressions to exhaust all efforts in nurturing their life. As for the monastic's filial piety: they sever affection and bid farewell to their kin, feeding on the subtle to accord with the origin, penetrating deeply into the principle of unconditioned action, and repaying above the boundless kindness—an essential road toward liberation, a shortcut to repay compassionate parents; not only does it bring benefit in the future, it also achieves success in the present life. Hence, the Tathāgata leaped over the city walls in the middle of the night, perfecting the Way upon the Snowy Mountains; Lu Neng gave white gold to his mother, inheriting the Dharma at Huangmei. However, having severed affections through the Dharma, one should remember to repay virtue. Hence, [the Buddha] visited his father in Kapilavastu and comforted his mother in Trāyastriṃśa; when [parents] are destitute and without support, it is proper to serve and care for them in person. For this reason, Pilindavatsa gave rise to the precept of serving with utmost devotion; Master Ren had a hall for nurturing his mother; Chen Muzhou wove sandals to provide for his mother; and Dharma Master Lang carried his baggage on a pole while traveling to study. Thus, monastics take the flavor of the Dharma as delicious delicacies, not forgetting the mind of feeding in return; they take Buddhist affairs as diligent endeavor, never abandoning the etiquette of conventional truth. They repay not only the parents of a single life, but the parents of many lifetimes; they deliver not merely the parents of one body, but the parents of the entire dharmadhātu. Ascending together to the shore of awakening, how could it be limited to the Duke of Zhou matching Heaven? Universally pointing out the deluded ford, it truly surpasses Kaoshu's pure filial piety. As for the monastic's filial piety, its benefits are vast indeed! If circumstances are not yet harmonious and parents do not consent, one should exhaust the householder's filial piety and encourage them to cultivate the transmundane cause. If one can reach the true through the secular, there is also a path to buddhahood. Aspiring to reverse to the conduct of an infant without failing in veneration before one's parents' knees, repaying both parents' labor of care and protection, and reaching the fully perfected ground of the ekayāna—this enables householder bodhisattvas to have no doubts in practice and understanding, and exalted recluses can also take this as a mirror to reflect their shortcomings. If one is unable to fulfill one's service to the Buddha, upon seeing this regarding service to parents, one will be moved, and within this can completely realize one's filial piety. Alas! Time passes easily; parents are difficult to forget. Having parents present in the hall is like the Buddha being present in the world. Repaying parental virtue with this, and completely fulfilling the merit of buddhānusmṛti, one knows that when parents rejoice, all buddhas rejoice; when this mind is pure, the buddha-land is pure. It can be said: 'Wild scenery is no longer blocked by mountains; moonlight flows directly into union with the water.'