西方合論 1.13

1.13

「莫云：『我是悟達之人，業不能繫。』夫謂業不能繫，非謂有而不有，正以無而自無。生既隨境即動，死安得不隨業受生？眼前一念嗔相，即是怪蟒之形；眼前一念貪相，即是餓鬼之種。無形之因念甚小，有形之果報甚大。一念之微，識田持之，歷千萬劫終不遺失。如一比丘，以智慧故，身有光明；以妄語故，口流蛆虫。一言之微，得此惡果，雖有智慧，終不能消。況今無明煩惱，熾然不斷，欲以相似見解，消其惡業，冀出三塗，無有是處！嚮使此等，不得少以為足，常如說以修行，終不自言我已悟了即心是佛，豈可復同中下念佛求生，了達生本無生，不妨熾然求生，即心是土，蓮邦不屬心外，不釋禮拜、不舍念誦，智力行力，雙轂並進，方當踞上品之蓮臺，坐空中之寶閣，朝飯香積，久遊滿月。回視胎生之品，彳于寶地，不聞法語、不見法身，象馬難群，鷄鳳非類，何況人天小果，甕中蚊虻者哉！而乃空腹高心，著空破有。卒以偏執之妄解，攖非常之果報；不與阿彌作子，却為閻羅之囚；不與淨眾為朋，却與阿旁為伍；棄寶林而行劍樹，舍梵音而聽叫號。究其所受，尚不能與世間無知無見之人，行少善事、作少功德，生於人天者等。毫𩬊有差，天地懸隔，可不哀歟？

"Do not say: 'I am an awakened and penetrated person, karma cannot bind me.' Now, saying karma cannot bind does not mean it exists yet does not exist; it is precisely that being non-existent, it is naturally non-existent. In life, since you move following objects, in death how could you not receive rebirth following karma? A single thought of wrath before your eyes is the form of a strange serpent; a single thought of greed before your eyes is the seed of a hungry ghost. The formless causal thought is very small, but the form-bearing retribution is very great. The subtlety of a single thought, held in the storehouse of consciousness, is never lost even through millions of kalpas. Just as a bhikṣu, because of wisdom, had a body of radiant light, yet because of false speech, had maggots flowing from his mouth. For the slightness of a single word, he received this evil retribution; though he had wisdom, in the end it could not dispel it. How much less now, when ignorance and afflictions burn blazing and uninterrupted—hoping to dispel evil karma with pseudo-views and wishing to escape the three evil destinies is impossible! If formerly such people had not been content with a little, had constantly practiced as taught, and had never said of themselves 'I have awakened, the mind itself is Buddha, how could I still join the middle and lower grades in buddhānusmṛti to seek rebirth?', realizing that birth is fundamentally anutpāda, it would not hinder them from ardently seeking rebirth; the mind itself being the Land, the Lotus Land is not outside the mind; without abandoning prostrations or neglecting recitations, the power of wisdom and the power of practice advancing side by side like two wheels, then they would truly sit upon the lotus pedestal of the highest grade, dwell in the jewel pavilions of the sky, eat morning meals in Gandhahastin, and long roam the Full Moon. Looking back at the grades of womb-birth, walking slowly on the precious ground, not hearing the Dharma speech, not seeing the Dharmakāya, like elephants and horses unable to flock together, or chickens and phoenixes of different kinds, how much less could worldly minor fruits of humans and devas, like gnats in a jar, compare! Yet with empty bellies and haughty minds, they cling to emptiness and destroy existence. In the end, through the erroneous understanding of one-sided grasping, they incur extraordinary retributions; instead of becoming children of Amitābha, they become prisoners of Yama; instead of becoming companions of the pure multitude, they become peers of the apāṅga wardens; abandoning the jewel forests to walk on trees of knives, forsaking brahma-sounds to listen to howling wails. In the end, what they receive cannot even equal worldly people devoid of knowledge and views who perform a few good deeds and make minor merits to be born in the human and heavenly realms. A hair's breadth of discrepancy leads to a gulf as wide as heaven and earth; is this not lamentable?"