西方合論 2.8

2.8

一、一大事者，眾生處五濁世，如因處獄，但以罪之輕重，受等不等罰。或干小法、或投極網，辜雖不同，至於縲絏之苦、笞杖之罰，未有一人得免者。何也？以入獄者皆罪人；處人天者皆是業報，分段之身故也。然罪人一入獄，未有時刻不求出離者，則以知獄之煎苦難忍難堪，棘牆之外，更有許大安樂世界故也。今眾生以煩惱為家，以生死為園觀，繫心衣冠之囚長，適情金玉之桁楊，豈知大鐵圍山是我棘牆，三界法場之外，各各自有家鄉田地也。諸佛憫此，酸心痛骨，是故為分別淨穢，指以脫歸路程。而歲久拋棄之人，了無歸處；諸佛又大建宅舍以安之。一則往來獄門，為治道途；一則長伺獄外，修飾旅館。如是之恩，何身可報？嗟夫！燭三界之長夜，揭億生之覆盆，諸佛既不惜垂手，眾生獨何苦戀戀也？經曰：「如來為一大事，出現於世。」大事者，即此事也。眾生種種反戀此毛頭許事，以小易大，甘心瘦死，何哉？

First, regarding 'the one great cause': Sentient beings live in the world of five defilements, like criminals residing in prison, receiving unequal punishments merely according to the gravity of their crimes. Some violate minor laws, others run afoul of the supreme net; though their offenses differ, as for the suffering of bonds and fetters and the punishment of bastinado and caning, not a single person escapes. Why is this? Because those who enter prison are all criminals, and those who abide as humans and devas all have karmic retribution, bodies of fragmented limitation. Yet once criminals enter prison, there is not a moment they do not seek escape, for they know the burning torments of prison are unbearable and agonizing, and that outside the thorny wall there is a vast and immensely delightful world. Now sentient beings take defilement as their home and saṃsāra as their park; they fasten their hearts on being chief prisoners in caps and robes, and find comfort in pillories and cangues made of gold and jade. How could they know that the Great Iron Ring Mountains are our thorny wall, and that outside the execution grounds of the traidhātuka, each and every one has their own native home and land? The buddhas pity this with aching hearts and pained bones; therefore they distinguish purity and defilement, pointing out the route to escape and return. Yet for people who have abandoned it for long years, there is no place to return; the buddhas also build great mansions to settle them. On the one hand, they go to and fro at the prison gates to clear the road; on the other hand, they wait continuously outside the prison to adorn the guest houses. For such grace, with what body could one repay it? Alas! Illuminating the long night of the traidhātuka and overturning the overturned basin of billions of births, since the buddhas do not begrudge extending their hands, why alone do sentient beings cling so bitterly? The sūtra says: 'The Tathāgata appears in the world for one great cause.' The great cause is precisely this matter. Sentient beings, on the contrary, cling in various ways to this mere hair's-tip of affairs, exchanging the great for the small, content to starve to death—why?