西方合論 8.8

8.8

First, explaining [the error of] the Confucian scholars and the like: In the Śūraṅgama-sūtra, "The Buddha said to King Prasenajit: 'You now lament that your hair is white and your face wrinkled; your face must surely be more wrinkled than in your youth. Yet now, when you look at this Ganges River, compared to your perception when looking at the river back in your youth, is there any youth or old age in that seeing?' The king said: 'No.' The Buddha said: 'Great King, although your face is wrinkled, the nature of this essential seeing has never been wrinkled. What is wrinkled undergoes change; what is not wrinkled does not change. What changes is subject to annihilation, whereas that which does not change fundamentally has neither arising nor cessation. How could it undergo your birth and death within itself, such that you say this body is completely annihilated after death?'" / The Dazhidulun states: "Question: 'When a person dies, they return to annihilation. Annihilation is of three kinds: first, burned by fire into ashes; second, eaten by worms into dung; third, ultimately returning to dust. Now we only see its annihilation, and do not see anyone else emerging to receive a future body. Because it is not seen, one therefore knows it does not exist.' Answer: 'If one asserts that with the destruction of the body there is simply nothing, why do sentient beings possess sorrow, joy, fear, and dread habitualized from prior lifetimes? For example, when an infant is born, it may cry or laugh; having previously habitualized sorrow and joy, now without anyone teaching it, sorrow and joy arise in succession. Furthermore, a newborn calf naturally knows to seek milk; among pigs, sheep, and the like, not long after birth they know the union of male and female. Children share the same parents, yet beauty and ugliness, wealth and poverty, intelligence and dullness are each different. If there were no causes and conditions from prior lifetimes, there should be no differences. From various causes and conditions such as these, one knows there is a future life. Furthermore, you said earlier that you do not see anyone else departing. In the human body, it is not only the eye faculty that can see; the six sense faculties within the body each have that which they cognize. There are phenomena that can be heard, smelled, tasted, touched, and cognized. Even a phenomenon that can be heard cannot be seen, so how much less what can only be cognized! The phenomena of birth and death can also be seen and also be cognized; because of your physical eyes you do not see them, but those with the divine eye see them clearly, just like seeing a person go out of one room and enter another; abandoning this body and reaching a future body is also like this. If the physical eye could see it, what would be the use of seeking the divine eye? If it were so, the divine eye and the physical eye, the foolish and the holy, would be no different. If you share the vision of animals, how could you see the future life? As for what can be cognized: although when a person dies and is born there is no one who comes and goes, because afflictions are not exhausted, in continuity with the body, senses, and mind, there further arise a body, senses, and mind. The body, senses, and mind create karma, which also does not go to the future life, yet from these causes and conditions, one is reborn to receive the retribution of a future life. For example, if poison is placed in milk, the milk turns into curd, and the curd turns into ghee. The milk is not the curd or ghee, and the curd and ghee are not the milk; yet although milk and curd have changed, both contain poison. This body is also like this. Due to the causes and conditions of the five aggregates in this life, one is reborn in a future life; because the activities of the five aggregates continue without difference, one receives retribution. Furthermore, just as winter trees, though not yet having blossoms, leaves, and fruit, bring them forth in sequence when the season arrives, from such causes and conditions one knows there is death and rebirth. Furthermore, in the present world there are those who remember past lives, just as a person who is exhausted from walking in a dream, after waking from sleep, recalls what they traversed. Moreover, all sages, in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist scriptures, speak of a future life. Furthermore, in the present world when unwholesome phenomena are activated too heavily, giving rise to anger, jealousy, doubt, and remorse, because of inner affliction the body withers and the complexion becomes unhappy. If evil and unwholesome phenomena cause such harm [to the mind], how much more when bodily and verbal karma are initiated! If wholesome phenomena and karma of pure faith arise as causes and conditions, the mind becomes pure and attains wisdom as it truly is, the mind rejoices, and the body becomes light, supple, and pleasant in complexion. Because there are causes and conditions of suffering and pleasure, there are the wholesome and unwholesome; since there certainly exist the wholesome and unwholesome now, one should know there must be a future life. It is only because sentient beings do not see with their physical eyes and their wisdom is shallow that they give rise to heterodox doubts; though they cultivate merits, what they do is superficial. For instance, a physician treated a king's illness; the king secretly built a residence for him, but the physician did not know it. When he returned home and saw it, he then regretted not applying his full mind and utmost effort to treat the king. Furthermore, because what the sages say about the present affairs is truly trustworthy, what they say about the affairs of future lives is likewise entirely trustworthy. Just as when a person walks on a perilous road at night and a guide reaches out a hand, knowing he is trustworthy, the person follows him. Through inferential cognition and the words of the sages, one can know that a future life definitely exists. Burdened by the heavy offenses of your physical eyes, your inferential cognition being shallow, and lacking the divine eye, since you yourself lack wisdom and do not believe the words of the sages, how could you know what comes after this body?'" / For example, when the Pronouncing Sage (Confucius) spoke of the obscure and the evident, he said that the virtue of ghosts and spirits is abundant, clearly stating that King Wu and the Duke of Zhou attained ultimate filial piety solely by understanding the circumstances of ghosts and spirits, serving the dead as they served the living. Yet Master Kaoting (Zhu Xi) distorted the explanation, reducing them to the two breaths (yin and yang). How dared he falsely accuse the ancient sages and mislead later generations? Moreover, petty novels and unofficial histories need not even be discussed; yet Peng Sheng becoming a boar and Boyou becoming a vengeful ghost, Liu Cong becoming the king of Zhexu, and Jiang Ji's son begging for an official post from the Magistrate of Mount Tai—these are in the standard histories. The black bird giving birth to the Shang, and Emperor Wu initiating the Zhou—these are in the standard classics. Sparrows transforming into clams, field mice transforming into quails, and hawks transforming into doves—these are in the monthly ordinances. How much can a consciousness of a single fine dust mote know? To attempt to have a frog begrudge the vastness of the ocean, or a firefly obscure the light of the sun—what offense should one incur for insulting the sages and desecrating Heaven? Furthermore, debaters constantly say: "Whatever a human has not experienced, and whatever cannot be verified by rational principle, is not worthy of reliance." Yet the degrees of the sun and moon, and the movements of the five planets, are not things humans can experience; heaven does not come here, nor do humans go there—why is it that deductions are all verified? Moreover, why is heaven high and earth low? Why do winds arise and clouds move? Why does spring bring forth life and autumn bring destruction? What rational principle is there to rely upon for this? The sense organs in the womb turn without consciousness; a mother's milk emerges without an external cause—what rational principle is there to rely upon for this? Moving down to a single hair, a single speck of dust, a single blade of grass, or a single tree: if there is even the tip of a fine hair's worth of rational principle to rely upon, please point it out! It is merely that because they are commonly seen, one takes them as normal; yet this "commonly seen" is also without rational principle. Therefore, one should not doubt rebirth merely because one does not see it.