萬善同歸集 2.4

2.4

Answer: "Giving up one's life and discarding one's body to repay debts of gratitude for the sake of the Dharma deeply tallies with the Mahāyāna and profoundly accords with the correct teaching. The Mahāyāna Brahmā Net Sūtra states: 'If a disciple of the Buddha should act with a good mind, he should first study the deportment sūtras and vinaya of the Mahāyāna, broadly opening up and understanding their meanings. When he sees later, newly studying bodhisattvas who have come from a hundred or a thousand miles seeking the Mahāyāna sūtras and vinaya, he should, according to the Dharma, explain all austerities to them: such as burning the body, burning the arm, or burning the fingers. If one does not burn the body, arm, or fingers as an offering to all Buddhas, one is not an ordained bodhisattva. Even toward hungry tigers, wolves, lions, and all hungry ghosts, one should give up one's own flesh, hands, and feet to offer them. After that, step by step in sequence, explain the correct Dharma for them, causing their minds to open and their intentions to understand. If one does not act thus, one commits a light defilement offense.' The Mahāyāna Śūraṅgama Sūtra states: 'The Buddha told Ānanda: "If after my parinirvāṇa there is a bhikṣu who makes a resolute vow to cultivate samādhi, and is able before an image of the Tathāgata to light a lamp on his body, burn a finger joint, or burn an incense stick on his body, I say that this person's beginningless past debts are all repaid at once; taking long leave of the world, he forever escapes all defilements. Although he has not yet immediately understood the unexcelled path of awakening, this person has already determined his mind regarding the Dharma. If he does not perform this minor cause of renouncing the body, even if he attains the unconditioned, he must return to be born as a human to repay his past debts, no different from my [past karma of eating] horse barley."' Therefore, the Hīnayāna clings to outward marks and prohibits it without exception; the great teaching is completely unimpeded, fundamentally without fixed rules. The Bodhisattva-bhūmi-śīla Sūtra states: 'Śrāvaka precepts are strict, while bodhisattva precepts are flexible; śrāvaka precepts block, while bodhisattva precepts open.' Another sūtra also states: 'The śrāvaka's upholding of precepts is the bodhisattva's breaking of precepts.' This is what it means. If one relies on the definitive sūtras, all Buddhas rejoice; if one clings to expedient discourses, all the noble ones grieve. One should only praise the great and extol the round, benefiting both self and others; how can one permit clinging to the provisional and getting stuck in the small, remaining confused about both the basis and the traces?"