緇門警訓 4.60

4.60

Harming and destroying life is called painful karma; exhausting sinews and bones is called painful conditions. A sūtra says: 'Food comes from plowing, sowing, hoeing, reaping, harvesting, winnowing, sifting, cellaring, storing, carting, carrying, pounding, grinding, stoking, boiling, and steaming, in order briefly to provide, supply, present, and offer it. Furthermore, planting vegetables, building walls, irrigating fields and gardens, and making bean paste and vinegar—reckon that for a single bowl of food, a single bowl of sweat is shed. The sweat in the skin and flesh is indeed their blood. The effort and labor for a single meal comes from a bowlful of the maker's blood. How much more so over an entire lifetime—how many meals does one ordinarily receive? From the initial plowing and sowing down to entering the mouth, countless varied small insects are injured and killed.' Therefore, the Buddha's precept is to receive one meal a day to sustain life, passing through a lifetime as a temporary guest. As for clothing: raising silkworms kills cocoons; taking the soft thread, weaving, knotting, dyeing, washing, cutting, and sewing require myriad conditions and management with immeasurable toil and hardship. Reckon how many silkworms in total are killed and how much energy and strength are expended for upper and lower garments and provisions; how much pain and suffering do the silkworms and cocoons endure when put into boiling water? Therefore, the Buddha taught wearing rag-robes to cover one's ugly and shabby form, in hopes of cultivating the Way. As for dwellings: from erecting walls, digging pits, and excavating the ground, earthen worms are injured and killed; felling timber harms the insects of the forests and trees; when making bricks and tiles, water-and-mud insects are killed; lighting fires to fire the kilns kills the insects of the firewood and grass. The laborers toil and the donors expend their wealth; the various conditions of food and drink bring immense exhaustion and depletion before a single room is completed. Therefore, practitioners rely on graveyards, trees, and grass mats to keep themselves at peace. Reflecting that food is suffering, they discipline their bodies when eating. Reflecting that clothing kills life, they wear rag-robes. Reflecting that dwellings and bedding arise from painful conditions, their aspirations delight in dhūta practices, moving once every three months. Reflecting that the four requisites are difficult to digest, they have few desires and are content. A sūtra says: 'Receiving food from a dānapati is like thinking of eating the flesh of one's own child in a time of famine. Receiving clothing from a donor is like wrapping oneself in red-hot iron. Entering a dwelling is like entering an iron cauldron. Receiving a bed and seat is like a red-hot iron bed. Better to crush this body like fine dust than to receive the provisions of others with a precept-broken body.' The painful retributions in the three paths are all due to craving clothing, coveting food, and delighting in fine dwellings. If due to causes and conditions of breaking precepts one must repay the donors, one will either become a slave beaten and driven by whips, or take the form of an animal wearing fur and bearing horns, repaying with sinews and bones in life and returning skin and flesh at death, bearing heavy loads until strength is spent, rising and collapsing repeatedly. The vain reception of offerings from donors yields pleasure not worth mentioning, while the suffering of repaying the donors exceeds it ten-thousandfold. Therefore, I instruct you to feel shame and conscience, be prudent in guarding your future lifetimes, and do not break precepts while receiving offerings. This is called the purified mind.