佛祖統紀 38.63

38.63

In the fourth year of Xinghe, there were thirty thousand monasteries and two million monks and nuns within the territory of Wei. ○ The 'Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism' in the Book of Wei says: 'Among all kinds of sentient beings, the conscious spirit throughout the three periods of time is constant and never perishes. Whosoever commits good or evil will certainly experience retribution. Gradually accumulating superior karma, they refine away what is coarse and base (coarse: pronounced like cang-hu, meaning unrefined), passing through countless bodily forms to cleanse and temper the divine radiance, until they attain the unproduced and achieve the Buddha's Path. At the beginning of cultivating the mind, they rely upon the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha; these are called the Three Refuges, just as the gentleman has three awes (the Analects says: "The gentleman has three awes: he awes the mandate of Heaven, he awes great men, and he awes the words of sages"). There are also five precepts: abandoning killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking liquor. Their broad purport is the same as humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. It also expounds rebirth in the six destinies, the progressive practice of the six perfections, the true and responsive bodies of the Buddha which are unproduced and unextinguished, the stūpas and temples for relics, and the vast circulation of the teachings—the meanings of which are the most profound and esoteric.' (Compiled by Wei Shou of Northern Qi in the Book of Northern Wei).