[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [弘明集](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102) › 2.16 # 弘明集 2.16 弘明集 2.16 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [2.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.2.16) 請復循環而申之。夫聖人之作易。天之垂象。吉凶治亂。其占可知。然源其所以然之狀。聖所不明則莫之能知。今以所莫知廢其可知。逆占違天而動。豈有不止者乎。不可以緣始不明而背佛法。亦猶此也。又以不憶前身之意。謂神不素存。夫人在胎孕至于孩齓。不得謂無精神矣。同一生之內耳以今思之。猶冥然莫憶。況經生死歷異身。昔憶安得不止乎。所憶亡矣。而無害神之常存則不達緣始。何妨其理常明乎。子路問死。子曰。未知生安知死。問事鬼神則曰。未知事人焉知事鬼。豈不以由也盡於好勇篤於事君。固宜應以一生之內。至於生死鬼神之本。雖曰有問。非其實理之感。故性與天道。不可得聞佛家之說。眾生有邊無邊之類十四問。一切智者皆置而不答。誠以答之無利益則墮惡邪。然則稟聖奉佛之道。固宜謝其所絕飡其所應。如渴者飲河挹洪流以盈己。豈須窮源於崑山哉。凡在佛法若違天硋。理不可得。然則疑之可也。今無不可得然之硋。而有順天清神之實。豈不誠然哉。夫人之生也。與憂俱生。患禍發於時事。災厲奮於冥昧。雖復雅貴連雲擁徒百萬。初自獨以形神坐待無常。家人熇熇婦子嬉嬉。俄復淪為惚怳。人理曾何足恃。自以過隙宜競賒謗冥化縱欲侈害。神既無滅。求滅不得復當乘罪受身。今之無賴群生蟲豸萬等。皆殷鑑也。為之謀者。唯有委誠信佛託心履戒以援精神。生蒙靈援死則清昇。清昇無已逕將作佛。佛固言爾而人侮之。何以斷人之勝佛乎。其不勝也。當不下墜彼惡永受其劇乎。嗚呼六極苦毒而生者。所以世無已也。所聞所見精進而死者臨盡類多。神意安定有危迫者。一心稱觀世音。略無不蒙濟皆向所謂生蒙靈援死則清昇之符也。夫萬乘之主。千乘之君。日昃不遑食。兆民賴之於一化內耳。何以增茂其神而王萬化乎。今依周孔以養民。味佛法以養神。則生為明后歿為明神。而常王矣。如來豈欺哉。我非崇塔侈像容養濫吹之僧以傷財害民之謂也。物之不窺遠實而觀近弊將橫以詬法矣。蓋尊其道信其教悟無常空色有慈心整化。不以尊豪輕絕物命。不使不肖竊假非服。豈非導之以德。齊之以禮。天下歸仁之盛乎。其在容與之位。及野澤之身。何所足惜。而不自濟其精神哉。昔遠和上澄業廬山。余往憩五旬。高潔貞厲理學精妙。固遠流也。其師安法師靈德自奇。微遇比丘並含清真。皆其相與素洽乎道。而後孤立於山。是以神明之化邃于巖林驟與余言於崖樹㵎壑之間曖然乎有自。言表而肅人者。凡若斯論。亦和上據經之指云爾。夫善即者因鳥跡以書契窮神輿人之頌提縈一言而霸業用遂肉刑永除事固有俄爾微感而終至冲天者。今蕪陋鄙言以驚其所感。奄然身沒。安知不以之超登哉。 > Allow me to review and expand upon this again. When the sages created the Changes, Heaven suspended its images; auspicious and inauspicious omens, good order and chaos—these could be known through divination. Yet as for investigating the underlying cause of why this is so, where the sages did not make it clear, no one is able to know it. Now, if one were to abolish what can be known because of what cannot be known, acting against divination and in defiance of Heaven, could anything avoid falling into ruin? It is just the same with rejecting the Buddhist Dharma simply because its original beginnings are not fully clear. Furthermore, to argue that the spirit does not inherently exist merely because one has no recollection of past lives \[is mistaken\]: while a person is in the womb up until their childhood teeth are shed, it cannot be said that they lack a spirit. Within one and the same life, when we think back upon it now, it is still shrouded in darkness and unremembered; how much more so when passing through death and rebirth and undergoing different bodies—how could former memories fail to cease? Although what was remembered is gone, this does not harm the everlasting existence of the spirit; so if one does not comprehend its primordial beginnings, what impediment does that pose to its principle being perpetually manifest? When Zilu asked about death, the Master said, 'Before you know life, how can you know death?' When he asked about serving ghosts and spirits, the Master said, 'Before you know how to serve people, how can you serve ghosts?' Was this not because You \[Zilu\] was completely given to love of valor and earnest in serving his lord, so it was indeed fitting to answer him within the scope of a single life? As for the roots of birth and death, ghosts and spirits, although he posed questions, he did not possess the resonance for their true principle. Therefore, nature and the Heavenly Way could not be heard from him. In the teachings of the Buddhist house, among the fourteen questions regarding whether sentient beings are finite or infinite and the like, the All-Knowing One set them all aside and did not answer; this was truly because answering them would bring no benefit and would only cause one to fall into evil heterodoxies. Therefore, in receiving the sages and honoring the Buddhist path, it is indeed fitting to leave aside what has been cut off and partake of what is answered. It is like a thirsty person drinking from a river: they draw from the great stream to fill themselves; what need is there to trace the source all the way to Mount Kunlun? If anything in the Buddhist Dharma were to obstruct Heaven, so that its principle could not hold, then it would indeed be right to doubt it. But now there is no obstacle preventing it from holding true, whereas it possesses the reality of according with Heaven and purifying the spirit—is it not truly so? A person's life is born together with sorrows: calamities and disasters arise from temporal affairs, while baneful scourges erupt from the unseen dark. Even if one's noble status connects with the clouds and one commands millions of followers, initially one must still sit alone with form and spirit awaiting impermanence. The household is merry and joyful, wife and children play and laugh, yet in an instant one sinks again into indistinct void. How could human affairs ever be relied upon? If one takes the fleeting passage through a crevice as reason to scramble for indulgence, slandering unseen transformation and letting loose desires in ostentatious destructiveness, then since the spirit is never extinguished and seeking extinction is impossible, one will surely take on a new body propelled by one's transgressions. The present wretched swarms of creatures, the myriad grades of insects and worms, are all clear mirrors of warning. For one who plans for this, the only way is to entrust one's sincerity in faith to the Buddha, deposit one's mind in practicing the precepts, and thereby rescue the spirit. In life one receives divine aid; at death one ascends in purity. Ascending in purity without end, one will proceed directly to becoming a Buddha. The Buddha indeed spoke thus, yet people mock it; how can one judge that humans surpass the Buddha? If they do not surpass him, will they not inevitably plunge down into those evils and endure their extremity forever? Alas! Those who are born in the bitter poisons of the six extremities are the reason why the mundane world never ceases. Among those I have heard and seen who died while making vigorous progress, when their end approached, most of them had a spirit and mind settled and calm; when there were those in pressing peril, if they single-mindedly invoked Avalokiteśvara, practically none failed to receive deliverance. These are all tokens of what was previously called receiving divine aid in life and ascending in purity at death. The master of ten thousand chariots and the lord of a thousand chariots do not have leisure to eat until the sun declines; the myriad commoners rely on them within just a single transformation. How are they to enhance their spirits and reign as kings over myriad transformations? If now they rely on the Duke of Zhou and Confucius to nurture the people and relish the Buddhist Dharma to nurture the spirit, then in life they will be enlightened sovereigns, and upon death they will be enlightened spirits, perpetually reigning as kings. How could the Tathāgata deceive us? I do not mean that one should revere pagodas, lavishly decorate statues, and harbor hypocritical monks who merely feign talent, thereby wasting wealth and harming the people. When creatures do not peer into the distant reality but only look at proximate defects, they will wrongly revile the Dharma. Honoring its Dao, having faith in its teachings, awakening to the impermanence of emptiness and form, possessing a compassionate mind, and regulating transformation; not lightly taking the lives of creatures on account of noble status, and not allowing the unworthy to wrongfully usurp clerical robes—is this not guiding them with virtue, regulating them with propriety, so that the whole world returns to benevolence in full flourish? When one is in an idle position or lives as an ordinary person in fields and marshes, what is there to begrudge, that one should fail to deliver one's own spirit? Formerly, Upādhyāya \[Hui\]yuan purified his practice on Mount Lu, and I went to rest there for fifty days. He was lofty, pure, upright, and rigorous; his study of principles was subtle and profound—he was truly a distant stream. His master, Dharma Master Daoan, possessed extraordinary divine virtue; the monks I met, however lowly, all harbored pure truth. They were all originally in harmony with the Dao, and only then stood solitary upon the mountain. Therefore, the transformation wrought by their divine brilliance ran deep in the craggy forests. Often when he spoke with me amid cliffside trees and ravine torrents, it was serene and purposeful; his words were solemn and inspiring. Discussions such as this are merely what the Upādhyāya drew from the purports of the scriptures. He who is good at grasping opportunities invented written characters based on bird tracks; he who pursued the spirit took the palanquin-bearers' praise, and Ti Ying's single word allowed hegemonic achievements to succeed and bodily mutilation to be permanently abolished. Matters indeed have instances where a fleeting, subtle stimulus ultimately reaches the heavens. Now, by using these crude and vulgar words to awaken your sensitivity, even if my body should suddenly perish, who knows if you might not transcendently ascend thereby? > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 2.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.2.15) - [Next: 2.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.2.17) - [Up: 2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.2) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102~en-mt.2.16) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.2.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.2.16) · Pramāṇa