弘明集 5.19

5.19

I answered: 'For this objection, corporeal form and spirit have their origins. Please allow me to explain it for you by tracing back to the root. Fire exists because of firewood; without firewood, there is no fire. Although firewood is that by which fire arises, it is not the root of fire. Fire inherently exists at the root, merely taking firewood as its function. If one had to wait for firewood before fire existed, was there no principle of fire before Suiren? Fire is originally the ultimate Yang, and Yang is the pinnacle of fire; thus firewood is what fire lodges in, not its root. The mutual reliance of spirit and corporeal form is also like this. Mutually relying and mutually causing, they are merely the path through which life proceeds. How could it be that when there is corporeal form, spirit exists, and when there is no corporeal form, spirit is exhausted? Its root is indistinct and beyond words. Please allow me to broaden the comparison to clarify this for you: when firewood is in the fire, the fire is extinguished; when it comes out of the fire, the fire is born. While a single piece of firewood remains unchanged, the fire departs first. That the spirit does not depend on corporeal form is also like this. Can you not realize that the spirit does not depend on corporeal form?'