弘明集 5.22

5.22

The guest objected: 'Although corporeal form and spirit are different, that they naturally aid each other I have respectfully heard. You already compared the spirit to corporeal form as fire to firewood: firewood has no intent to have fire, and fire has no sentiment to lodge in firewood; thus they can combine in endless function, enduring naturally with transformation. It is not that the fire of this firewood moves to that firewood and only then becomes fire. Yet the Buddhist principle holds that once this corporeal form is exhausted, it lodges in another corporeal form, the coming and going of corporeal form and spirit being due to sin and merit. May I ask: is this corporeal form creating sin, or is it this spirit? If it is corporeal form, it is merely one thing in the Great Foundry. If it is spirit, then spirit cannot sustain itself and is bound to a different corporeal form; then your thesis that corporeal form and spirit do not rely on each other stumbles here.'