弘明集 8.25

8.25

One's material constitution is as precarious as an autumn stem, and life is as fragile as spring ice. The winds of karma blow and scatter it, swirling like tumbleweed through realms of transformation. Therefore Duke Jing resigned himself to conditions and fate, and Sunzi recorded people as walking corpses. Deluded followers of shallow learning do not recognize the Great Scope; when encountering sickness, decline, and disaster, their delusions become extreme. Finding the origin of demonic calamities in deep demons and mynas, they treat these as disasters; they cross dangerous straits on distant rivers, hang stones and fish for stars at steep crags, and write red tallies in the snow on Mount Hua. They knit their brows and make ugly grimaces, while subterranean demons say that the envoys of the Three Officials have already sent back the deceased. Thus, they pointlessly squander funeral goods. This is truly the profit of grain and silk for ignorant libationers; like silkworms eating mulberry leaves, they deplete the common people, harming both public and private interests. This causes the Utmost Sage to be alarmed at the burning house, and stirs human longing with songs of return.