弘明集 9.94

9.94

The challenger says: If, according to the thesis of the treatise, when corporeal form is extinguished the spirit is extinguished, then the relation of corporeal form and spirit ought to be like that of a shadow [and a body], necessarily accompanying each other. If the corporeal form is ill, then the spirit should also be ill. Why did the corporeal form not recognize people, while the spirit alone traveled to the Lord? The reply: According to your idea, the corporeal form is ill while the spirit is not ill. Now if one is wounded and falls ill, the corporeal form hurts while the spirit does not; if one is troubled and grieves, the corporeal form grieves while the spirit does not. When worry and pain have already afflicted the corporeal form in this way, why trouble the spirit over nothing? (Cao held that in life they unite to function, so illness and disability are shared; in death the corporeal form remains while the spirit travels, so traveling to the Lord differs from the corporeal form).