廣弘明集 18.27

18.27

難曰。然則天網恢恢疎而遂失耶。莫見乎隱。莫顯乎微。但盈換藏於日用。交賒昧於理緣。答曰。夫天理冥昧變狀難明。且當推已兆之終古。考應報之成跡耳。至於善惡禍福。或有一見斯自遇與事會。非冥司之真驗也。何以明之。若其有司當如之治國長之一家。善無微而不賞。惡無纖而必罰。使修行者保其素履極逆者受其酷禍。然後積善之家被餘慶於後世。積不善之家流殃咎乎來世耳。而今則不然。或惡深而莫誅。或積善而禍臻。或履仁義而亡身。或行肆虐而降福。豈非無司而自有分命乎。若以盈換藏於日用。交賒昧於理緣者。但當報對遲晚不切目前耳。非為善惡舛錯是非莫驗。推斯而言。人之生也。性分夙定。善者自善。非先有其生而後行善以致於善也。惡者自惡。非本分無惡長而行惡以得於惡也。故知窮達善惡愚智壽夭無非分命。分命玄定於冥初。行跡豈能易其自然哉。天網不失隱見微顯。故是勸教之言耳。非玄明所謂本定之極致也。既未悟妙推之有宗。亦何分命之可審乎。將恐向之先覺還為後悟矣。言面未日。聊以讜敘。

The critique states: "'The net of heaven is vast'—is it coarse and so lets things slip through? 'Nothing is more visible than what is hidden, nothing is more manifest than what is subtle.' It is only that fullness and alteration are concealed within daily function, and deferred debts are obscure in their causal conditions." I reply: heavenly principle is dark and obscure; its shifting manifestations are hard to clarify. For now, one must deduce from the past what has already shown its signs, and examine the accomplished traces of retribution. As for good and evil, calamity and blessing: occasionally one sees an instance, but this is a chance encounter and coincidence of affairs, not a genuine verification by the unseen administrators. How is this clarified? If there were administrators, they should be like those who govern a state or head a household: no good, however minute, would go unrewarded; no evil, however fine, would fail to be punished. They would ensure that those who cultivate practice preserve their plain conduct, and those of extreme perversity suffer cruel calamity; only then would households that accumulate good receive lingering celebrations in later generations, and households that accumulate non-virtue bequeath calamity and blame to coming generations. But now it is not so: some have profound evil yet are never executed; some accumulate good yet calamity arrives; some walk in benevolence and righteousness yet perish; some act with rampant cruelty yet blessings descend. How could it be that there are no administrators, but rather that things naturally have an allotted destiny? If you take fullness and alteration as concealed within daily function, and deferred debts as obscure in causal conditions, this would only mean that the retribution is late and not pressing before one's eyes; it does not mean that good and evil are disordered and right and wrong cannot be verified. Deducing from this: when a person is born, nature and allotment are determined from of old. The good are good of themselves; it is not that they first have life and then practice goodness to attain goodness. The evil are evil of themselves; it is not that their fundamental allotment lacks evil and then, growing up, they practice evil to attain evil. Therefore we know that poverty, success, goodness, evil, folly, wisdom, longevity, and premature death are all allotted destiny. Allotted destiny is mystically determined in the primordial obscurity; how could one's traces of action alter what is natural? That "the net of heaven does not lose" and "the hidden and manifest, the subtle and obvious" are simply words of exhortation and instruction; they are not the ultimate attainment of what mystic clarity calls fundamental predetermination. Since you have not yet awakened to the principle of subtle deduction, how can allotted destiny be discerned? I fear that your earlier awakening will turn out to be a later realization. We have not yet set a day to meet; I send this for now as an upright discourse.