廣弘明集 26.46

26.46

All venerable monks and nuns, all doctrinal monks and nuns, and all three officers of the monasteries, you should further reflect on one great matter. If one eats the father of a sentient being, that sentient being will also retaliate by eating one's father. If one eats the mother of a sentient being, that sentient being will also retaliate by eating one's mother. If one eats the child of a sentient being, that sentient being will also retaliate by eating one's child. In this way, mutual enemies retaliate by devouring one another, through kalpas of the long night without end. As the sūtra states: There was a woman who for five hundred lifetimes killed a wolf cub, and for five hundred lifetimes the wolf cub also killed her child. Again, there was a woman who for five hundred lifetimes ended the life-faculty of a ghost, and the ghost also ended her life-faculty for five hundred lifetimes. These are all teachings from the sūtras and cannot be disbelieved. The remaining mutual retributions can be known by inference. All venerable monks and nuns, all doctrinal monks and nuns, and all three officers of the monasteries, there is yet another great matter that you should accept with faith: From the beginningless past down to this present life, we have passed through the six realms of rebirth, undergoing all varieties of fruit and retribution; our close relatives are everywhere. It is merely because we have crossed through births and deaths that our spirits are obstructed and obscured, so that these kinfolk no longer recognize one another. The sentient beings of today may have formerly been our fathers and mothers, or formerly been our teachers and elders, or formerly been our brothers, or formerly been our sisters, or formerly been our children and grandchildren, or formerly been our friends. Yet today, lacking the eye of the Way, we cannot discern this; we turn and devour one another without realizing it ourselves. At the moment of being devoured, this being possesses a spirit, which immediately gives rise to wrath and resentment and turns into an enemy. Those who were formerly the closest kin turn into the bitterest enemies. How can such a matter not be contemplated? For the momentary dispute over a meager taste on the tip of the tongue, one permanently becomes an enemy with past kin for long ages. This is so heartbreaking it is difficult to express in words. White-robed householders have not yet attained the Way; but renunciant practitioners, who wear the robes of the Tathāgata and cultivate the bodhisattva conduct, ought deeply to reflect upon this.