廣弘明集 26.6

26.6

The doctrinal principle of the Śākya clan is rooted in compassion. The essential point of compassion is to prioritize the preservation of life. Forgiving others by reflecting upon one's own mind, and regarding beings through one's own person, it seeks to allow all classes endowed with consciousness and awareness, and all creatures that cherish life and dread death, to each fulfill their proper nature and escape premature demise. Yet mundane delusions have long persisted, and entrenched confusion is hard to alter. To reform them in a single morning would provoke bewilderment and astonishment. Establishing teachings and devising methods must always proceed gradually. Furthermore, what emotional appetites are stained by, nothing exceeds sweet and rich foods. Desires staining the emotions are especially difficult to reform all at once. For this reason, the three kinds of pure meat were provisionally introduced to express the expedient path. When the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was taught at the end, and the spoken words were about to cease, the Lord's profound pity was manifested and bequeathed to the future. Now, meat-eating and silk clothing do not differ in principle; killing life and bringing creatures to an untimely end are equal in deed and one in principle. Boiling cocoons and scalding moths to mush is not a pain that can be endured. Hanging up carcasses in the kitchen and serving them on slaughter-trays—how could this be an unbalanced deed? Yet what is accepted and rejected differs in sentiment, and what is permitted and restrained differs in canonical texts. Seeking the waves and probing the source, there is truly something not yet comprehended. The fisherman presents his tuna, and eating meat shares the same condition; the silkworm-raising maid gathers silk, and silk clothing equally partakes of the guilt. The implication of doing so through another's hand is no different; the details of what is permitted or forbidden remain undifferentiated. Inquiring into principle and seeking the source, one knows not where to turn. Non-Buddhist texts say: 'Plant mulberry trees around a homestead of five mu, and those of sixty years may wear silk. Do not miss the breeding seasons of fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, and those of seventy years may eat meat.' If so, then before fifty-nine years of age, one ought to wear coarse cloth. Before sixty-nine years of age, one ought to eat vegetables. Light and warm clothing upon the body is already hard to relinquish; sweet flavors in the mouth are likewise not easily abandoned. Comparing the two, neither has superiority or inferiority. Coarse hemp and fruits and vegetables are equal in fact and identical in meaning; warding off cold and filling the belly have never had a single difference. If silk and wadding were exclusively permitted, there must have been an alternative reason. Permit me to venture an explanation: The sacred Way is lofty and profound, and without deliberation it cannot be thoroughly grasped; benevolence covers all sentient beings, and in principle there is no partial neglect. Rescuing the gross and eliminating the extreme are the pressing concerns of doctrinal teachings. Wearing silk and eating meat were permitted if one did not do it oneself. But when the great scripture was expounded in the Lord's final teachings and the wondrous instructions were broadly proclaimed, the intent to prohibit meat was expressly set down in words. The meaning of discarding silk may definitively be known from this. That at the beginning of the purified prohibitions, silk and leather were still permitted, is merely because the procedures of exposition have their proper sequence. This is just as the two meanings of icchantika both exist within a single sūtra; the two conflicting accounts were each established according to the progression of teachings. If one clings to what came before and is deluded regarding what followed, then icchantikas would have no path of entering goodness; and if purifying prohibitions permitted silk, then sentient creatures would have no hope of sudden deliverance. Challengers may also object that icchantikas entering the Path was heard in the later teachings, whereas that silk and leather should be prohibited has never had any clear principle stated. Yet how could the Great Sage's expansive intention be in vain? The profound mysteries of eternal abiding met with distant obstacles in transmission and translation. When the Parinirvāṇa Sūtra was first translated, all considered it complete; only when it emerged in Hexi did they know it was not yet exhaustive. When expounded later in Guanzhong, its meaning became all the more fluent. Tracing its historical currents, the earlier texts were in principle not yet complete. Moreover, examining the opening exposition of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, only the three assemblies of King Ajātaśatru, Mahākāśyapa, and Ānanda did not arrive. Later, the two did come together, yet only Kāśyapa was absent. Kāśyapa was the Buddha's great disciple; it is inconceivable that he would not arrive, yet the sūtra has no text recording his arrival; thus the principle was not completely recorded. Formerly, before the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was unfolded, famous monks on Mount Lu had already adopted a vegetarian diet for over a decade. Could this not be because, following their minds and practicing in obscurity, they naturally accorded with principle? Furthermore, tearing a bolt of silk once can last a whole year; slaughtering a beast for a meal takes only hours or a day. Thus, eight batches of silkworms a year is already startling in speed, while spending an entire morning without meat throws the whole household into shock and lamentation. In rescuing the imperiled and aiding the suffering, one prioritizes what is most urgent; the sequence of exposition truly lies in this principle. An external sage also said: 'If one person does not plow, someone will surely suffer hunger because of him; thus, if one person plows in person, someone will also be filled.' Although sericulture in the fields and fishing in the rivers are not done by oneself, roasting meat and tearing silk both partake of the guilt. Since the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was brought east, the conditions for the three kinds of pure meat have ceased. Embracing these supreme instructions, high integrity has reached ever farther. Life's fleeting span may be exhausted, yet one never tires of lifelong vegetarianism. Autumn birds and summer eggs are regarded like floating clouds; land flora and marine delicacies are treated as rotting rats. Yet over cocoon garments and silk wadding one has never harbored doubts! This is merely because reflection is exhausted by literal words, and thought is deluded regarding the expansive intent. May discerning and deeply faithful gentlemen look into this principle. Once this principle is realized, deluded actions can be reversed, cutting off the causes of silk and meat and securing the practice of vegetables and hemp. Then all classes of sentient beings will be close to deliverance.