廣弘明集 27.2

27.2

The reason why living beings have long transmigrated in the ocean of birth and death is truly because they lack the boat and oars of the virtue of the precepts. If one boards the boat of the precepts and rows with the oar of compassion, yet cannot cut straight across the winds and waves to mount the far shore, there is no such principle. Therefore, although the orthodox teachings are manifold, they take the single precept as the foundation of practice. Just as going out must be through the door, how could anyone not go by these precepts? For this reason, when first conceiving the aspiration for the Way, one must first recognise this gate, weighing and maintaining practice in relation to all mental objects. What is its manner? Thus a treatise says: 'Those who receive the precepts make loving-kindness and compassion their primary duty. Toward all classes of living beings within the three thousand worlds, with their myriad koṭis of suns and moons, ascending to the peak of the [realm of] neither-perception-nor-non-perception and descending to the Avīci Hell, they arouse a compassionate mind and do not commit slaughter or injury, either to the end of their physical life or until they attain buddhahood. For a long period and universally extending throughout the Dharma-realm, this single thought of goodness has merit filling empty space; its virtue is difficult to measure, and only a Buddha knows its limit.' If it is so with non-killing, the other actions are likewise. Because of this virtue of the precepts, they can become vast and far-reaching. Hence, above in heaven and below on earth, the hidden and the manifest, sages and worthies, none fail to rely on and inherit this condition, using it as their foundation. Does not the sūtra say: 'The precepts are like the great earth, producing, completing, abiding, and sustaining'? Emanating from the arousing of the mind is called 'producing'; serving as good provisions for the noble path is called 'completing'; prolonging the Dharma for sixty thousand [years] is called 'abiding'; and securing the three karmas is called 'sustaining'. All other wholesome dharmas lack this efficacy. One who enters this gate is immediately named of the noble lineage; those who depart from it and set up [practices] falsely are called the common stream, forever submerged in the ocean of suffering with no day of deliverance. Since the transmission of the Dharma to the Eastern Xia more than half a millennium ago, it was only during the Jiaping reign of the Wei that the precept methods were first heard of; from then until now, they have spread among both monastics and laity. Yet the Great Sage, in bequeathing his teachings, knew the capacities beforehand, and therefore made the regulations for secular persons complete in some cases and lacking in others, while the Vinaya deportment for monastics has lesser and greater forms. Thus the five precepts and eight precepts are established or opened according to capacity, confronting objects without error; the sections of precepts are conditionally divided according to one's capability. This is called the teaching for receiving the laity, whose temporal conditions cannot be fixed. Leaving home is based on the Way and differs from the worldly stream; it is fully complete in its temporal conditions, with no opening of stages. Although their ranks are divided into Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna, in putting both learnings into practice the upper and lower are equal. Although the five assemblies are differentiated in grade and class according to faults, in concluding and determining they equally preserve the single precept. 'Precept' means vigilance; it is constantly held in mind. The preservation by the pure and faithful is heard through all that is heard and seen. Therefore, I briefly cite several examples, so that it may be known that there are those who uphold the Dharma.