廣弘明集 29.9

29.9

Contemplating the innate nature of human life: / Holding subtle pneuma, it is limpid and still. / Stirred by external things, desires are aroused; / The mind clings to conditions, bringing about defects. / Faults constantly arise from external dusts; / Entanglements inevitably stem from the scenes before us. / Like an echo answering in an empty valley, / Or a shadow accompanying a moving form. / Harboring greed without satiation, / Giving rein to inner thoughts to run wild. / The eyes change in accordance with form; / The gaze shifts as it pursues appearances. / Viewing the dark and yellow among the five colors, / Admiring the dazzling variety of the seven treasures. / Clinging to the grace of beauty, / Indulging in the seductive allure of charms. / Unrelinquished in sleep and waking, / Forgetting weariness day and night. / Like ripe plums awaiting the picking, / Or a swift steed bridled by reins; / Like the white sun adhering to the sky, / Never waning through the years. / Consider the ear-consciousness loving sounds: / It is like flying birds returning to the forest. / Lingering upon strings and bamboo pipes, / Gathering richly amid the five notes; / Continuing unbroken through dawn and dark, / Succeeding one another across the four seasons. / It troubles the feelings and confuses the thoughts, / Deceiving the ears and blocking the mind. / As when fragrant odors rise in abundance, / Striking the nose and generating consciousness: / Tarrying and pursuing, / Swirling without end; / Orchid and musk flank like a bird's two wings, / Yet it is like drinking poison when thirsty, or donning thorns when cold. / As for the tongue discerning flavors, nonexistent among the objects: / Great bitterness, saltiness, and sourness—all are sweet to the mouth. / Devouring living beings, / Cruelty extends to birds and beasts. / Finding the day too short, they drink wine through the long night; / Confounding clear conduct, they heed not hidden retributions. / As for the body receiving tactile sensations to appease itself: / Beautiful eyes and bright glances, skillful smiles and moth-like eyebrows; / Slender waists and delicate hands, tender bones and pliant flesh; / Clinging to the body, fragrant and clean, touching the flesh, smooth as fat. / The wild mind is confused, / Inverted thoughts deceive itself. / As for the mental consciousness clinging to conditions: / Stray thoughts are boundless; / Harboring no wholesome thoughts, / All arise as snares of evil. / Thus the six dusts together obstruct the wholesome path, / Like purple usurping vermilion, or wind laying low the grass. / Born embracing delusion, one grows old alongside it; / Following behind ignorance, there is nothing that is not affliction. / Reincarnating in the burning house, sinking in the ocean of suffering; / Clinging stubbornly through the long night, ultimately unable to change. / Misfortunes follow one another; calamities and anomalies arise by turns. / Harboring heterodox beliefs within, indulging in licentious sacrifices without; / Squandering emptiness and taking lives wrongfully, meeting with sudden and violent death. / Falsely expecting divine blessing to summon fortune; / But when the axle of the front cart breaks, the rear carriage overturns in its tracks. / Bringing disaster to the state, bringing ruin to the clan, losing one's life and cutting off sacrifices— / Never at first reproaching oneself within, examining one's conduct and reflecting upon oneself. / August Heaven has no favorites; it only accords with the good. / Outwardly purifying the sensory realms of the eye, inwardly cleansing the dust of the mind: / Unstained and ungrasping, without desire and without anger. / Like jade possessing lustre, like bamboo having skin; / Like the lotus in the pond, / Like the fragrant orchid born in spring: / Silt cannot defile its body, / Deep darkness cannot conceal its truth. / When mists and dew gather, pearls flow; / When the bright wind stirs, fragrance arises. / Doing much good as the years accumulate, / Clear conduct in action renews day by day. / Constantly accompanying virtue, / Ever neighboring the Way. / Seeing the beloved fruit of pure karma, / Taking non-killing as the cause; / Free from desire and evil, cultivating oneself, / Hence there is no hindrance to the spiritual nature. / Troubles and burdens removed, obstacles and hindrances purified; / Like water long settled, like a mirror newly polished. / Outwardly reflecting myriad images, inwardly discerning all afflictions. / Once adventitious defilements are removed, one returns to one's own nature. / Severed forever from the three wretched paths, the eight difficulties eternally destroyed. / Supreme goodness having been cultivated, wholesome deeds without flaw. / The single pure path has no divergent track. / Only the wise person can bare his heart, / Like a stone cast into water, meeting no resistance in the mind. / The mind is clear and cool as ice; / The will is bright and pure as snow. / Entanglements having been removed, / Worries and fears likewise destroyed. / Parting forever from attachment and affection, / Looking upon birth and death in eternal farewell. / Viewing the unrestrained youths of the present, / Contemplating the brilliant children of the future: / Harboring the jade of Chu before it is cleaved, / Containing the divine vessel within oneself. / Cultivating holy deeds without cease, / Truly accumulating goodness without end. / Spreading glorious renown for eternal kalpas, / Bequeathing a pure breeze to ten thousand generations. / Is it by subduing the strong that one is called brave? / It is by the Way triumphing that one becomes a hero.