廣弘明集 3.18

3.18

The fourth explanation states: The inner teaching has many paths; leaving home to be ordained is naturally only one of its methods. If one can keep sincerity and filial piety in mind and take benevolence and kindness as the foundation, then like Sudatta and Jalavāhana, one does not necessarily have to shave one's hair. How could it be intended to exhaust the well-field lands to erect stūpas and temples, or to deplete registered households to make them monks and nuns? This has all come about because those who govern are unable to regulate it, resulting in illicit monasteries interfering with the people's farming and unproductive monks draining the state's tax revenues. This is not the original purport of the Great Enlightened One. Moreover, to discuss it further: seeking the Way is a plan for oneself; sparing expense is a calculation for the state. A plan for oneself and a calculation for the state cannot both be fulfilled. A loyal minister serves his ruler and abandons his parents; a filial son brings peace to his family and forgets the state. Each has his own course of action. Among Confucians, there are those who do not bow before kings and dukes, exalting their personal integrity; among recluses, there are those who decline kingship, refuse the chancellorship, and flee the world into mountains and forests. How can one tally their taxes and corvée labor and deem them criminals? If one could transform all the common people so that they all entered the place of practice, as in the World of Wondrous Joy or the Realm of Śaṅkha, there would be natural non-glutinous rice and inexhaustible jewel treasuries; why seek the profits of farming and sericulture?