廣弘明集 9.22

9.22

Your servant laughs, saying: The Sanyuan pin says that the retributions of good and evil karma all stem from a single body. Furthermore, the Yuanshi zhuan says: 'If one commits sexual misconduct, theft, or filial impiety, at death one enters hell to undergo the five sufferings and eight difficulties, and is later born among the six beasts and the peripheral barbarians.' Deductions based on this reveal extreme contradictions. Moreover, during the Yellow Emperor's time of the clay images, it took three years for the qi of the upper authenticities to enter before they could speak. This qi of Upper Purity shares the same source as the Grand High; in terms of what came first, there was neither evil nor good, so why did it enter into the clay images and immediately fall into the eight difficulties as barbarians? In fashioning clay into images, there was previously no cause either; why, after being fashioned, should there be the distinction between central and peripheral? Furthermore, was the qi of the upper authenticities foolish or clever? If it were foolish, it should not have entered the clay and been able to speak; if it were clever, it should have recognized the five sufferings and eight difficulties. Why would it not delight in the joy of goodness and instead crave suffering and difficulty? Scrutinizing these various points, they are deeply laughable.