鐔津文集 1.10.1

1.10.1

All things have nature and emotion. From antiquity to the present there are death and life. Yet death, life, nature, and emotion have never failed to exist by depending upon one another. Death indeed depends on life; life indeed depends on emotion; emotion indeed depends on nature. That all things drift and sink in birth and death is because emotion burdens them. A sage had a grand vision: he traced their causes prior to birth, showing whence they come; he pointed out their consummation after death, teaching how they should cultivate themselves. Therefore, using his Way to guide the world, he expelled passion and falsity in the present, so that their necessary consummation in the future would be aided. Now, as for life, since there are a 'before' and an 'after' which interact with the 'present', does this not make the three times? Seeing that future good consummations stem from cultivation in the present, one can certainly see that failure and success in the present stem from what was practiced in the past. Emotion is that which arises from nature; all are emotions. If the habits of emotion have good and bad, at the moment of their transformation, they interact darkly with their own kind and are formed. Among the emotional habits thus formed, some are slight and some are deep; the vessel and capacity are in some cases great and in some cases small. The sage treated them appropriately; therefore he set forth his teaching as the five vehicles and as the three baskets (Tripiṭaka). Diverging from the five vehicles, there are yet further branchings, so multitudinous that they can scarcely be numbered. At the highest, they fully consummate his sagely Way; at the lowest, they reach the humble tasks of worldly farmers, merchants, artisans, physicians, and the hundred crafts: to all he showed why they are so. Yet both these and the five vehicles are all subsumed within the three baskets. To cite the principal ones, the five vehicles head them. The first is called the human vehicle; the second is called the heavenly vehicle; the third is called the śrāvaka vehicle; the fourth is called the pratyekabuddha vehicle; the fifth is called the bodhisattva vehicle. What are called the latter three vehicles guide their followers to transcendently leave the world, causing them to be purely cleansed of defilement and proceed directly to the true reality, acting spiritually and penetrating it, so that the world cannot pry into it. What are called the former two vehicles, because worldly feelings are so tightly bound and desires cannot be dismissed at once, regulate them according to their feelings. What is called the human vehicle refers to the five precepts. The first is not killing, which means one ought to love life and must not violently harm a single creature on one's own whim, not merely not eating their meat. The second is not stealing, which means not taking what is not right, not merely not seizing another's goods. The third is not engaging in sexual misconduct, which means not disordering oneself with anyone who is not one's spouse. The fourth is not lying, which means not deceiving others with words. The fifth is not drinking alcohol, which means not disordering one's cultivated mind with intoxication. What is called the heavenly vehicle broadens the five precepts and is called the ten virtues. The first is not killing; the second is not stealing; the third is not engaging in sexual misconduct; the fourth is not lying: these four have the same meaning as in the five precepts. The fifth is not engaging in frivolous speech, which means not speaking words that embellish wrongdoing. The sixth is not engaging in double-tongued speech, which means not saying one thing to a person's face and another behind their back. The seventh is not engaging in harsh speech, which means not cursing and also not uttering unrighteous words. The eighth is not envying, which means not bearing jealousy. The ninth is not harboring resentment, which means not letting wrath and malice lodge in the heart. The tenth is not being deluded, which means not being blind to good and evil. Now, cultivating all ten of these is the recompense whereby one is born in heaven; cultivating the former five is the provision whereby one becomes human. If all under Heaven were to cultivate themselves respectively with these, even supposing they were not born in heaven, each person would still become thoroughly good; and that everyone should be good while the world is not well ordered has never occurred. Formerly, Emperor Wen of Song said to his minister He Shangzhi: 'I have just read the treatises written by Yan Yanzhi and Zong Bing, which elucidate the Buddha's Dharma with extreme clarity and reason, and both serve to open and encourage people's minds. If all within our borders were influenced by this transformation, I could let my robes hang down, fold my hands, and bring about Great Peace while sitting still. What further business would there be?' Shangzhi then advanced and said: 'In a village of a hundred families, if ten people uphold the five precepts, then ten people will be honest and cautious. In a town of a thousand households, if a hundred people cultivate the ten virtues, then a hundred people will live in harmony. If this customary teaching is maintained throughout the realm, then among millions of registered households there will be millions of benevolent people. If one can practice one good deed, one eliminates one evil deed; if one eliminates one evil deed, one puts an end to one punishment. When one punishment ceases in the family, ten thousand punishments cease in the state. Then Your Majesty's words about bringing about Great Peace while sitting still are indeed correct.' These words hit the mark. If we compare them with Confucianism, then with its so-called five constants of benevolence and righteousness, they differ in name but are one in essence. Now, benevolence and righteousness were the traces of governance for a single lifetime by the ancient kings. Discussing them in terms of traces, they have never failed to be different; tracing them back in terms of principle, they have never failed to be identical. Traces issue from principle, while principle is the ancestor of traces; traces are the branch, while principle is the root. It is fitting for the gentleman to seek the root and put aside the branch. The saying goes: 'Look at what he does; observe his motives; examine what gives him peace. How can a man conceal himself? How can a man conceal himself?' Mencius said: 'If you do not measure their base but only level their tops, a piece of wood an inch square could be made to stand higher than a pointed tower.' This means that one must measure their base and balance their tops before speaking of them. If one holds a single lifetime's traces to account for what is meant by the three times, how is that different from someone walking ten paces interrogating someone walking a hundred paces, saying: 'Why are your footprints so numerous? Why are they not as few as mine?' How could such a person know the distance of where the other was going or how many paces he had taken? Thus when sages establish teachings, their expansions have different suitabilities. Speaking of a single lifetime, one ought to follow human feelings to govern between physical form and life. Speaking of the three times, one ought to rectify the human spirit, pointing to conditions and karma beyond life and death. Although Shennong's records of the hundred medicinal herbs differed, they were identical in curing disease; although Houji's designations of the hundred grains varied, they were identical in nourishing people. Sages' establishment of teachings is different, yet they are identical in doing good. It may be asked: 'The Buddha's Way governs the three times, which is not something reached by ear and eye. By what do you know it clearly?' I answer: 'I say that when a person dies, their spirit does not die; this is the proof of it. The spirit being in a person is like fire being in firewood. Although the former firewood is reduced to ashes along with the fire, how could that by which the fire now burns ever be reduced to ashes?' It may be asked: 'The principle of the spirit is dark and subtle. Once its physical form has perished, who can control where it goes? Does it turn out to be a human, or does it turn out to be a flying, diving, different kind of creature?' I answer: 'This can be understood. If one infers it from the karma of their emotional habits, then its retribution does not err.'