三教平心論 2.33

2.33

Master Mou said: 'My praise is like taking dust to add to Mounts Song and Tai, or gathering morning dew to augment the rivers and lakes. Your slander is like tilting a palm to obscure the light of the sun, or lifting a clod of earth to stop a breach in the Yellow River. My praise cannot make the Buddha higher; your slander cannot bring the Buddha lower.' How could the detractors of today cause any harm to Buddhism? They merely bring guilt upon their own bodies. Zhang Wujin said: 'Han Yu remarked that those who write history, if they do not meet with human disaster, will meet with heavenly punishment. How can one fail to be fearful and lightly engage in it? Now, historians merely gather the actual traces of people; if their praise and blame should happen to be unfair, there is still bodily calamity. How much more so when one lightly and frivolously slanders the Great Sage without cause! All grave offenses can be repented, but the offense of slandering the Buddhadharma cannot be repented.' Therefore, it is recorded in the Lotus Sūtra that the offense of slandering the Dharma is supreme and most grave. People today merely by slandering the Buddha have already planted the causes of immeasurable guilt. How much more so since the Buddha transforms people with the good way: those who believe in the Buddha will surely do good, and those who do not believe in the Buddha will surely do evil. When evil accumulates, it destroys the body; after the death of the body, the retribution of guilt is even graver. 'Calamities sent by Heaven may still be avoided; calamities brought on by oneself cannot be escaped'—this is what it means. If one says that in death there is eternal extinction with no further consciousness, then the Xici says: 'The wandering spirit undergoes transformation'; the Classic of Filial Piety says: 'They offer sacrifices to them as ghosts'; the Zuo Commentary says: 'Ghosts still seek food'; and Zhang Suiyang said: 'In death I shall become a ferocious ghost to kill the rebels.' This shows that after death there indeed exists the nature of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing. If one says that although there is consciousness in death, there is no further retribution for sins, then the Book of Documents says: 'The Way of Heaven blesses the good and brings misfortune to the licentious'; the Book of Changes says: 'Ghosts and spirits harm the full and bless the humble'; the Zuo Commentary says: 'Whoever violates this covenant, may the bright spirits destroy him'; and Zhuangzi says: 'When one commits evil in quiet and seclusion, spirits are able to execute him.' This shows that in the dark unseen realm there are indeed matters of rewarding good and punishing evil. If in this world there are officials who ferret out villainy and uncover hidden crimes like spirits, who certainly would not indulge the guilty to foster wickedness, how much less would the spirits who truly administer the scales of granting and taking away! They are bright and upright; they cannot be concealed from; they cannot be deceived; they do not bend to the private feelings of worldly people; they do not fear the authority and influence of the mortal world. How, then, can the guilty escape punishment?