法苑珠林 83.30

83.30

又法句喻經云。昔有比丘。日至城外曠野塚間。路由他田乃得達過。其主見已便興瞋恚。此何道人。日此來往不修道德。即問道人。汝何乞士。在吾田中縱橫往來。乃成人蹤。道人報曰。吾有鬪訟。來求證人。故行田中。田主宿緣鉤連應蒙得度。便逐道人私匿從行。見曠塚間。屍骸狼藉。膖脹臭爛。鳥獸食噉。散落異處。或有食噉盡不盡者。有似灰鴿色者。𦚭蟲吮𠲿臭穢難近。比丘舉手語彼人曰。此諸鳥獸是我證人。其人問曰。此諸鳥獸何為證人。汝今比丘與誰共諍。比丘報曰。心之為病多諸漏患。我觀此骸分別惡露。便還房室還自觀身。從頭至足與彼無異。然此心意流馳萬端。追逐幻偽色聲香味細滑之法。我今欲誡心之源本。汝心當知。興起是念。無令將吾入地獄餓鬼之中。我今凡夫未脫諸縛。然此心賊不見從命。以是之故日往曠野。為說惡露不淨之想。復與心說。心為卒暴。亂錯不定。心今當改無造惡緣。時彼田主聞道人教。以手揮淚哽咽難言。然彼田主。於迦葉佛十千歲中修不淨想。尋時分別三十六物惡露不淨。爾時比丘及彼田主。即彼曠野大畏塚間得須陀洹道。故知前聖後聖通誡殷勤。不得輕怠自損來報。眷屬非久。暫時緣合。善惡交報。親疏何定。不得偏執貪著室家。縱得榮位暫時非久。比見愚俗不知無常。廣事宅田愛戀妻兒。貪求名利不知厭足。生平不知修福。死去還屬他人。

Furthermore, the Dharmapada-avadāna-sūtra says: In the past, there was a monk who went daily outside the city to a charnel ground in the wilderness. The road passed through another person's field before he could arrive. When the owner saw him, he became angry, saying, "What kind of man of the Way is this, coming and going here every day without cultivating the Way and virtue?" He then asked the man of the Way, "What mendicant are you, crossing back and forth in my field, creating a trodden path?" The man of the Way replied, "I have a lawsuit and have come looking for witnesses, which is why I walk through your field." The field owner, possessing connected past karmic conditions that warranted deliverance, followed the man of the Way secretly. In the wilderness charnel ground, he saw corpses strewn about in disarray, swollen, stinking, and putrid, devoured by birds and beasts, scattered in different places; some were completely eaten, some half-eaten; some had the color of gray pigeons; maggots and worms sucked and gnawed at them, foul and repulsive to approach. The monk raised his hand and said to the man, "These birds and beasts are my witnesses." The man asked, "How are these birds and beasts your witnesses? With whom are you, monk, disputing?" The monk replied, "The mind's affliction has many outflows and troubles. I contemplate these skeletons to distinguish foul impurities, and then return to my room to contemplate my own body from head to foot, which is no different from them. Yet this mind runs astray in myriad directions, pursuing the illusory and false phenomena of forms, sounds, scents, tastes, and fine touches. I now wish to admonish the source of the mind: 'You, mind, should know! When giving rise to such thoughts, do not lead me into the hells and hungry ghosts!' I am currently an ordinary mortal not yet free from the fetters, yet this mind-thief does not obey commands. For this reason, I go daily to the wilderness to preach the notion of foul impurities to it, and speak to the mind again: 'The mind is impetuous, chaotic, and unsettled. Mind, you must now reform and create no evil conditions.'" When the field owner heard the instruction of the man of the Way, he wiped away tears with his hands, choked with emotion, and could hardly speak. Now, that field owner had cultivated the contemplation of impurity for ten thousand years under the Buddha Kāśyapa; he immediately distinguished the thirty-six foul and impure substances. At that time, the monk and the field owner attained the path of a stream-enterer (srotaāpanna) right there in that terrifying charnel ground in the wilderness. Thus we know that the former and later sages all admonished with earnest diligence: one must not be careless or indolent, harming one's future retribution. Relatives do not last long; they come together briefly through conditions. Good and evil return in mutual retribution; how can close and distant relations be fixed? One must not cling stubbornly with greed and attachment to family and home. Even if one attains glory and high status, it is temporary and does not last. Recently we see the foolish worldly people who do not understand impermanence: they lavishly build houses and acquire fields, cherish and dote on wives and children, and greedily seek fame and wealth without satiety; during their lifetime they do not know how to cultivate merit, and upon dying, everything belongs to others.