法苑珠林 96.4

96.4

夫色性無象觸必歸空。三世若假入微終散。雖復迴天震地之威。會歸磨滅。齊冠楚組之麗。靡救埃壤。所以形非定質眾緣所聚。四塵不同風火常異。坼而離之。本非一物。燕肝越膽。未足為譬。菩薩利生方窮其旨。而積此淪昏生生不已。一念儻值曾未移時。障習相蕩旋迷厥路。橫指呼空。名之為有。養己傷命。號之為毒。蓄身外之財。以充其慾。攘非己之分。用成其侈。豈直溫肌嗛腹若此而已哉。至於積篋盈藏溢爼充庖。無始迄今供此幻我。亦未厭足。靜思此事。豈不罪歟。今既覺過徒畜坏瓶。物我俱空寶惜何在。是以體知幻偽。大士常心。捨妄求真。菩薩常願。證知三界。為晨夜之宅。惺悟四生。為夢幻之境。外云生以身為逆旅。死當以天地為棺槨。內云王子投身功逾九劫。刳肌貿鴿駭震三千。將今類古冀望同爾。欲使白牛有長路之能。寶舟有彼岸之力也。

The nature of form has no physical mark; when touched, it inevitably returns to emptiness. If the three times are illusory, when examined to their minutest elements, they will ultimately disperse. Even with authority that can turn the heavens and shake the earth, it will inevitably end in obliteration; the splendor of the Qi caps and the Chu sashes can never save one from turning to dust and soil. Therefore, the body has no fixed substance, being a confluence of diverse conditions; the four elements differ, and wind and fire constantly diverge. Splitting and separating them, they are originally not a single thing. [The distance between] the liver of Yan and the gallbladder of Yue is not sufficient as a comparison. Only when bodhisattvas benefit living beings do they fully exhaust its meaning. Yet accumulating this dark delusion, beings are born and reborn without cease. If a single thought should happen to occur, before even a moment passes, obstacles and habit-energies buffet one another, and they immediately lose their way. They point errantly to emptiness and call it existence; harming life to nourish oneself is termed poison. Storing up wealth outside the body to satisfy desires, and encroaching upon what is not one's share to indulge extravagance—how could it merely be a matter of warming the skin and filling the stomach like this? Even to the extent of amassing chests and filling storerooms, overflowing platters and filling larders, from beginningless time until now people have served this illusory self, yet have never been sated. Reflecting quietly on this matter, is it not sinful? Now that one has realized the error of vainly keeping this unbaked jar, both object and self are entirely empty; where does treasure and cherish lie? Therefore, understanding illusion and deceit is the constant mind of the Great Being; relinquishing the false to seek the true is the constant vow of the bodhisattva. They realize that the three realms are an abode of morning and evening, and awaken to the four modes of birth being a realm of dreams and illusions. Secular teachings say: "In life, the body is a lodge; in death, one should take Heaven and Earth as inner and outer coffins." Buddhist teachings say: "The prince offering his body surpassed nine kalpas of merit; slicing flesh to ransom a dove shook the three thousand [worlds]." Comparing the present to antiquity, one hopes to be the same, seeking to enable the white ox to have the strength for the long road, and the jewel ship to have the power to reach the other shore.