法苑珠林 48.5

48.5

Setting up images to manifest truth is a constant instruction for transforming the mundane; pointing a finger as a snare for the moon is the standard regular rule for leaving the world. Yet, because false thoughts and inverted feelings flow with the stream and habits become entrenched, they do not think of reforming, but drift and sink following their karma. Therefore the Nirvāṇa-sūtra says: 'Those who do good and rise purely are likened to dust on a fingernail; those who do evil and stagnate in sinking are compared to the earth's dust.' This truly stems from the six thieves arriving together and the ten defilements becoming intertwined. Some compare [the body] to a walking latrine or a painted vase; others liken it to a precarious fortress or an unbaked vessel. Thus the decaying mansion about to collapse is ever blazing with the three fires; running to hide in an empty village, one is ever pursued by the five swords. The metaphor drawn from the well and the river presses the physical form in every kṣaṇa; the oxen and sheep at the slaughterhouse bring life to its end with each passing water clock. It is also like a rat entering an oily horn: arriving at the dead end, where can it turn? How much more so when the five turbidities intercross and the four mountains ever press in—how could one remain complacent and fail to give rise to sorrow and repentance? For this reason the Great Sage bequeathed his teachings, the gist of whose doctrines and metaphors terminates in admonition and restraint, so that body and mind do not drift into heedless desires, but reflect, exert themselves, and earnestly examine their faults. One sees only that when facing death, the light of the eyes fails, and as family members gather round, face to face they cannot save him. Alas! With tears flowing, one laments their sinking down! Already subject to such suffering, why not admonish oneself? Faults arise from oneself; reform depends on no one else. While one still possesses slight goodness to dwell in retribution as a human being, and moreover encounters the bequeathed Dharma and personally sees the Three Jewels—if one should fall into the evil destinies, even if right before one's eyes, one will not know it. By this grief and sorrow, there is no justification for laxity and indolence.