法苑珠林 5.25

5.25

Now, the conditions of the ten unwholesome actions are vast and easily entered by the mind; the power of the myriad virtues is feeble and struggles to move the spiritual nature. Treacherous intents frequently arise and ominous signs are repeatedly heard; the true Dharma is seldom encountered, while the teachings sink and the Way falls into ruin. Thus, if a single breath is not pursued, one departs forever for myriad kalpas; if briefly parted for a single kṣaṇa, one is permanently separated across a thousand generations. This is truly because faith and slander vie with one another, and good and evil mutually infringe. The foolish and deluded lightly raise corrupt winds, while the pure and upright often suffer persecution from flatterers. Thus, during the more than six hundred years since the teaching spread to the land of Cīnasthāna, Cui, Helian, and the Zhou cruelly brought ruin and eradication three times. Calamity did not spare their heels, and disaster reached their own persons, thereby inviting the signs of sympathetic resonance and the retributions of good and evil. For this reason, Jian'an was moved by a dream and his illness was cured; Wenxuan had an apparition of a spirit and his sickness healed. When the King of Wu besieged the monastery, the relics floated with radiance; when the Lord of Qi carried out an execution, the blade instantly snapped. Yuwen destroyed the saṃgha and ulcers ruptured; Tuoba abolished monasteries and pus flowed. Sun Hao urinated on an image and suffered pain in his genitals; Helian was ferocious and obstinate and was struck dead by thunder. Ancient and modern signs of auspiciousness and calamity regarding good and evil are as extensively detailed in works such as the Xuan yan ji, the Ming xiang ji, the Bao ying ji, the Gan tong zhuan, the Yuan hun zhi, the You ming lu, the Sou shen ji, the Jing yi ji, the Fa yuan, the Hong ming ji, the Jing lü yi xiang, the San bao zheng ying, the Sheng ji ji, the Gui xin lu, the Xiguo xingzhuan, the Ming seng zhuan, the Gao seng zhuan, and the Ming bao shi yi. With their scrolls exceeding several hundreds, they cannot all be listed. Transmitted in the classics and canons, hung high like the sun and moon, they are sufficient to enable one to see with one's own eyes and dispel empty doubts and future perplexities. Therefore a sūtra says: 'Practicing good brings good retribution; practicing evil brings evil retribution.' The Book of Changes states: 'A family that accumulates good will surely have an abundance of blessings; a family that accumulates evil will surely have an abundance of calamities.' One may truly know that the retributions of good and evil follow one like shadow and echo, and the omens of suffering and joy have always overcome one another. Having searched through more than four thousand records and biographies, I have selected the efficacious anomalies and placed them at the end of each section. If one does not cite proof, perverse afflictions will be difficult to eliminate. What remains unexhausted, I hope will be supplemented here.