法苑珠林 5.37

5.37

Now, concerning the human realm, physical forms are fleeting and false, with many sinful karmas, and people take pleasure in creating flaws and blemishes. The way of benevolence and wisdom perishes, and kindness, goodness, and righteousness are severed. Hence Cui Zhu assassinated his lord, and Shangchen harmed his father; the Seven Warring States contended together, and the myriad states followed in their wake. They vied in pursuing arrogance and extravagance, and each flaunted wanton licentiousness. The pure and simple customs were ended forever, and fine transformations ceased to operate. The three poisons contend to arise, and the ten entanglements strive to burst forth; the four floods are vast and overflowing, and the five hindrances are deep and dark. Perversion and ignorance flourish all the more, so that life is like a tree on a precipice, and existence equals an endangered city. Honey on the blade is easily licked, and the well-vine is hard to maintain for long. Atop the mounds and beneath the pines, weeping sounds are broken and ruined; in broad alleys and behind layered gates, sorrowful voices choke with tears. Now, on behalf of those in the human realm, we completely repent: all those with round heads and square feet, from the highest wisdom down to the lowest folly, reaching to Aparagodānīya in the west and Pūrvavideha in the east, exhausting Uttarakuru in the north and draining Jambudvīpa in the south; even down to those in wooden houses and felt tents, tattooed and unkempt, drinking blood and eating raw meat, living in nests and dwelling in caves, with carved hooves and black teeth, living upside-down and walking sideways; those where weak waters float feathers, crossing perilous peaks by ropes; those at frontier fortresses and distant garrisons, clad in armor and carrying spears; those bound in chains and imprisoned, carrying cangues and holding wooden yokes—may they all cultivate courtesy and deference, humaneness, filial piety, and kindness; may they quell unrestrained minds and cut off wild and licentious passions; may their character equal metal and stone, their bodies resemble Mounts Song and Hua, untouched by the eight sufferings and forever rid of the nine untimely deaths.