法苑珠林 56.5

56.5

Now, practicing good evokes pleasure just as a shadow follows a form; committing evil invites suffering just as a sound produces an echo. Therefore, wealth is like pearls and jade, and nobility is like Xiao and Cao; wearing brocades and embroideries as garments, making residences of gold and silver; standing before rising clouds and dragon winds, above the balmy breeze of phoenix flutes; striding briskly through spacious halls, pacing leisurely down long corridors; trailing pearl-bedecked slippers upon vermilion stairs, wearing golden sables at the azure lattice windows. For food, rare delicacies fill the banquet and terrestrial and marine delicacies crowd before them; tripods and seasonings spread like stars, sweet fragrances disperse like clouds. For sitting, there are lofty halls and elegant chambers, jade steps and pearl curtains; strings and bamboo pipes sound plaintive and clear, drifting on the air. For sleeping, orchid lamps shine brilliantly, embroidered screens cast their shade; brocade quilts having been spread, black-ram fleeces are brushed clean. For traveling, four-horse teams fly like lightning, palanquins move like thunder; a thousand chariots and ten thousand horsemen surge with a deep, echoing rumble. The causes of merit and good retributions are briefly described like this: they are obtained as these superior benefits due to having practiced generosity (dāna) in the past.