法苑珠林 74.6

74.6

Now, of those who receive physical form within the six destinies, there is none whose origin is not greedy desire. Of those who take on substance between the two modes [of Heaven and Earth], all have clinging to wealth as their root. Although humans and beasts are distinct from each other, yet in stinginess and possessiveness they are no different. Therefore, one who seeks only gain when faced with wealth cannot be called a wise man; one who forgets righteousness upon seeing profit fails to become an exemplary person. Furthermore, money, wealth, jade, and silk are external dependencies, whereas banners, flowers, and the property of the Saṅgha are internal offerings. In principle, one ought to reflect on one's own poverty and rejoice in the wealth of others; how could one, because of one's own poverty, greedily plunder the property of another? For this reason, Devadatta's plucking of a flower immediately caused him to regress and fall; Gavāmpati's damage to grain brought him in return the body of an ox; Kāśyapa's begging for cakes was ridiculed by laypeople; and when a bhikṣu smelled a lotus fragrance, the pond divinity reprimanded him with astonishment. From this we know: how could the transgression of theft not be a grave sin? Consequently, in the morning one has no reliance for food, and at night one has no clothes to sleep in; one roosts like a bird or lodges like a deer, naked and exposed to bitter suffering; one sleeps by the roadside and seeks food walking through marketplaces. Mothers are driven south like partridges, and sons are borne north following Hu horses. Husbands rush west like the shadow of the sun, and wives flow east like river currents. There is none who does not suffer heartbreak looking back toward their old homeland, or weep aloud when thinking of their birthplace. Tears stream swiftly and dissolve into blood; hearts are melancholic and oppressed, with brows furrowed. Such sufferings all come from having failed to give dāna in previous lifetimes and having committed robbery and theft. Thus the sūtra says: 'If you wish to know the past causes, look at the present fruits; if you wish to know the future fruits, simply observe the present causes.' For this reason, I urge all practitioners: you must always be admonished and vigilant not to give rise to a mind of theft, even to the point of not coveting dropped and abandoned things—how much less intentionally stealing the goods of others!