法苑珠林 88.6

88.6

Now, what is esteemed in worldly society is benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. What sentient beings rely upon is refraining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking alcohol. Although the sacred and the secular run contrary to each other, the gradual teachings communicate between them. Therefore, what arises from benevolence is non-killing; what upholds righteousness is non-stealing; what reveres propriety is non-licentiousness; what expresses trustworthiness is non-lying; what models wisdom is non-intoxication. These are merely temporary means to receive and transform, not the teaching of cultivating the root itself. Cultivating the fundamental teaching is what is called the true Dharma. Internal instruction to propagate the Way must begin with causes; the causes are non-killing, non-stealing, non-licentiousness, non-lying, and non-intoxication. These reside in actual reality, pointing directly to matters with straightforward speech; thus, they do not borrow ornate phrasing or rely on metaphors to reveal their meaning. Cultivating causes in this manner, one does not anticipate the fruition yet the fruition is verified; one does not covet joy yet joy becomes manifest. If one neglects what is near and gazes at the distant, or discards the small to preserve the great, then one will have no refuge or direction. Therefore, we know that receiving and maintaining the cause of non-killing naturally verifies the fruition of benevolence and righteousness. How do we know this is so? Now we see that when upholding the precept of non-killing, benevolence becomes prominent without seeking benevolence; when observing the precept of non-stealing, righteousness expands without rejoicing in righteousness; when guarding the precept of non-licentiousness, propriety is established without praying for propriety; when complying with the precept of non-lying, trustworthiness is extolled without yearning for trustworthiness; when receiving the precept and renouncing alcohol, wisdom shines forth without practicing worldly wisdom. Such realities may indeed be called shaking the net and grasping the headline so that ten thousand meshes open wide, or activating the loom and driving the universe to leave behind cold and heat! What merit could be added to it? What virtue could turn against it? If one does not cultivate this and is blind to one's desires, one will vainly expend thought on external forms and names, exhausting one's mind over the hundred philosophical schools, fatiguing one's body and spirit throughout the night, and losing one's ears and eyes in bright mornings. How far would that stray from the Way, rushing away never to reach it? If one attains the root, then there is no desire that is not resolved. One comes to know that a fish capable of swallowing a boat does not spawn in the waters of a ditch, and how could the Peng or Kun bird soar within the thicket of a quail?