法苑珠林 92.4

92.4

Now, the sentient beings of the triple realm (tridhātu) and the lives endowed to the four modes of birth (catur-yoni)—their six sense-faculties grasp at conditions, and their seven consciousnesses forge karma. Burned by the fires of desire, their greedy minds are insatiable; their worldly pursuits are like a swift-flowing river, their actions like the Scorched Earth. Thus, even a foot of water's wave or an inch of fleeting shadow cannot be halted by great strength, nor can the moon's driver or the sun's chariot be checked by heroic talent. In between, they drink bitterness and swallow poison, harboring torment and harboring grief. Their physical and vocal actions are driven by the ten drives; their thoughts and cogitations make them the masters of the eight defects. All this is because of clingings of affection: ensnared and tethered by wives, children, wealth, and sensual pleasure, it causes them from beginningless time until now to constantly suffer the eight kinds of suffering. They do them themselves and instruct others, in unbroken succession. Seeing good, they do not praise it; hearing evil, they rejoice in it. They burn forests and dry up marshes; they unleash hounds and fly falcons; they exhaust the tunes of Zheng and Wei and indulge to the utmost the delicacies of sweet tastes. In jesting laughter they commit evil, and in an instant it becomes wrongdoing. They insult and disparage holy images, trample upon pagodas and temples, show no reverence for the Vaipulya scriptures, and destroy and break up the Saṃgha. They set their own measures and weights and discard those of others; with guilty hearts they betray principle, and with shameless ingratitude deceive their own kin. Although the seven-foot body is not other and the square inch of mind rests with oneself, to be able to awaken one's nature is not easy for a person. If one indulges this mind and mouth, all offenses will amass. We pray that monks and laity alike will each summon sincere devotion, wash away deviant greed, forever leave behind the fires of desire, purify body and speech, and fulfill practices and vows; extinguish the karma of the three obstacles and illumine the wisdom of the three knowledges; attain ease and self-mastery with the five eyes and six supernormal faculties; and cut off forever the five hindrances and six dusts from this moment on.