法苑珠林 97.5

97.5

Consider that the four great elements are a vessel of poison, brimming with defilements. The six thieves are wild masters, clinging to every sense object. There is no longer any hope of going against the stream; there is only the momentum of revolving [in saṃsāra]. When it comes to plucking a single hair to benefit all under heaven, one is stingy and will not do it; when it comes to giving up a single meal to supplement someone else's rations, one begrudges it and will not bestow it. Sunk and stagnating in birth and death, tenaciously clinging to conditioned phenomena, the Buddhas knit their brows over them, and the bodhisattvas weep blood for them. We quietly observe that among worldly folks, when the parents of the noble and eminent pass away, they mostly prepare funeral rituals and broadly slaughter living beings, gathering kinsmen and entertaining guests. Seeking merely present glory, they do not evade karmic causes; or fearing external ridicule, they do not cultivate the internal scriptures. Thus, when the father dies, he suffers double agony here; when the mother passes away, her [torment in the cauldron of] boiling water and burning coals is especially multiplied. Consequently, they revolve through the tridhātu and wander across the ṣaḍgati; the four miserable destinies are easy to enter, but liberation is difficult to attain in myriad kalpas. We grieve for the departed spirit of the affectionate mother and lament the unfilial son's repaying her with poison. Yet just as prolonged drought makes one long for the blessing of sweet rain, and frequent pestilence makes one eagerly await the medicine of a skilled physician, so too are these deceased parents ordinary mortals: how could they be free of evil karma? If the causes of sin are not extinguished, the bitter retribution will be difficult to avert. If one does not rely on various superior merits, how could the fruit of bliss ever be realized? May it be that at the verge of death they make vows to be brought into a śītavana, using funeral implements to support the body and jointly cultivating merits, in the hope of relieving the hunger of flying and crawling creatures and avoiding debts in lives to come.