法苑珠林 99.16

99.16

As the Xiuxing daodi jing states: That practitioner, having attained the first fruit of stream-entry, knows that all five desires ultimately return to impermanence, yet cannot completely eliminate them. Why is this? Because upon seeing sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and fine tactile objects, thoughts arise, and therefore passionate desires are stirred and cannot yet be severed. It is like a brāhmaṇa who delights in purity and cleanliness; having gone behind an outhouse, he accidentally defiles his finger. Walking to a goldsmith, he says: 'My finger has been defiled with impurity. Burn it with fire!' The goldsmith admonishes him, saying: 'Do not have such an intention! There are other expedients to remove this impurity: wipe it with ashes and earth, wash it with water. If I burn it with fire, you will not be able to bear it; the burning pain of fire striking your body will be far worse than before.' Hearing this, the brāhmaṇa's son became filled with anger and scolded the goldsmith: 'Do not measure others with your own mind! Just because you cannot bear it yourself, you say others cannot endure it. I have no use for a hand that has filth upon it. I dare not walk on the road, fearing that someone will touch me; if I were to approach them, I would lose my moral virtue. Among worldly arts and techniques, astronomy, and geography, there is no classic or record I do not know. Why should impurity cling to my finger? Do not delay; follow my words and remove the filth on this finger!' Hearing this, the goldsmith heated his tongs until glowing red and clamped his finger with them. Feeling the searing pain, the brāhmaṇa could not endure it and jerked his finger, putting it into his mouth. The goldsmith laughed heartily and said to the youth: 'You praised yourself as clever, erudite, gathering the ancient and knowing the present, with nothing you have not mastered, pure and spotless. Yet now you have no self-control, holding an impure finger inside your mouth! You should know that being rash and frivolous is not enough to make one a master.' The brāhmaṇa replied: 'When I was not encountering the pain, I saw the finger's impurity; as soon as I met with the fiery venom, I instantly forgot the filth of the finger.' Seeking the path is just like this: through the long night one cultivates detachment from passionate desire, yet as soon as one sees a beautiful form, lustful intentions stir again. Why is this? The sense faculties are not yet restrained, the outflows are not yet exhausted, the roots of error are not yet eradicated, right concentration has not yet arisen, past attachments are not eliminated, and defiled desires arise again. Thereupon the verses say: