諸經要集 20.7

20.7

如中阿含經云。爾時世尊。告諸比丘。眾生無始生死長夜輪轉。不知苦之本際。諸比丘於意云何。若此大地一切草木。以四指量斬以為籌。以數汝等長夜輪轉生死所依父母。籌數已盡。其諸父母數猶不盡。諸比丘。如是無始生死長夜輪轉。不知苦之本際。佛告諸比丘。汝等輪轉生死。飲其母乳。多於恒河及四大海水。所以者何。汝等長夜或生象中。飲其母乳無量無數。或生駝馬牛驢諸禽獸類。飲其母乳其數無量。汝等長夜棄於塜間。膿血流出亦復如是。或墮地獄畜生餓鬼。髓血流出亦復如是。

As the Madhyamāgama says: At that time, the Bhagavat addressed the bhikṣus: 'Sentient beings wander through the long night of saṃsāra from beginningless time, not knowing the original limit of suffering. Bhikṣus, what do you think? If all the grass and trees of this great earth were cut into counting-sticks of four fingers' measure to count the parents you have depended upon wandering through the long night of saṃsāra, the number of sticks would be exhausted, yet the number of those parents would still not be exhausted. Bhikṣus, such is the wandering through the long night of beginningless saṃsāra, not knowing the original limit of suffering.' The Buddha addressed the bhikṣus: 'In wandering through saṃsāra, the mother's milk you have drunk is more than the waters of the Ganges and the four great oceans. Why is this? In the long night, you may have been born among elephants and drunk their mother's milk immeasurably and innumerably; or born as camels, horses, oxen, donkeys, and various kinds of birds and beasts, drinking their mother's milk in an immeasurable number. Abandoned in charnel grounds in the long night, the pus and blood that flowed from you was likewise so. Or falling into hells, animal realms, and hungry ghosts, the marrow and blood that flowed from you was likewise so.'