諸經要集 17.83

17.83

As the Naxian biqiu wen fo jing says: At that time, King Milinda asked the arhat monk Nāgasena, saying: "If a person in the world has done evil for a hundred years, yet at the point of death is mindful of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) and after death is born in heaven, I do not believe these words. Furthermore, it is said that if one kills a single living being, upon death one immediately enters Niraya (hell); this too I do not believe." The monk Nāgasena asked the king: "If a man takes a small stone and places it on the water, does the stone float or sink?" The king said: "The stone sinks." Nāgasena said: "If one takes a hundred large stones and places them on a ship, does the ship sink or not?" The king said: "It does not sink." Nāgasena said: "The hundred large stones in the ship do not sink because of the ship. Although a person has fundamental evil, by being mindful of the Buddha for a single moment, on account of this he does not enter Niraya but is born in heaven. Why do you not believe it? That small stone sinks just as a person who does evil without knowing the Buddhist scriptures immediately enters Niraya after death. Why do you not believe it?" The king said: "Excellent! Excellent!" The monk Nāgasena said: "Suppose two people die at the same time: one is born in the seventh Brahma heaven, and one is born in the country of Kaśmīra. Although the distances for these two people are different, upon death they arrive at the same time. It is like a pair of flying birds: one rests atop a tall tree and one rests atop a low tree; when the two birds take flight at the same time, their shadows reach the ground at the very same moment." The monk Nāgasena said: "A foolish person who commits evil incurs great calamity, while a wise person who commits evil incurs small calamity. It is like a piece of burning iron on the ground: one person knows it is burning iron, and one person does not know. Both take hold of it. However, the hand of the one who does not know is severely burned, while that of the one who knows suffers only minor injury. Committing evil is also like this. Because the foolish cannot repent on their own, their calamity is great. When the wise commit evil, knowing it ought not to be done, they daily repent of their faults on their own; therefore their calamity is small."