諸經要集 7.5

7.5

Transmigrating within the three realms, one drifts through the six destinies like duckweed. The spirit is imperishable, yet consciousness and thought are dim and bewildered. Now dying, now being born, now coming, now going, one casts off life like grass, tallying beyond calculation. Truly, the hills and mountains of the great earth are nothing other than our former dust; the flowing rivers of the azure sea are entirely the same as our tears and blood. Looking at it this way, who is not a friend or relative? Although humans and ghosts are distinct, birth and extinction are truly the same. Feelings of affection and love occasionally echo back and forth. The multitudes of the misguided and ignorant, not recognizing near or distant kin, cause the destruction of others' bodies to nourish their own physical lives. Mutually butchering and slicing one another, together they become bitter adversaries, holding grudges against each other for eons, their painful retribution difficult to exhaust. When quietly reflecting upon this matter, how could it not break one's heart?