藥師經疏 1.4

1.4

Sūtra: 'At that time...' to '...do not wish to share and give.' Fourth, answering [regarding the benefits of] hearing [the name]. The sūtra text on eliminating obstacles is divided into five: 1. curing excessive greed; 2. curing broken morality; 3. curing jealousy; 4. curing discord; 5. curing indeterminacy. Within the first text, the text is divided into six: 1. stinginess when asked by others; 2. not relieving close kin; 3. taking birth according to karma; 4. hearing the name and going to save; 5. all having their vows fulfilled; 6. taking pleasure in giving without weariness. Within the first text, the text is divided into two parts: 1. discerning greed and delusion; 2. discerning anger. This then is the first. 'Not recognizing good and evil' is general. As for 'excessive greed without satiety': 'greed' is desiring others' wealth; 'begrudging' is stinginess with one's own property. The Sifen lü states: There was a monk practicing concentration by a pool. The pool's nāga revered his virtue and coiled around him with its body. The monk was displeased and wished to make the nāga leave, so he expediently spoke a verse demanding its jewel, saying: 'The radiant maṇi jewel necklace adorns your body; / If you can give it to me, you are called a good friend.' The pool's nāga was stingy and spoke a verse in reply, saying: 'I love the maṇi jewel more than your monk's body; / I shall never give it to you, whether you remain close or not.' On account of this matter, the Buddha further spoke a verse, saying: 'Excessive greed is detested by people; frequent begging estranges friends. / The monk begged for the nāga's jewel, and once gone, it never returned.' Therefore we know that greed and stinginess can alienate close friends. Thus the Devatāparipṛcchā Sūtra states: 'Stinginess and greed abandon close friends'—that is its meaning. Furthermore, due to guarding and stinginess, one does not practice giving. Moreover, due to greed, one desires only others' wealth; wherever one is born, one is poor and destitute, without father, mother, wife, or child, without good spiritual friends, and without relatives or friends. Furthermore, the fourth fascicle of the Huayan lun states: 'The sages and āryas spoke thus: Greed and jealousy are the vessels of greatest suffering. / Seeing a beggar, their minds become vexed and turbid; / Within that turbid kṣaṇa, they can commit base defilements; / Stupidity and stinginess without giving plant the roots of poverty.' Furthermore, regarding greed, the first fascicle of the Abhidharma-samuccaya-vyākhyā states: 'Attachment to the three realms constitutes its essence; generating manifold sufferings constitutes its activity.' 'Not knowing giving' means not recognizing the cause of practicing goodness. 'And the fruit and retribution of giving' means not recognizing that practicing good causes can induce good fruits. 'Foolish and without wisdom' reveals the preceding 'not recognizing good and evil'; because of being foolish and without wisdom, they do not recognize good and evil. The Abhidharma-samuccaya-vyākhyā states: 'Foolishness is ignorance. Ignorance takes lack of wisdom regarding the three realms as its essence, and serving as the support for the arising of defilements as its activity.' 'Lacking the faculty of faith' reveals the preceding 'not knowing giving and the fruit and retribution of giving.' As for lack of faith, the Abhidharma-samuccaya-vyākhyā states: 'A faction of foolishness toward wholesome dharmas: the mind not approving in faith, taking an unpurified mind and lack of aspiration as its essence, and serving as that upon which indolence relies as its activity.' 'Amassing wealth and guarding it stingily, not wishing to share and give' reveals the preceding 'excessive greed without satiety.'