盂蘭盆經讚述 1.7

1.7

[The sūtra says:] "Wishing to liberate his parents to repay their kindness in nursing him with milk," / The commentary says: Second, explaining his recount of filial piety, there are two parts: first, recounting the filial mind; second, recounting filial deeds. Here, it recounts the filial mind. In the past, my mother toiled and wearied in giving birth to me; since the kindness she held was so heavy, in principle it must be repaid. For this reason, an Āgama sūtra says: "The Buddha told the monks, 'Always remember to be filial and obedient, making offerings to your parents.'" The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: "Better to receive three hundred drills piercing one's body in a single day than to produce a single thought of malice toward one's parents. Why? Because the kindness of parents is heavy." According to the Malla Sūtra: "A mother carries a child for ten months as if carrying the weight of Mount Tai. For three years she nurses with milk; her kindness in nurturing and raising cannot be repaid even by crying out to heaven. Even if one were to pile up precious jewels from the earth up to the twenty-eight heavens and give them all to people, the merit obtained would not equal a single fraction of the merit of making offerings to one's parents." As for "nursing with milk," according to the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa*: "For three years she nurses with milk, and the mother raises and nurtures, so that the child gradually grows up. Within those three years, the child remains in the mother's embrace; she rolls him from wet places to dry, and out of love for the child, [her blood] transforms into milk to raise and nurture him." According to an Āgama sūtra, when a child in Jambudvīpa is born and drops to the earth, from birth up to three years of age, how much milk does he drink in his mother's embrace? Maitreya replied, "He drinks one hundred and eighty hu of milk, not counting the blood consumed within the mother's womb." After a child in Pūrvavideha is born, up to three years of age, he drinks one thousand eight hundred hu of milk. After a child in Aparagodānīya is born, up to three years of age, he drinks eight hundred and eighty hu of milk. In Uttarakuru, when a child is born, he sits by the roadside in swaddling; travelers give him their finger, he sucks on it, and immediately becomes an adult. That land has no milk, so it is also included within [the explanation of] "nursing with milk."