佛說巨力長者所問大乘經

At that time, the Buddha addressed the elder Mahābala and the other elders, saying:

— You elders, in former lives, have already cultivated wholesome roots and a firm, steadfast faculty of faith. If you wish to train in the conduct of the Bodhisattva-path and to seek the realization of Bodhi, you should contemplate those sentient beings who, from the beginningless past until now, have revolved in transmigration, bearing the recompense of suffering through countless lives without limit — and how this physical body is not solid or real, but is like an illusion, like a magical creation.

Sentient beings, through deluded, inverted thoughts, fabricate the causes of karma; outwardly they borrow many conditions, accumulating and gathering them together, like froth congealing upon the surface of water. The five aggregates and four great elements, with the karma of former lives as their cause, summon and draw forth the force of conditioning, accumulating the various seeds that abide within the storehouse-consciousness (ālaya).

Then, through the mother and father, when their love and passion harmoniously unite in joyful union to the point of utmost ecstasy, each of them emits a thick substance called Kalala (the father's essence and the mother's blood). The spiritual consciousness first relies upon that place, and so the essence and blood join and bind together; the impure substance congeals within the womb, passing through many stages: the inner karmic wind impels the four limbs to grow, and through the force of karma the four-element physical body gradually takes form, the faculties complete, and the consciousness of afflictions arises in full.

When it comes forth from the womb and contacts the outer wind, it suffers pain and lets out a cry, unable to comprehend any of the surrounding conditions. The wind of conditions moves, and there is breath flowing in and out; suckling the mother's milk, it produces excrement and urine. The consciousness, manifesting and operating, gives rise to many discriminations; greedily craving food and drink, it nourishes the faculties, benefiting the skin and flesh, blood and entrails, marrow, bones, sinews, hair of the head and body, nails, teeth, and saliva; and only then does the bodily form mature — the limbs and frame, whether ugly or beautiful.

In accordance with their karmic causes, beings receive their various, differing recompenses; greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and afflictions pursue and cling to them. Meeting with objects of enmity, the body falsely gives rise to acceptance and rejection. Toward the forms of the five desires, they let their minds run loose and become defiled and attached, and to the body of karmic recompense they add yet more karmic recompense.

Inwardly they grow intimate with evil companions; outwardly they are arrogant toward the venerable. Toward the Bodhisattvas and the true Dharma their minds take no delight, nor are they willing to study, learn, receive, and uphold it; giving free rein to their thoughts, in foolish indulgence they commit every kind of evil. Hatred, delusion, cruelty, flattery, deceit, jealousy, anger, and obstinacy; striking, beating, scolding, and cursing; reviling and harming sentient beings.

Toward the beauty of men and women they become utterly defiled and attached, like a thing bound fast that cannot be untied. As for their own bodies, they do not contemplate impermanence, but take themselves to be eternal and everlasting, without change or death. Toward wealth and precious treasures they greedily seek and hoard without weariness, never knowing contentment.

The defilement of worldly toil veils and covers their consciousness; not cultivating wisdom, they let ignorance increase, not knowing that the forms of worldly men and women, and their own bodies as well, are the very place where the five faculties and the four great elements, mixed and defiled, arise. Through the conditions of inverted views, they are cast down into impurity. Skin, blood, flesh, hair of the head and body, nails, and teeth have no self-nature of their own, but arise from craving and the binding of karma.

The causes and conditions of transmigration flow on without interruption, and the bitter fruit of birth-and-death never comes to an end. The fire of karma and afflictions burns body and mind, never resting at peace day or night. Dull and benighted, slothful and heedless, they take no delight in the path of Bodhi and turn their backs on the noble path.

Toward their own defiled minds they seek no purity; their bodily bearing is ever insolent, their minds haughty and lofty; they slander cause and effect, despise the good and virtuous, and toward the conditioned, illusory marks and the emptiness of dharmas, they neither know nor understand — and so these unwise sentient beings remain in the sea of birth-and-death without limit of term. O elders! With regard to such matters you must awaken and understand: the beautiful forms of men and women, wealth, possessions, and relatives all come into being through false conditions, meeting together but for a moment.

You should remember that whatever has flourished will likewise be destroyed. The true mark of the five aggregates is in its essential nature wholly empty; through various deluded causes one receives many recompenses thereafter. It is like a person in a dream passing through many imagined scenes: upon waking, all of it is empty, and there is nothing at all.

Therefore the great Bodhisattva, resolutely seeking Perfect, Right, and Complete Enlightenment (Samyak-saṃbodhi), with regard to all forms awakens and is liberated from defilement with effortless ease, and his wisdom becomes clear and bright. Though he makes the great vow to enter the various destinies and take up many kinds of bodies, it is solely to teach and transform sentient beings, yet his mind is not inverted. In just this way, until he universally delivers all beings throughout the ten directions, complying with sentient beings he performs the various works: giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, and shared endeavor — the methods of skillful means by which he gathers and embraces them and brings benefit to sentient beings.

He has them abandon the house of wrong views and enter the right path, cultivate the various wholesome practices and turn together toward the Great Vehicle, resolved to reach Bodhi, his vow firm and unbending, never retreating. O good man! The great Bodhisattva, because he seeks Perfect, Right, and Complete Enlightenment, attains purity of body and mind and obtains the four total retentions (the dhāraṇīs of Dharma, of meaning, of mantra, and of forbearance).

Toward the names and phrases, the meanings, the seals, and the forbearance, he does not forget; carefully examining and reflecting, he attains this true self-nature of all dharmas. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, teaches and transforms all sentient beings equally, giving rise to no discriminating mind, no love or hate toward enemy or friend. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, is not attached to the fine foods and rare delicacies of the world, but takes his meal solely from the savor of "the joy of Dharma and the delight of meditation." The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, contemplates that all worldly dharmas are conditioned marks of arising and ceasing, all false and unreal.

The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, dutifully serves his father and mother and respectfully obeys his teachers and elders, receiving their instruction without any thought of contempt or arrogance. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, is born into a noble lineage and becomes a great king of a country, using the right Dharma to teach and transform the people and to bring strife to an end. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, cultivates the practice of having few desires and knowing contentment, without grasping or miserliness, and keeps far away from butchers who delight in killing and do harm, from the class of Caṇḍālas (the cruel and vicious), and from all the evil disciplines;

he cultivates the practice of celibacy and severs the mind of defiled craving and lust.

The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, his speech truthful and without falsehood, his voice clear so that all who hear it rejoice, expounds the Dharma like a spring gushing forth without cease. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, skillfully tames greed, hatred, and delusion… his mind is not defiled or attached toward the fruits within the three realms, nor does he cast aside the provisions of the practice of suffering (the eleven austere practices of one who has gone forth).

His wisdom is manifest, his mind ever clear and bright. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, cultivates day and night the four immeasurables (loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity) and the six perfections, on and on without the least weariness, and counteracts all of the eighty-four thousand afflictions and toils, giving rise to manifold merits. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, is not attached to Bodhi nor weary of arising-and-ceasing; among all dharmas his mind attains mastery, whether entering the stream of transmigration or realizing Nirvāṇa.

The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, attains much peace and joy in the supreme Great Vehicle taught by the Buddha, and is able to remember and recollect the profound scriptures of the Buddhas of past ages, guarding them without forgetting. He is also able, in place of the Buddhas, to proclaim and turn the wheel of the right Dharma, like a great river surging onward without end. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, keeps far away from flattery, arrogance, jealousy, ferocious beasts, venomous vermin, and the practice of the Piśācas (worshippers of spirits), and gives rise to a heart of loving-kindness, cherishing sentient beings without causing them harm or distress.

The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, does not covet wealth nor crave food and drink, and does not abandon the destitute and poor or the lonely and filthy — and so he is reborn in a place of riches with possessions in full, his relatives gathered round, his bodily form upright and dignified, possessing great majestic virtue. The great Bodhisattva, his body and mind pure, toward all pleasures has no need to know them clearly, and toward all sufferings has no need to seek liberation — such as birth, old age, sickness, and death; being parted from those one loves; or striving to avoid the encounter with foes one does not wish to meet…

These sufferings, made manifest, can be understood, yet he is not touched and troubled by afflictions. He contemplates all sentient beings and regards their forms as like a dream, like an illusion, without any solidity. O elders!

Hear what I say and know it to be thus. The great Bodhisattvas, their bodies and minds pure, see that the four great elements, the five aggregates, and the physical body do not abide and are utterly unreal.

At that time, the World-Honored One again addressed the elder Mahābala and the other elders, saying:

— O good man! In just this way the great Bodhisattva, within birth-and-death, sows conditions there, forms bonds and cherishes sentient beings, and manifests forms without any seeking; amid many realms he keeps far from craving and defilement. His body and mind are impartial, neither grasping nor relinquishing; he ever does wholesome deeds so that sentient beings may gain benefit, advantage, and peaceful joy, never abandoning his task in sloth.

The lifespan of the Bodhisattva within the three realms increases or decreases in accordance with the changes and the joy of sentient beings; though he wishes for all to be awakened, his mind is not defiled or attached, and toward all sentient beings he is impartial and consistent. As for precious and beautiful treasures — such as gold and silver, storehouses, wealth, rice and grain, garments, food and drink, beds, couches, bedding, scented powder, scented unguent, flower garlands, necklaces, female attendants, and relatives, together with all the precious and lovely adornments of the world, and even his own physical body and lifespan — the great Bodhisattva clings to none of them in craving.

If there be sentient beings who come begging for such things as wealth, rice and grain, gold and silver, storehouses, jewels and gems, clothing, food and drink, beds, couches, bedding, scented powder, scented unguent, necklaces, flower garlands, men, female attendants, relatives within and without, his lifespan and physical body — he is ready to relinquish them, never having a mind of greedy miserliness for even the span of a kṣaṇa.

Why is this? Because the great Bodhisattva long ago realized the mark of arising-and-ceasing — that it is false and illusory — and so he is not defiled or attached. The great Bodhisattva also, because he wishes to fulfill the Six Pāramitās (giving, keeping the precepts, patient forbearance, vigor, meditative concentration, and wisdom) so as to reach the far shore of enlightenment and deliver sentient beings far from the shore of suffering — therefore toward these false and illusory objects of causes and conditions, arising and ceasing, he seeks only to keep far away, his mind without attachment, without greed or miserliness.

O good man! You should know that the great Bodhisattva is ever vigorous, without the least sloth, cultivating the Six Pāramitās in just this way so as to reach the subtle and wondrous, supremely excellent practices of the far shore of enlightenment, swiftly to accomplish Unsurpassed, Perfect, Right, and Complete Bodhi (Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi), wholly in accord with the true and constant, his mind never turning back.

At that time the World-Honored One, for the sake of the elders, proclaimed this meaning once more in verse:

Excellent, O elders!

You should know:

One who is a Bodhisattva,

Toward dharmas of arising and ceasing,

With manifold bodily forms,

And every kind of lifespan,

And all the various adornments:

Female attendants, relatives —

Because he wishes to fulfill

The Six Pāramitās

And transform sentient beings,

Keeping far from the shore of suffering,

Toward these possessions

Feels no craving or defilement.

O good man!

Listen with joy:

To practice the conduct of the Bodhisattva,

You must diligently cultivate,

Letting not greed and hatred

And the afflictions bind you,

Day and night drawn tight,

Sinking into the three evil paths

With no rest or respite.

O good man!

This body is just like

A vessel for holding food and drink,

Its hollow space, within and without,

Should ever be kept clean and pure;

The various poisons and harms,

Let them not enter in.

If there be food and drink,

Look upon the choicest savors,

And likewise the lifespan,

As ruining and harming the physical body.

The various greed, hatred, and delusion,

If they exist within the body,

Examine the savor of the dharmas:

They are the poison of afflictions,

Ruining and harming the physical body —

The food and drink of sentient beings,

And likewise their lifespan.

O good man!

All sentient beings,

From times past until now,

Have had but little wisdom.

Like a little child

Who wishes only to drink milk

And knows nothing else,

So toward the various objects:

By causes they summon fruits,

And the fruits again create causes;

Their wisdom does not become manifest,

Their minds ever dull and benighted;

Craving only food and drink

To nourish the four great elements,

Ever within a dream

Yet never waking from it.

Meeting the teaching of the Buddha,

Their minds do not cultivate it,

Like a drunken person speaking

Words without meaning or savor.

From the realm of the five desires

They have never kept apart;

Day and night, wrong thoughts

Steadily increase their suffering and distress,

Accumulating sorrow and grief;

Their bodies and minds heedless,

Following the stream of ignorance,

They enter the sea of birth-and-death,

Tossed and drifting,

Bearing these karmic recompenses:

Hunger, cold, hardship, and misery,

Gaunt, emaciated, and haggard;

The far shore of enlightenment still distant,

They cannot win liberation.

These sentient beings,

For so long now,

Their true mind and very essence

Veiled and darkened by defilement and delusion,

Cannot awaken,

And so toward illusory scenes

They cling in craving and defilement.

O elders!

You must know that one's own body

Is formed through borrowed causes and conditions,

Possessing no solidity,

Brought about only by the power of karma,

Fabricated and summoned together;

In birth-and-death they revolve,

Bearing the various differing recompenses,

Cycling through many kalpas,

Unable to win liberation.

The wise contemplate this for themselves:

"My body" — to be wearied of and cast aside;

But the foolish, deluded ordinary beings

Do not contemplate impermanence,

Grasping at self, grasping at person,

Fixed solely upon the pleasures of desire,

Without good and virtuous friends,

Binding for themselves the conditions of karma.

When the body decays and life comes to its end,

Binding for themselves the conditions of karma —

When the body decays and life comes to its end,

They are cast down into the hells,

Revolving through the three realms,

Bearing the various sufferings and distresses;

A great fire burns the body,

With no ground on which to flee.

The Buddhas, in great compassion,

Pity the world,

Yet those without a mind of faith

Are also hard to rescue and protect.

The wise know for themselves

That the physical body is false and illusory,

Possessing no reality,

Brought about only by karmic causes,

The place where they are summoned together,

The great elements, faculties, and dusts

Joined, harmonized, and accumulated.

The body is but a false name,

Like froth, like duckweed,

Wholly without substance.

Blood and pus, loathsome —

Why crave and cling to them?

In just this way one should know:

Gathered together therein,

The impure must be contemplated;

Giving rise to a mind of weariness,

Diligently cultivate the holy Dharma,

Attain the body that does not decay,

Keep far from the host of evils,

Draw near to good and wise friends,

Have faith in the supreme Vehicle,

Cultivate the practice of Bodhi,

Broadly cultivate merit and wisdom,

Be born in the land of the Buddha,

The body and mind at peace and joy,

Pure and without fear.

Using wondrous robes

And the choicest food and drink,

Beds, couches, and bedding,

Flower garlands and necklaces,

Precious, priceless incense —

Lacking in nothing at all,

Of every kind of wealth —

With a pure mind,

Joyfully make offerings,

Conscience and shame clearly understood,

Hoping to remove the karma of sins,

Increasing merit and wisdom.

A person such as this,

Through a hundred thousand kalpas,

Toward the Unsurpassed Vehicle

Gives rise to faith and understanding,

Gradually arriving at awakening:

The true nature is genuine emptiness,

Originally still and tranquil,

Like a sea level and calm,

Without increase or decrease.

Though it meets the wind of conditions

And the water rises into waves,

The waves are none other than the water —

Motion and stillness are one.

Understanding it in this way,

One abides in the realm of the Buddhas,

Is not born into the evil destinies,

Brings transmigration to an end,

And after a hundred thousand koṭis

Of nayuta-views,

The ground of the mind grows bright and clear;

Greed, hatred, delusion, and pride,

The afflictions and the causes of karma,

No longer manifest and operate;

The mingled and various fruits of suffering

Are naturally no longer borne.

The physical body, firm and solid,

For immeasurable time

Is in joy and delight;

The mind has no wrong thoughts,

Nor any false imaginings;

Toward inverted scenes

It ever gives rise to right reflection,

Skillfully speaks the essentials of the Dharma,

And benefits sentient beings.

He himself is without illness,

And others too are without it;

In glad accord and harmonious agreement,

At peace, secure, and joyful,

He deeply enters meditative concentration,

Parting from all the bonds of suffering;

Ever using wholesome practices,

He protects sentient beings,

Creating no evil conditions,

Drawing near to the wise;

He extols the Tathāgata's

Supreme and wondrous Dharma,

Reverently praising it,

Joyfully and respectfully practicing it.

He contemplates throughout the world

That the marks of conditioned things

Are all like an illusion or a dream,

Without the least reality.

He clearly understands that food and drink,

Bodily strength and lifespan,

Are the root of suffering and affliction;

The foolish do not know this,

But indulge in craving and defilement,

For the span of a kṣaṇa

Without ever ceasing.

The savor of food and drink

Increases their faults and errors;

Though good friends counsel them,

Their minds do not believe and accept it.

Meeting with evil friends,

They ever draw close to them;

Their bodies enter into folly and delusion,

Unable to awaken.

Toward all the objects of the dusts

They cling with false imaginings,

Heedless of day or night,

Infatuated with manifold pleasures.

The wise contemplate this

And give rise to much weariness and disgust.

Again, all the worldly

Forms and marks are illusory and deceptive,

And in the end decline and fade away:

Wife, children, sons and daughters,

Relatives, and the conditions that bind —

Like travelers upon the road

Who meet and gather but for a time;

When the causes and conditions are spent,

Love and affection part in separation.

Clinging fondly to one another,

Even a little, is hard to keep.

O elders!

You should know this illusory body

Is like a painter

Who paints with many colors:

Though he produces the lovely and the ugly,

In time it too decays and is destroyed.

Again, it is like the winter,

When water freezes into ice,

Firm and hard but for a time,

Then melts away into water again.

Why is this so?

Because the marks are false and illusory,

Their essential nature not real;

Yet foolish and deluded people

Follow the scenes and give rise to greed,

Delighting in defilement and attachment,

Their minds giving rise to inversion,

Creating unwholesome causes,

Falling into the three evil paths,

Bearing the various sufferings,

Passing through many kalpas

With no fixed limit.

Even if born among humans or gods,

They are still infatuated with pleasure,

And by means of this illusory body

Fabricate evil karma

Without end or exhaustion.

A foolish person such as this

Is ever bound fast,

Wrecked by Māra the foe of enmity.

Wife and children, men and women,

Father, mother, and relatives

Bind the mind tight,

Never to be escaped.

The time of day and night,

And being thus shackled,

He mistakes for joy,

When in truth it is suffering.

The three poisons defile him within,

Increasing his arrogance;

A person such as this

Goes against wholesome conditions,

Gives rise to no wisdom,

And fabricates without bound.

The various "wrong disciplines,"

With many relatives,

Father, mother, wife, and children,

Wealth and foodstuffs,

Are born within the dharma of suffering;

Their minds feel no weariness,

Nor think of going forth and escaping.

Indulging in craving and defilement,

They seek much precious wealth,

Accumulating it in storehouses;

Seeing many sentient beings

Hungry, suffering, destitute, and poor,

Their hearts feel no pity or compassion,

No rescue of those in peril and distress.

They do not practice the right path;

Their wrong thoughts grow stronger;

Though the wise instruct them,

They will not listen,

And so they keep revolving in transmigration.

O elders!

The physical body of a human being

Is like a great tree —

Roots, trunk, leaves, and branches

Luxuriant and spreading wide.

But long without the soak of water,

The earth and sand dry and barren,

The sun scorching it through,

Its living sap exhausted and drained,

In no great span of years

It will surely wither and rot.

All sentient beings,

Young and robust and strong,

Their bodily form full and abundant,

Craving and attached to the world,

Chasing after the five desires —

Their sinews and blood waste and wane,

Sickness and suffering invade,

Their features grow gaunt and haggard,

Their faculties decline and decay;

They cannot last long,

But come at last to wearing away and perishing.

In just this way the foolish

Cherish and love the physical body,

Crave much precious wealth,

Do not know sin and merit,

Do not contemplate impermanence —

Like a withered, rotting tree

That before long snaps and falls.

O elders!

Contemplate this illusory body

And those riches:

Gold and silver, lapis lazuli,

Pearls and maṇi-jewels,

Crystal (giant clam) and agate,

Coral and amber —

Their substance is not real,

Like that froth upon the water.

The foolish, deluded by sentiment,

Give rise to false esteem and prizing,

Only increasing their greedy desire,

Confounding and disordering right mindfulness,

So that toward the Dharma-gates of the Buddha

They have no way of entering in.

The wise know and understand

That the physical body and possessions

Are all alike

To scenes beheld within a dream,

All without self-marks.

Guarding the six faculties,

Closing fast the five desires,

Drawing near the Three Jewels,

Practicing the conduct of the six perfections,

Casting off all greed and miserliness,

Severing the mind of defiled craving,

He contemplates those desires

As like a great fire

Burning sentient beings,

With the utmost dread and fear,

And should not cling to them.

End of the Middle Scroll.