像法決疑經

Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was between two sāla trees on the bank of the Bạt-đề River, having just delivered his final disciple, Subhadra. At that time, the great bodhisattvas, the great śrāvaka disciples, the great Brahmā kings, devas, nāgas, ghosts and spirits, kings, and all sentient beings were each composed and undistracted. The Blessed One then told the assembly: “The Mahāparinirvāṇa teaching has been completed. Previously, I clearly explained the buddha lands of the ten directions to Bodhisattva Universal Vastness. If any among you still have doubts, ask quickly. Before long, the unsurpassed precious Dharma will disappear.”

Hearing these words, the entire assembly could not restrain their emotion and wept in grief. Only those who had attained realization and liberation remained free from attachment and sorrow. In the assembly was a bodhisattva named Constant Giving.

Relying upon the Buddha’s majestic power, he rose from his seat, respectfully joined his palms, and said to the Buddha: “Blessed One, I wish to ask something, but I fear troubling you. May the Tathāgata not regard it as an offense.” The Buddha told Constant Giving: “The Tathāgata has transcended the eight worldly concerns. What doubt remains?” Bodhisattva Constant Giving respectfully said: “Blessed One, Tathāgata!

In future ages, sentient beings will no longer behold the Tathāgata’s physical body or hear the true teaching. In the future Semblance Dharma age, wholesome Dharma will grow weaker day by day, while evil Dharma will become increasingly powerful. What meritorious deeds should beings then be taught as the best?” The Blessed One told Bodhisattva Constant Giving: “Excellent!

Excellent! Beings of future ages are indeed worthy of compassion. Why?

Although they will diligently endure hardship in cultivation, they will not encounter the right principle; they will perform much merit but receive very little blessed reward.”

Good man, in future ages, bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, male and female Buddhist disciples, kings, ministers, elders, householders, brahmins, and others who slight my teaching and lack sincere faith and reverence for the Three Jewels may perform meritorious deeds, but they will merely seek fame, profit, and superiority over others. Thus, not a single thought of transcendence will arise in them.

Good man, in the future Semblance Dharma age, innumerable calamities and evils will occur. Why? Because monastics and laypeople alike will not understand rules or proper conduct. Donors will convene assemblies and invite the Sangha, yet station guards at the entrances to prevent bhikṣus from attending. If poor people come seeking food, they too will be refused. Such assemblies are held merely for eating and drinking and possess no merit whatsoever. Other beings will wish to perform goodness by themselves but will not teach others to do so; when they see others doing good, they will neither rejoice nor offer even a little assistance. The merit of such people is meager.

Other beings will see old monasteries, stūpas, images, and even scriptures falling into ruin, yet refuse to repair them, saying, “I did not originally make these, so why should I repair them? I would rather build something new myself.” Good man, the merit of building anew does not equal that of restoring the old. The merit of restoring the old is very great.

Other beings, seeing people gather to perform meritorious works, will donate their property because they too desire fame. Yet when poor people or solitary elderly persons without support come begging, they will insult and drive them away without offering the slightest help. Such beings do good because fame has inverted their minds and cultivate merit because fame has made them foolish and deluded; they do not truly perform merit. Such people are indeed pitiable: they expend much wealth but gain very little merit.

Good man, I once told the assembly: “Suppose someone, throughout asaṃkhyeya ages, offered his body to the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and śrāvakas of the ten directions. This would not equal another person’s giving a single meal to an animal. The latter person’s merit would surpass the former’s by immeasurable and boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of times.”

Good man, when I discussed generosity in the scriptures, I intended that monastics and laypeople cultivate loving-kindness and compassion by giving to the poor and destitute, to solitary elderly persons without support, and even to hungry dogs. My disciples did not understand my intent. They devoted themselves only to giving to fields of reverence and not to fields of compassion. The field of reverence consists of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The field of compassion consists of the poor, solitary elderly persons without support, and even ants. Of these two fields of merit, the field of compassion is supreme.

Good man, one person may spend his entire life, from birth to old age, giving away wealth. Yet many people of differing circumstances—poor or rich, noble or lowly, monastic or lay—may join together to help others, each regularly contributing only a small amount and gathering it in one place for distribution, as appropriate, to the poor, solitary elderly persons without support, or those afflicted by grave illness. Their merit is extremely great. Even if they possess nothing to give, but in every thought wish to practice generosity, their merit is inexhaustible. By contrast, the merit of practicing generosity alone is very small.

Good man, in future ages, my disciples will often delight in beautiful garments and flavorful food, crave gain and support, accumulate things greedily, fail to cultivate loving-kindness, habitually act in anger, and become jealous and resentful upon seeing others perform good deeds.

In short, such people live by wrong livelihood and practice deception in pursuit of fame and profit. If they see someone give food to a poor beggar, they become angry and think: “Why should monastics practice generosity? They need only cultivate meditative concentration and wisdom.

Why undertake such troublesome and useless affairs?” Those who think this way are Māra’s retinue. At death they will fall into hell and endure boundless suffering. Emerging from hell, they will fall among the hungry ghosts and suffer without end.

Emerging from the hungry ghosts, they will be born as dogs for five hundred lives. Having escaped existence as dogs, for another five hundred lives they will always be born poor and lowly, perpetually afflicted by sickness, hunger, and hardship, without a single moment of ease or freedom. Why?

Because, upon seeing others practice generosity, they did not rejoice in their merit.

Good man, I reflect that I attained buddhahood because, throughout innumerable kalpas, I practiced generosity and helped poor and suffering beings. The buddhas of the ten directions likewise attained buddhahood through generosity. Therefore, in most scriptures that teach the six pāramitās, generosity is placed first.

Good man, suppose a person has lost both legs. Though wishing to travel far, he cannot. A bhikṣu is likewise. Even if he cultivates the other five pāramitās for kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges but does not practice generosity, he cannot reach the farther shore of nirvana.

Good man, without generosity, morality is not pure. When morality is not pure, there is no compassionate mind. Without compassion, one cannot practice patience. Without patience, there is no diligence. Without diligence, there is no meditative concentration. Without concentration, there is no wisdom. Without wisdom, one is constantly afflicted by immeasurable adventitious defilements.

Good man, the buddhas of the three times all revere this Dharma gate of generosity. Therefore, among the four means of embracing beings, embracing through material giving is supreme.

Good man, at times I praised morality; at times patience, meditative concentration, or wisdom; at times the dhūta practices or the practice of few desires and contentment; and at times śrāvakas or bodhisattvas. This was because the faculties of sentient beings differ. Evil bhikṣus of future ages will not understand my intent.

Clinging to self and to whatever characteristics they have seen, they will destroy my Dharma. Evil bhikṣus will sit and expound the scriptures, yet fail to comprehend my profound intent. Following words and clinging to meanings, they will contradict the unsurpassed true Dharma and its real character, while constantly praising their own explanations as agreeing with the Buddha’s intent.

They will say that other Dharma teachers falsely deceive monastics and laypeople. Those who speak this way will remain submerged in the ocean of suffering. When evil bhikṣus see others practicing meditation, they will say: “This person is foolish, like a dead tree, and knows no scripture or treatise by which to practice.” Those who speak thus will incur karmic punishment for many kalpas.

For fame and profit, evil bhikṣus will take turns humiliating one another. Some will perform meritorious deeds without relying on scripture or treatise, following their own views, taking wrong as right, and failing to distinguish heterodox from correct teachings. They will proclaim to monastics and laypeople everywhere: “My understanding and views are correct.” Know that such people will quickly destroy my teaching.

Evil bhikṣus will also observe the Vinaya but fail to understand the profound meaning of the Vinaya treasury. They will even say: “In the Vinaya treasury, the Buddha permitted eating meat.”

Good man, if I fully explained the meaning of eating meat, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas on the lower stages would still be confused. Therefore, ordinary bhikṣus who hear this give rise to slander. The permission to eat meat in the Vinaya treasury is inconceivable.

Good man, from the time I first attained the path until now, disciples in various places have appeared to accept meat. Ordinary people actually perceive them eating meat, while other beings see bhikṣus manifesting the act of eating meat. Still other beings, knowing that bhikṣus eat meat, enter deeply into immeasurable methods of counteraction.

Immeasurable bhikṣus sever the higher portion of the afflictions, immeasurable bhikṣus sever the middle portion, and immeasurable bhikṣus sever the lower portion. They liberate immeasurable beings and lead them into the Buddha’s path. The Tathāgata’s work of teaching is inconceivable.

Since attaining the path, my disciples have never eaten the flesh of sentient beings. In the Vinaya treasury I permitted eating meat because I knew with certainty that such meat was not produced from the four great elements, born from a womb, born from an egg, born from moisture, or produced through transformation; nor was it united with consciousness or with life. Know that no such meat exists in the world.

Good man, evil bhikṣus in future ages will expound the scriptures and Vinaya everywhere, following the words and clinging to their meanings, unaware of the Tathāgata’s hidden and profound intent.

Good man, that the Buddha should appear in the world and cause his disciples to eat the flesh of sentient beings is utterly impossible. If one eats flesh, how can one be called greatly compassionate? Good man, this pure Dharma now contains immeasurable multitudes, yet each person sees differently.

Some see the Tathāgata entering nirvana; some see him abiding for one kalpa; some see him abiding for immeasurable kalpas. Some see the Tathāgata’s body as six zhang tall; some see a small body; others see a great body. Some see the reward body seated upon the ocean of the Lotus Treasury World, emanating hundreds of thousands of millions of Śākyamuni Buddhas to teach the Dharma gate of the mind-ground.

Some see the Dharma body as equal to space—undifferentiated, signless, unobstructed, and pervading the dharmadhātu. Some see this sāla grove as nothing but earth, sand, grass, trees, stones, and gravel. Some see it as pure and adorned with gold, silver, and the seven treasures.

Some see it as the place of practice of the buddhas of the three times. Some see it as the inconceivable domain of the buddhas.

Good man, wherever the buddhas appear, travel, teach, or remain, they are entirely free from worldly characteristics, yet without departing from the world they reveal the Dharma’s true character. The Tathāgata’s teaching embraces all phenomena. When the Buddha utters one word, one phrase, or one sound, all sentient beings understand it differently according to their faculties and kinds.

The Tathāgata’s unique qualities lie beyond the understanding of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. Through sovereign power, the Tathāgata teaches beings according to their faculties and capacities. In the Semblance Dharma age, evil bhikṣus will not understand my intent.

Clinging to their own views, they will expound the twelve divisions of scripture, follow the words, seize upon meanings, and establish fixed doctrines. Know that such people wrong the buddhas of the three times and quickly destroy my teaching. Good man, the buddhas always teach the Dharma in reliance upon the two truths—the conventional and the ultimate—using what is near to indicate what is distant and borrowing images to reveal profound meaning.

Evil bhikṣus will fail to understand this meaning. Rejecting it and refusing belief, they will follow appearances and seize upon meanings, thereby suffering calamity for many kalpas. Such bhikṣus will call themselves Dharma masters, treatise masters, or meditation masters.

These three kinds of students—not anyone else—will destroy my Dharma. They will compete in exposing faults and repudiating one another. These three kinds of people will fall into hell as swiftly as a shot arrow.

Bodhisattva Constant Giving respectfully asked the Buddha: “Blessed One, when will those bhikṣus escape?”

“Good man, about one thousand years after my passing, evil teachings will gradually arise. After one thousand one hundred years, evil bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs will fill Jambudvīpa and abound everywhere. Yet they will not cultivate virtue.

Most will seek possessions, devote themselves to what is contrary to Dharma, and commonly maintain the eight impure possessions. Though they themselves lack the ten virtues, they will keep two classes of novices—śrāmaṇeras and śrāmaṇerikās. Before completing ten rains themselves, they will ordain others as novices.

For these reasons, laypeople will come to despise the Three Jewels. Thereafter, monastics and laypeople will compete to build stūpas and monasteries throughout the world. Monasteries, stūpas, and images will be found everywhere, yet those in deep mountains, wildernesses, beside roads, in remote lanes, or in filthy places will collapse and decay without anyone repairing them.

Although monastics and laypeople will build monasteries and stūpas and make offerings to the Three Jewels, they will not give rise to reverence. They will invite monks to live in monasteries but fail to provide food, drink, clothing, bedding, or medicines. Instead, they will make excuses to request the Sangha’s food, unafraid of one day falling into the three miserable destinies.

At that time, laypeople of every rank will seek only to disadvantage the Sangha, encroaching upon and troubling it rather than protecting it. Such people will remain fallen within the three miserable destinies.

“Good man, in future ages, secular officials will not believe in sin and merit. They will levy taxes and seize the Sangha’s property, taxing livestock and grain and even the smallest thread or hair. They will compel those who serve the Three Jewels to labor, or ride the oxen and horses of the Three Jewels. By rule, secular officials must not oppress or beat animals or those serving the Three Jewels; they must not even accept the prostrations of those serving the Three Jewels. Accepting their homage already brings guilt and disaster—how much more driving or beating them! Tell the officials: if taxes are collected, beware the net of the law and take care never to tax bhikṣus. Those who greedily tax monastics incur immeasurable offenses.

“Good man, at that time, whenever monastics or laypeople cultivate merit, they should give to solitary elderly persons without support and to the poor and sick. Next, they should repair damaged monasteries, stūpas, and images, whether their own or another’s, according to their ability. Their merit will be inconceivable. They should repair the old and need not build additional new structures.

“Good man, why will all laypeople in future ages despise the Three Jewels? It will be because bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs do not accord with the Dharma. Wearing Dharma robes, they will disregard the path’s principles and engage in worldly affairs. Some will buy and sell in markets for their livelihood; some will travel about trading for profit; some will work as painters, producing intricate images; some will read the physiognomy of men and women, judging it favorable or unfavorable; some will eat, drink, sing, dance, become intoxicated and disorderly, or compose music; some will play go or liubo.

“Some bhikṣus will teach the Dharma to please others; some will recite spells to cure illness; some will practice meditation but be unable to unify their own minds, using heterodox concentration to divine good and bad fortune; some will practice acupuncture or dispense medicines in pursuit of clothing and food. For these reasons, worldly people will cease to respect them. This excludes bodhisattvas who perform such deeds to benefit sentient beings.”

The Blessed One again told Bodhisattva Constant Giving: “Good man, in future ages, some monastics and laypeople will make images of me and of bodhisattvas, then buy and sell them for money as a means of livelihood. Monastics and laypeople who do not understand sin and merit—both those who buy and sell and those who accept the proceeds as offerings—will incur offenses and will themselves be bought and sold by others throughout five hundred lives.

“Good man, in future ages, beings who make images will fail to complete all their excellent marks. Some will carve only half a body; some will make images lacking complete hands or feet, with ears, nose, eyes, and mouth bearing no resemblance; some will produce only crude approximations. Some will build monasteries and stūpas without installing images. If monasteries, stūpas, or Buddha images are damaged, they will not repair them. Such people incur immeasurable offenses.

“Good man, in future ages, bhikṣus and others dwelling together will establish private rules and bar the Sangha of the four directions. They will combine and limit meals to one day, ten days, five, four, or three days, or even to a single meal. At death, those bhikṣus will fall into hell, the realm of hungry ghosts, and the animal realm, enduring boundless suffering.

“Some bhikṣus or novices will regard the community’s property as their own and use it at will, or eat and drink with companions outside the permitted time. Until a thousand buddhas have appeared in the world, those bhikṣus and novices will never hear the Dharma. They will constantly circulate through the three miserable destinies and will be unable to repent. If others dwell with them and perform formal acts of karman or poṣadha, none of those acts will be valid, and all involved will incur karmic punishment.

“Good man, even one who commits all four grave offenses and the five heinous crimes may more easily seek repentance. But one who takes even a strand of thread or grain of rice, eats outside the permitted time, or freely uses the Sangha’s property will remain submerged in the ocean of suffering without ever emerging. Such a person may suffer decline and affliction in the present life, and those dwelling with him incur offenses day and night.

“Good man, in future ages, worldly people ignorant of sin and merit will make Buddha images, scriptures, and flower garlands for their parents, ancestors, or themselves, then sell them to support their wives and children. These articles should not be bought.”

At that time, officials and powerful people who apprehend such persons should punish them severely and expel them from the country.

“Good man, in future ages, bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, male and female Buddhist disciples, kings, ministers, queens, and royal consorts will violate the precepts without shame or repentance. For this reason, the teaching will become defiled.

“Good man, in future ages, evil bhikṣus will cling to their dwellings like worldly people, guarding their own rooms and failing to move once every three months as prescribed. When they see a bhikṣu carrying his robe and bowl, remaining in one place for nine or ten days and then moving on, they will say: ‘That bhikṣu’s mind is unstable. He creates disorder, is frantic and witless, and is forever planning to move.’ Those who speak thus will incur karmic punishment without limit or end.

“Good man, in future ages, when evil teachings arise, all monastics and laypeople should cultivate great loving-kindness and great compassion and patiently endure harm from others. They should think: ‘From beginningless time until today, all sentient beings have been my fathers and mothers; from beginningless time until today, all sentient beings have been my brothers, sisters, relatives, and kin.’ For this reason, they should show loving compassion toward all sentient beings and rescue them according to the strength of their minds. Seeing beings in distress, they should devise skillful means without sparing their own lives.

“At that time, kings, ministers, lords of cities and villages, powerful elders, brahmins, capable bhikṣus, and others should encourage such people and prevent them from retreating. They should lend them strength, not allow evil persons to cause them hardship, and not permit evil persons to seize their property. The merit of giving such aid is beyond description. At that time, if anyone compassionately gives to the poor, to orphans, to solitary elderly persons without support, or even to ants, that merit is extraordinarily wondrous. Good man, if I explained in detail the merit of giving to the poor, orphans, and sick elderly persons without support, I could not finish even in an entire kalpa. The time of nirvana has now arrived, so I have explained it to you only briefly.”

At that time, the entire assembly heard the Buddha describe the various calamities that would occur in the future at the end of the Semblance Dharma age. Every hair on their bodies stood on end. Unable to restrain their emotion, they all wailed bitterly.

The Buddha told the assembly: “Enough! Do not weep. Worldly phenomena are like this: where there is good, there must be evil; where there is flourishing, there must be decline.” The Buddha then asked Bodhisattva Constant Giving: “Set this matter in order. Through what characteristics do you contemplate the Tathāgata, and through what characteristics do you contemplate sentient beings?”

Bodhisattva Constant Giving respectfully replied: “Blessed One, I contemplate the Tathāgata as neither coming from the former limit, nor going to the farther shore, nor abiding in between; as neither existent nor nonexistent, neither born nor extinguished, neither form nor non-form, neither conditioned nor unconditioned, neither eternal nor annihilated, neither contaminated nor uncontaminated. He is like space, and the Dharma-nature is equal.

From the initial attainment of the path until nirvana, throughout that interval I do not see the Tathāgata utter a single sentence of Dharma. Yet sentient beings see the Tathāgata as being born and extinguished, teaching the Dharma and delivering people. The Tathāgata’s domain is inconceivable.

It cannot be known through cognition or through discriminating knowledge. It transcends the three times without departing from them. Only the Tathāgata himself knows this Dharma.

Thus do I contemplate, Blessed One.

“Blessed One, I now contemplate the four-great-element bodies of sentient beings as floating clouds in space, shimmering heat on a hot day, a city of gandharvas, an illusion or transformation, a village in the sky, an image in a mirror, the moon’s reflection in water, or an echo in an empty valley. Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise.

“Blessed One, the characteristics of sentient beings’ minds are inconceivable and lie beyond the understanding of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas on the lower stages. Blessed One, the characteristics of sentient beings neither come nor go, neither exist nor do not exist, and are neither within nor without. When coming, they come from nowhere; when going, they go nowhere.

Yet beings constantly wander and deludedly undergo suffering. This is entirely because, from beginningless time until today, sentient beings have clung deeply to the view of self. Because they cling to self, they increase craving and the twelve links of dependent origination, enduring suffering throughout the endless long night.

The characteristics of sentient beings have always been empty and quiescent. For this reason, bodhisattvas arouse great compassion.

“Blessed One, all wholesome and unwholesome karma of sentient beings is created by mind alone; there is no other phenomenon. Thus do I contemplate the characteristics of sentient beings.”

The Buddha told Bodhisattva Constant Giving: “Excellent! Excellent! I rejoice greatly upon hearing you teach this Dharma. What you have said today is likewise taught by the buddhas. Bodhisattvas practicing the four means of embracing beings and the six pāramitās should contemplate sentient beings in this way.

“Good man, when bodhisattvas practice generosity, they do not distinguish between fields of merit and what are not fields of merit. Whenever they see suffering and impoverished beings, they give to them. While giving, they should contemplate: ‘I do not see a recipient, I do not see a giver, and I do not see an object given.

All three are empty and equal, without the least attachment.’ Why? Because in practicing generosity amid all phenomena, there is no self or possession of self. They do not seek blessed reward in the present life or the pleasures of devas and humans in future lives.

They practice generosity solely to seek great bodhi for sentient beings and to bring peace and happiness to immeasurable beings. They practice generosity to subdue evil beings and establish them in wholesome Dharma.

“They should further contemplate: ‘The characteristics of the domain of bodhi and those of the domain of sentient beings are both empty and quiescent. Only in reliance upon words does one see sentient beings delivered and bodhi attained. Within true Dharma, there is neither attainment nor realization.’

“Good man, it is like a person who dreams of many events. He may dream that officials bind and imprison him, causing him to undergo many sufferings and become distressed. After being released, he may then dream that he has become a king of great authority and think: ‘Last night I suffered in that way, but now I am free and enjoy many pleasures.’ Having thought this, he suddenly awakens and no longer apprehends either suffering or happiness. Thus, the events of a dream are neither existent nor nonexistent. All phenomena are likewise. Contemplation in this manner is called right contemplation.”

When this Dharma was taught, innumerable bodhisattvas attained the fruit of buddhahood. Immeasurable bodhisattvas entered the stage of one birth remaining. Immeasurable bodhisattvas each advanced according to their cultivation. Immeasurable devas and humans attained the four fruits of the path. Immeasurable śrāvakas entered the bodhisattva stages, and immeasurable beings of various kinds aroused bodhicitta.

“Good man, in future ages, if disciples of the four assemblies hear this sūtra and give rise to joy, they will obtain immeasurable and boundless merit.”

The Buddha told Ānanda and the assembly: “You should carefully receive and uphold it; take care never to forget it. This scripture is called the Sūtra Resolving Doubts During the Semblance Dharma Age. It is also called the Sūtra on Helping the Solitary and Destitute. Receive and uphold it under these names.”

The assembly, having heard what the Buddha taught, single-mindedly and reverently obeyed. They bowed at the Buddha’s feet and departed. Each recognized the truth and carefully prepared the cremation rites, while heaven and earth were moved with grief.

THE SŪTRA RESOLVING DOUBTS DURING THE SEMBLANCE DHARMA AGE (End)