Master Huijing’s Short Dharma Teaching asking “What does life look like?” 慧淨法師之「人生之實相」
(continued)
Master Daochuo said:
From the standpoint of the Mahayana, the realization of true suchness, ultimate reality, and the emptiness of the highest truth, have never arisen in our minds. From the standpoint of the Hinayana, to cultivate and enter the stages of seeing the truth and cultivating the path, up to the attainments of a non-returner and arhat; require cutting off the five lower fetters and eliminating the five higher ones. Whether as a lay or monastic practitioner, none among us have any share in these attainments.
Even if there are those who gain the rewards of heavenly or human rebirth, these are merely the results of observing the Five Precepts and practicing the Ten Good Deeds; yet those who truly uphold them are extremely rare.
As for the arising of evil and the committing of offenses, they are like violent winds and sudden rains—swift and unrestrained.
Master Shandao said:
We are presently ordinary beings burdened by karmic evils, throughout birth and death. Since beginningless kalpas, we have constantly sunk and drifted in the cycle of rebirth, never finding a cause or condition for liberation.
We are beings fully endowed with afflictions and defilements, our wholesome roots are shallow and weak. We forever revolve within the Three Realms, unable to escape the burning house of samsara.
Before us lie two rivers, each bottomless and boundless from north to south. One is composed of fire, the other of water. They endlessly clash without rest. The pleasures of humans and gods are like flashes of lightning. In a single instant they vanish, and we return to the Three Evil Paths to suffer for long ages.
For these very reasons, I urge all to seek birth in the Pure Land and aspire to unsurpassed Enlightenment.
(to be continued tomorrow)
道綽大師說：若據大乘，真如實相、第一義空，曾未措心。
若論小乘，修入見諦、修道，乃至那含、羅漢，斷五下，除五上，無問道俗，未 有其分。
縱有人天果報，皆為五戒十善能招此報，然持得者甚稀。
若論起惡造罪，何異暴風駃雨。
善導大師說：自身現是罪惡生死凡夫，曠劫以來常沒常流轉，無有出離之緣。 自身是具足煩惱凡夫，善根薄少，流轉三界，不出火宅。
二河各深無底，南北無邊，水火相交，常無休息。
人天之樂，猶如電光，須臾即捨，還入三惡，長時受苦。
為此因緣，但勸即令求生淨土，向無上菩提。
Namo Amituofo!
