It is recorded in "Commentary on the Great Perfection of Wisdom" that Manjushri Bodhisattva once told the Buddha about his origin: before the immeasurable kalpas, the name of the Buddha at that time was the Lion Roaring King, and the Buddha at that time transformed many sentient beings. After the Lion Roaring King Buddha nirvana, the Dharma lived in the world for 60,000 years. At that time, there were two bhikkhus, one named Xigen and the other named Shengyi.
Xigen Bhikkhu observes the states of dhammas, without bondage and solution, with a pure heart, and without form, so he tells his disciples: all dhammas have the same nature as lust, aversion, and foolishness, and these natures are the reality of the dharma, and there is no difference. In other words, there is no distinction between two ways: not to give up the world, nor to distinguish between good and evil.
Shengyi Bhikkhu keeps the precepts to be pure, but he is obsessed with purity and impurity: he is happy when he hears the sayings of the Buddha, and he feels aggrieved when he hears the sayings of them non Buddhism; he is not happy when he hears bad things, and he is very happy when he hears good deeds; he is sad when he hears life and death, he is rejoice when he hears Nirvana. Moreover, Shengyi Bhikkhu believes that Xigen Bhikkhu's statement is incorrect.
Because the Shengyi Bhikkhu clings to the Dhamma, he has a different heart, and he slander the Xigen Bhikkhu who has no discriminatory heart. After his death, Shengyi Bhikkhu fell into hell, suffered countless years, and then reincarnated as a human. Then Shengyi Bhikkhu was slandered in 740,000 lifetimes. For him, the Buddha's name is not heard in the immeasurable kalpas. After the sins were subtracted, Shengyi Bhikkhu heard about the Dharma again, became a monk, but he did not abide by the precepts in the 62,000 lifetimes, and later he became monk in the immeasurable lifetimes. Although he did not break the precepts any longer, he did not quickly comprehend the Dharma.
As Xigen Bhikkhu is not attached to Dhamma and has no discernment, when Manjushri Bodhisattva told this story, Xigen Bhikkhu had crossed ten trillion Buddha world in the east to become a Buddha, and the Buddha's name is Light Surpassed the Sun King.
Manjushri Bodhisattva said that the Shengyi Bhikkhu at that time was himself.
For cows, sheep, dogs, horses, secular people may still have compassion. If you say that you cherish insects and ants, people will probably laugh at their foolishness. Why don't you think about it, although the forms of sentient beings are different in size, their nature has no size. If you think that killing a big thing is guilty and killing a small one is not guilty, then even though the human body is big, after all, it cannot surpass the body of a cow. Instead of killing a cow, it is better to kill a person with a lesser crime. I hope that people will eliminate their unequal views on the size of life, so that they dare not forget to quit killing every day. When people raise their hands, the actions are all sins. In terms of walking, there are tens of millions of accidentally injured creatures in a lifetime. I have seen a mantra in the scriptures that walking does not hurt insects and ants, which is very easy to recite. Before getting out of bed in the early morning, you can recite the Buddha's holy names and wish to say: "From dawn to dusk, all sentient beings protect themselves. If you are trampled on and injured by others, I hope you can be reborn in the pure land immediately. "Walking after chanting the spell, there will be no mistake of hurting other lives by mistake. Everyone can recite this mantra, no matter how clever or stupid it is. When a child is six or seven years old, his elders should teach him how to read it. If it becomes a habit, the kindness will be cultivated since childhood. This is consistent with Mencius's so-called "rising at dawn, breeding for good".
Before the immeasurable kalpas in the past, there was a large forest with many beasts. Once a wildfire suddenly ignited, the forest was surrounded by fire on three sides, only one side was free of fire, but it was blocked by the river. The beasts are in a hurry and have nowhere to escape. The Buddha said: "At that time, I was a strong and powerful deer, so I opened my front and back legs, stepped on both sides of the river, and laid my body across the river. I let the beasts step on my back to cross the river, the skin and flesh on my body was crushed by the beasts. However, I endured to death with compassion. When the last rabbit came, my life was dying, and I continued to persevere until this rabbit passed and my spine fractured and broken, then I fell into the river and died." The Buddha said: "If I let myself talk about the various hard practices of the past lives, even if I exhaust the future kalpas to talk about it, I still can't finish it." [Note] The Buddha said: "At that time, those wild beasts who crossed the river first through my body are my present disciples. The last rabbit in the past is the present Subhadra (the last disciple of the Buddha when he was in this world)."
Yushi Hu Muting said that someone raised a pig in his hometown. As soon as the pig saw the old neighbor's man, it would stare and roar, and ran after him to bite him. But this pig would not be like this when it saw others.
The old man was very angry at first, and wanted to buy it and kill it, only to eat its meat to relieve his hatred. Soon he suddenly realized and thought: "This is probably the grievances made in previous lives as mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures? However, there is no unsolvable grievances in the world."
So he bought it at a high price and sent it to the monastery to feed it as a long-life pig. After that, when the pig saw the old man again, it bowed its head and approached him very affectionately, no longer as fierce as it had seen before.
I have seen a picture of "Arhats Who Conquered Tigers" from the Five Dynasties. The general idea of the inscription on the picture says: Everything in the world can be transformed, and a compassionate heart can transform beasts, just like a woman surnamed Feng in Jin and Liu Kun in the Han Dynasty. These strange things that have been extolled in the world are proof of this principle.
From this we can see that between the heaven and the earth, all sentient beings can become friends. I hope that all beings can get along with each other sincerely, and don't fear each other and become hostile.
I (Ji Xiaolan) thinks that this inscription can serve as circumstantial evidence for the story told by Yushi Hu Muting.
Greedy causes trouble. The five ways of being born are what the heart does.
Observing that life is inherently illusory, observe this from the existence of life, and get liberation from it. Follow the way of doing things without doing anything, do something to do this kind of compliance, and get relief from it.
Fan Zhongyan of the Northern Song Dynasty, extensively practiced all kindness, and believed in Buddhism faithfully. Wherever he governs, he must build temples to save people and help people become a monk, and prosperously respect Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha. He is closest to Zen Master Langya Huijue and Zen Master Jianfu Chenggu.
When Fan Zhongyan was studying in Changbai Mountain in his early years, he found a pit of gold in a remote part of the monastery. He covered it and didn't take anything. After becoming an official, he told the monks in the monastery to take out the gold to repair the monastery.
When he went to Xuanfu in Hedong, he accidentally obtained a rare volume of Buddhist scriptures called "Sixteen Arhats Ode to Cause and Effect", which was not included in the Tripitaka. Fan Zhongyan wrote the preface for this sutra and granted it to Zen Master Huizhe to circulate it.
In his later years, he changed his residence to Tianping Temple and invited Zen Master Fushan Fayuan to come to live (Suzhou Fuxue, also his charity). In the reign of Song Renzong, he was an official to a secret secretary and participated in political affairs. Later, he was posthumously named Chu Guogong. His descendants have been officials from generation to generation, and they are inexhaustible.
[Note] The homestead is just a temporary hostel for a period of life, and it should be used happily for charity.
Xie Shang, the general of the west of Dongjin Town, was saved from disaster because his father Xie Kun entrusted him with a dream. In the fourth year of Yonghe, he donated his house and rebuilt it into a solemn temple.
Wang Tanzhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty built Anle Temple with his pastoral charity. Tao Fan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in the early years of Taiyuan, donated his residence and rebuilt it into Xilin Temple. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Ziyue (Li Zhuan) gave porridge to the poor during the famine years and saved tens of thousands of people. Later, he alms house built as a Buddhist temple.
Wang Moji (Wang Wei) of the Tang Dynasty wrote a memorial to the emperor because of his loss of his mother, and asked the emperor to allow him to change the Lantian Mountain Villa he built in Wangchuan into a Buddhist temple.
In the Tang Dynasty, Bai Letian (Bai Juyi) and Wang Jiefu (Wang Anshi) in the Northern Song Dynasty also gave their houses to Buddhist temples.
These former sages mentioned above are more than the difference between a dragon and a gecko, compared to those who deprived others of their property to build high-rise buildings, and were willing to be demolished by unscrupulous children and grandchildren, who refused to give alms to their blessings in their lives!
Excerpted from An Shiquan Book "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue": Donate your house to the Buddhist temple
In the past, there was a Brahmin in Shravasti, whose family was rich and greedy. Whenever he eats, he closes the door tightly.
One day, he cooked chicken for food, and the couple ate together, sitting in the middle of a child, and they took turns to put the meat into the mouth of the child.
The Buddha knows that the blessings of this person in his past life are mature, and he should be saved today. So the Buddha turned into a monk and appeared in front of this Brahmin.
The Brahman was furious when he saw the monk and said, "You are really shameless, why did you break into my house."
The monk said: "You are foolish yourself, killing your father and marrying your mother, and supporting your enemies. How can you say that the monk is shameless!"
The Brahmin asked what this meant. The monk said: "The chicken on the table is the father of your past life. Because of greed, he often falls into the chicken. This kid, who was a Rakshasa in the past life. You were often hurt by him in the past life. Just because of your fate is not over yet, and he wants to harm you again in this life. Your wife in this life was the mother of your previous life. Because of deep love, she comes to be your wife again. This kind of reincarnation is unknown to foolish people, only those who study the Dharma can see clearly."
The Buddha then displayed his mighty power, allowing the Brahman to see his previous life. The Brahmin immediately confessed to the Buddha and request to accept Buddhist precepts. The Buddha explained the Dharma for him, and he realized the Sudha Huanguo. The Buddha explained the Dharma for him, and he realized the Sotāpanna.
[Note] The father of Doti, reincarnated as a dog in his son's house and stole food from the plate. The father of ZhanTan, who was reincarnated as a beggar, came to his son's door to beg for food, but was injured by the guard of the door and broke his arm. There are many surprising things in the world, but they seem to be very common in the world. Therefore, all living things cannot be killed. To treat all lives, there should be no difference between a resentful person and a loved one.
Excerpted from An Shiquan Book "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue": Reversed the resentful and loved ones
"Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra" says: "If a person can adhere to the precept of not killing for one day and one night, then that person will not encounter the calamity of swords, guns or war in the next life." The proverb says: If I eat a vegetarian diet for one day, then the killing in this world will be without my share. If I don’t eat vegetarian food a day, then the killing in this world will have my share.
Li Xin in Wenshui County of Binzhou (now Shanxi) in Tang Dynasty was a defender of the Long government. In the winter of Emperor Gaozong's Xianqing Year of the Tang Dynasty, he rode a red horse and brought a small pony to work in Shuozhou as usual.
At that time, it was severely cold and snowy, and after a dozen miles of walking, the horse couldn't move. After Li Xin flogged the horse dozens of times, the horse suddenly spoke human words. It said to Li Xin, "I am your mother, because when I was your mother, I secretly took 150 kilograms of rice without telling your father to give to your little sister, so I got the retribution today. This little pony is your sister, who was reborn as a horse because of debt repayment."
Hearing what the horse said, Li Xin couldn't help crying, so he carried his saddle on his own back and said to the horse: "Since you are my mother, please find your way home." The horse walked home straight ahead.
Brother Li Xin built separate stables for these two horses. A colleague’s mother often gave alms to monks for them to confess for them, and the whole family intensively practiced the Dharma.
At that time, the minister of the Ministry of Industry Wen Wuyin and Qizhou Judicial Zhang Jinting both held a funeral at home because of the death of their relatives. Upon hearing this, they were very shocked and went to Li's house to inquire and saw that the two horses were still there.
[Notes] There is no other person who can accommodate each other than husband and wife and children. But if you deceive your loved ones to steal it privately, you will not be tolerant at all. So, those parents who are partial to their children and favor one another should be chilled after seeing the results of this example!
Excerpted from An Shiquan Book "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue": whipping a horse is whipping a loved one
Eight precepts:
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from taking life
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from taking what is not given
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from adultery
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from false speech
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from intoxicants which cause a careless frame of mind
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from taking food at the wrong time
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from dancing, music, visiting shows, flowers, make-up, the wearing of ornaments and decorations
I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from a tall, high sleeping place.
Because a person has cut off from aversion and jealousy, and because he often practices great kindness, great compassion, great joy, and great charity, and he cuts off the four evil words, he can gain peace and joy. "The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom"
Understand the dharmas: like fantasy, like flames, like the moon in the water, like the void, like a sound, like the city of Channapo (mirage), like a dream, like a shadow, like an image in a mirror, like a transformation. -"The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom"