Practitioners have already cut off love and cast away ties in order to seek to transcend the world. But if love and desire arise again and illusory ties are not extinguished, the mind will be entangled and bound as before and fall back into the net. You must take precautions before any sign appears. Otherwise your past efforts will be wasted, and the demonic karma of the future will be hard to escape. How can you not be concerned!
Assembly, since ancient times there has been no great sage or worthy who did not govern the mind with the precepts. This word “precept” is the pestle that subdues demons, able to suppress goblins and the heterodox; it is the talisman that protects life, able to increase blessings and prolong longevity; it is the ladder for ascending to heaven, by which one can pay homage to the Three Pure Ones, transcend the ordinary, and enter sagehood; it is the lamp that lights the road, able to dispel the six desires and break through darkness and dimness; it is the immortals’ boat and precious raft, able to ferry living beings away from the sea of suffering; it is the ship of compassion and the bridge across the ford, able to carry living beings out of the river of love. It is the safeguard for those who travel, the guiding principle for advancing in the Tao. Immortals and buddhas have no gate, yet all enter through the precepts; sages and worthies have a road, and all travel it through the precepts. Truly it is the main thoroughfare for sages and worthies, the central gate and proper door for immortals and buddhas.
Assembly, since through the causes and conditions planted in former lives you have been able to hear the teaching of the precepts in this life, this is the greatest of good fortune. If you do not uphold the precepts, strictly, rigorously, diligently, and with hardship, you will turn the greatest of good fortune into the greatest of sins. The precepts are the prohibitions of the Mysterious Capital, articles laid down by the supreme sages of the Three Pure Ones, administered by the Heavenly Bureau of Nüqing, guarded by inspecting divine soldiers, and patrolled by heavenly generals. Those who observe them have merit added in the red register; those who violate them have faults added in the black register. Not a hair is missed, not a needle’s breadth is wrong. The people who receive the precepts today are all ignorant. What do I mean by ignorant? If they knew this principle, they would be strict and rigorous and not violate the precepts. If they violate them, they are still ignorant.
Therefore I say: among you, the assembly, those who have received the precepts must study this word “precept” in earnest. What is called a precept? What is it that the precepts guard against? And why did you receive the precepts in the first place? If you came for the teaching of the precepts, you should uphold them day after day. If you do not uphold them day after day, why receive them at all? Such an intention did not come for the precepts; it came to buy an empty name and to obtain a robe and bowl. How can this be seen? Consider the bhikshus of the Buddhist school: they solicit their own three robes, and, taking refuge in a good teacher, beg for the teaching of the precepts as the basis of their bodhi—how gravely they treat the matter! In our Taoist school, after the Seven Perfected expounded the teaching, the tradition declined. The precepts and dignified deportment have not been seen in the world for four hundred years. All this is because no one in our school took up the responsibility, and so this heavenly lamp that lights the road was never trimmed bright, leaving those in spiritual practice in darkness, hardly able to walk; the staff that supports the body was cast aside, leaving those who strive upward without a handhold. No wonder side doors and heterodox teachings instead prevail throughout the world, while the Tao of clarity and stillness and of liberation, bright, upright, and great, lies desolate and unheard. Now, fortunately, the fortunes of the Tao are about to rise, and we have met with a flourishing age. Above, we have the blessing and protection of the emperor, and the world is at peace; there are also officials and faithful believers who protect the teaching; and there are benefactors who give alms, so that robes, bowls, caps, and rules are ready-made. This is something hard to meet in a thousand lifetimes, a rare event.
Since you have relied on past causes to receive the teaching of the precepts, you ought to search carefully into this word “precept.” What is called a precept? Pitiably, those who receive the precepts vary between the worthy and the foolish. The foolish came to receive the precepts with a fairly good intention at first, but once they received them, they instead obscured their original intention and could not keep the precepts. Is it not a pity to waste that original intention of receiving the precepts? They throw the precept robe into the Eastern Sea—pawning it, selling it, or remaking it into ordinary clothes, profaning the heavenly spirits, or patching it into a mendicant’s rag and disgracing their fellow Taoists. They turn the pure bowl into an incense burner or use it to store money and rice; they break their fasts and violate the precepts, drinking wine and eating meat, stopping at nothing, destroying their wisdom and cutting off their immortal roots. There are present-day cases of this, clear and countable. For instance, there was a precept disciple who had ruined his observance, sold his precept robe, defiled his precept scripture, and discarded his precept bowl. He suddenly died and saw many ghost-soldiers take him away with chains and ropes. When he reached hell, he saw a yamen, very imposing, with a number of ghost-soldiers on either side holding many people in chains—all of them fellow Taoists of his, the precept-breakers he had known in daily life.
The precept disciple was startled and asked, “How did you all come to be here?”
Those precept disciples said, “We do not know why, but one after another we have all met here.”
He saw a tablet over the gate inscribed with four large words, “Bureau of Examination and Verification,” and asked a ghost-soldier, “What is the Bureau of Examination and Verification?”
The ghost-soldier said: “This is a new court of law established by the Heavenly Bureau. There are two of them, dealing exclusively with matters of the precepts of Buddhist monks and Taoist priests. Whenever anyone in the world of the living resolves to receive the precepts, the Earth God and the Stove God enter his name in the register: on such a day he made his resolve, on such a day he received the precepts, on such a day his observance earned merit, on such a day his observance incurred faults; on such a day so-and-so broke a precept, so-and-so turned against his master and betrayed the Tao, so-and-so wrecked the rules and ruined the teaching, so-and-so sold his robe, so-and-so sold his bowl, so-and-so slandered the precept master, so-and-so schemed against a donor, so-and-so was treacherous and greedy, so-and-so was lustful and defiled—all noted in detail and reported monthly to the various bureaus. Everything must first pass through this bureau before going on to the other courts. Of you who have received the precepts, apart from those of lofty virtue and wondrous mind of the Tao who do not come to the underworld at all, people like you who do not keep the precepts must first come to this bureau to be examined and struck off the rolls; only then are you seized and made to die within the fixed term. If the matter has not passed through this bureau, the other courts will not sign the warrant to arrest anyone.”
Precept disciples, when you blame others’ faults, you are uncommonly clear about every detail, but when you yourselves are at fault, you know nothing at all. Even when you commit boundless great sins, you still try to cover them up—this is called deceiving the heart. Those who have received the precepts must reflect day and night on what they have done in their hearts and said during the day: if good, do it; if evil, stop it. Do not allow yourself to make excuses, do not allow yourself to forgive yourself, do not allow yourself to deceive, and do not allow yourself to conceal. When you do good, do not count it as merit; when you commit a fault, repent at once. Study the scripture of the precepts in detail, and seek out enlightened masters to learn diligently. Revere your master as your parents, respect your companions as your brothers, delight in the Law as in a wife, and love the scriptures as treasures. Hold the precepts in your mind as you hold a thing in your hand: let go of the thing in your hand, and it is lost; let go of the precepts in your mind, and they are broken. The laws and statutes of the realm in the world bring punishment when violated; the Taoist law of heaven, the statutes of Nüqing, bring retribution when violated. Do not say the underworld is dark and unseen: birth after birth and death after death lie only in your mind. Do not say the spirits of the precepts are hidden and do not appear: all their coming and going lies only in your thoughts. As for the four words “strict and rigorous observance of the precepts”: subduing the mind to follow the Tao is called precept; enduring and upholding it is called observance; not departing from it by a thread is called rigor; not violating it by a hair is called strictness; unchanging from beginning to end is called holding the precepts; unmoved even in poverty and hardship is called keeping the precepts. Among you who have received the precepts, some cannot even remember the ten articles of the precepts—what ten articles? The name without the reality—why go on like this!
But there is one word of expedient teaching that should let you, the assembly, practice with peace of mind. The Lord of heaven takes the love of life as his heart; his compassion is vast, and he saves and delivers living beings. If a precept disciple who has violated the precepts reforms and repents from now on, his true heart revealed, and keeps the articles again, strictly and rigorously, never violating them a second time, then heaven’s heart will naturally have compassion and pity on him, pardon him, and restore him to his origin. Now I have a story of cause and effect about one who broke the precepts and then kept them again, which I will tell you.
Recently a precept disciple said of himself that after receiving the precepts he suddenly met with demonic trials, broke his fast and violated the precepts, and did every kind of thing. One night he dreamed that he went to the underworld and watched the trials there. He saw many ghost-judges in the underworld all lighting and hanging gauze lanterns and setting out incense tables. After a while he saw King Yama come out of the great gate, with majesty like that of an emperor in the world. He heard a judge announce, “The heavenly envoy has arrived; quickly set out the incense table to receive the edict”—just as officials in the world receive an edict. He saw an immortal official wearing a golden lotus crown and a cloud-and-crane cloak, holding a yellow tube in both hands, who was welcomed inside. The ghosts were not allowed in, and this Taoist wanted to go in.
A ghost-soldier cursed him: “What wandering soul are you, daring to come to the great Hall of Senluo?”
Another ghost-soldier said, “He is dressed as a Taoist.”
That ghost said: “The edict of the other day ordered that all those cultivating the Tao and keeping the precepts may, on the day their lives end, enter in full robe and cap. Those who shine with light enter by the main gate; those with little light enter by the east corner gate; those without light have their precept names struck off, and are chained and shackled outside the west corner gate to await trial according to their placards. You, Taoist, have no light at all—just a mass of black qi, the same as me—and you pass yourself off as a Taoist. Get out, get out!”
And he swung an iron rod at him. The precept disciple woke with a start and remembered it clearly. At once he got out of bed, washed his face and hands, lit a fire and burned incense; greatly afraid, he repented in grief, painfully corrected his past wrongs, and was strict and rigorous without slackening.
Then one day he dreamed that he was traveling in the underworld again, in the very place he had visited before. The ghost-soldiers holding iron chains and iron rods knelt and said, “May we ask, immortal elder, where you wish to go?”
The precept disciple replied, “I have come here while wandering like a cloud; I dare not disturb the King, and will go back now.”
The ghost-soldiers said, “The King has a rule: whenever an immortal elder shining with the light of precept observance comes here, he must be invited to sit in the tea hall first, and his name and title are asked and entered in the register for reference.”
The precept disciple replied, “I have no official business; I will not sit.” He then turned back, suddenly left that realm, and so told the assembly about it. On the first visit he was beaten and cursed by ghosts; on the later visit he was greeted on their knees and asked his name. Originally it was only the advance or retreat of a single mind, yet it met with two entirely different kinds of treatment. Had he not repented of his past wrongs, he would have remained as he was before. The way of ghosts and spirits—how can one not be moved!
Assembly, time passes easily; the mind and nature must be bright. Do not wait until impermanence arrives and you walk in the darkness of the underworld. Ox-Head has no kindness; Horse-Face shows no mercy. If you have faults, you must quickly correct them, relying wholly on rigorous observance of the precepts.
Of the ten thousand methods and thousand gates, cultivating the mind is supreme. Boundless and shoreless, the sea of suffering is hard to escape. If you wish to enter the immortal capital, understand concentration and wisdom early. When the precepts are made firm, the light of wisdom arises. Consider it carefully: keeping the precepts comes first.