13 Bitter Crux
🧭 Content of Bitter Crux：13.1 Desire Boundary；13.1.1 Hell Interest；13.1.2 Livestock Interest；13.1.3 Hungry Ghost Interest；13.1.4 Asura Interest；13.1.5 Human Interest；13.1.6 Desire Sky Interest；13.2 Color Boundary；13.3 Colorless Boundary；13.4 General View of the Great Grand Worlds
Four Victorious Cruxes, also known as Four Noble Truths in English speaking world, are Bitter Crux, Aggregate Crux, Salvation Crux, and Path Crux. Bitter Crux talks about that the Three-Grand Great-Grand Worlds (cf. fig. 13.0) of sentient phenomena are a great bitter aggregate. Aggregate Crux says that the cause of the bitter for mundane beings is aggregate, gathering. Salvation Crux talks of the bitterness of sentient beings can be eliminated, and there is a Nirvana (cf. fig. 13.0-2), where there is absolutely no bitter. Path Crux describes the way to end bitter and gain salvation. Among the four victorious cruxes, the bitter crux is the greatest, it can assimilate other three cruxes.
13.1 Desire Boundary (fig.13.0-23)
The word boundary means cause, seed, is one of the four big seeds (cf. 11.2 Four Big Seeds) of the Tree of Life. Desire Boundary, as shown in Illustrations 13.0-23, means that all beings in this realm, are born from the seeds of desires, have the five desires of color, sound, smell, taste, and touch, such as eating, sleeping, and sexual intercourse. Are there any who have no desires? Figs. -5 to -8 are Color Boundary, where there is no difference between men and women, and there is no desire for food, drink, or sleep. Figs. -1 to -4 are Colorless Boundary, which are pure conscious states, with no bodily feelings, so naturally there is no need at all for food, drink, sleep, or sexual intercourse.
Based on the observance or violation of the Ten Fundamental Precepts, Ancient Virtues divided all living beings into six categories, called the six paths, or six interests. The Ten Fundamental Precepts can also be divided into the Ten Ferocious Precepts and the Ten Benevolent Precepts. The ten ferocious precepts are: 1. killing, 2. stealing, 3. heretical sexual conduction, 4. delusional speech, 5. flowery speech, 6. ferocious speech, 7. two-tongue, 8. stingy greed, 9. hatred irritation, and 10. heretic. According to the degree of violation of the ten ferocious precepts, the ancients divided the ferocious sentient beings into three categories called the Three Ferocious Interests (cf. figs. -22 to -20), or the Three Ferocious Paths, which are the hell interests, the livestock interests, and the hungry ghost interests.
Not committing the above ten ferocities are the Ten Benevolences: (1) not to kill, or not only not to kill but also to save lives; (2) not to steal, or not only not to steal but also to practice donation; (3) not to commit heretical sex, or not only not to commit heretical sex but also to practice immaculateness. The previous three precepts are body precepts that govern bodily physical behavior. What is it to refrain from killing? Such as one does not kill personally, does not help others to kill, does not manufacture or transport weapons and equipment for killing, does not recommend encourage and eulogize death.
(4) not to speak delusionally, or not only not to muddle and deceive, but also to speak truthfully; (5) not to use flowery speech, or not only not to seduce, but also to speak for the benefit of others. (6) not to speak of coarse ferocious language, or not only not to speak ferociously, but also to speak kindly to console; (7) not to two-tongue, not only not to sow discord, but also to conciliate and harmonize. The four are oral precepts.
(8) not to be stingy greed, or not only not to be stingily greed, but also to perform donation; (9) not to be resentfully irritated, or not only not to be angry, but also to be able to bear merciful spell; (10) not to be heretical, or not only not to be heretical, but also be able to believe and implement the causes and fruits of the Four Victorious Cruxes. The three are intentional precepts.
According to the degree of violation of these Ten Good Precepts, Ancient Virtues divided the good people into three categories, namely, the Asura Interests (cf. fig. -19), the Human Interests (cf. fig. -18), and the Sky Interests (cf. figs. -15 to -1). The six Interests are also known as the Six Paths; the Paths mean that such people are traveling on the road to hell, hungry ghost, and so on places. These six interests are further analyzed and identified below in this chapter.
Posted Jun 9, 2024, 6:10 PM UTC