Shukke kudoku

The bodhisattva Nāgārjuna said: Question: If the precepts for laypeople allow one to be reborn in heaven, attain the bodhisattva path, and even achieve nirvāṇa, then what is the use of the precepts for monastics? Answer: Although liberation can be attained in both cases, there is a difference in difficulty. Domestic life involves livelihood and numerous affairs. If one wishes to devote oneself entirely to the path of dharma, family affairs are neglected; if one devotes oneself entirely to family affairs, the practice of the path is neglected. Not taking, not rejecting, and yet being able to practice the dharma as it should be practiced—this is called difficult. In contrast, if one leaves home, one distances oneself from the mundane world, puts an end to all disturbances, and devotes oneself exclusively and wholeheartedly to the practice of the path: this is easy.

Moreover, domestic life is noisy, full of affairs and worries. It is the root of passions and the receptacle of all faults: this is a great difficulty. For one who has left home, it is as if a person were in a desolate wilderness, with no one around: they unify their heart, without thought or concern. Once inner thoughts are eliminated, outer affairs also disappear. As the gāthā says: Sitting peacefully among the trees of the forest, in silence, one annihilates all evils. Serene and detached, one attains the unity of the heart; this joy is not celestial joy.

People seek wealth, profit, renowned clothing, good beds and mattresses; This joy is not stable peace, and the pursuit of profit is insatiable. Clad in ragged robes, practicing alms-seeking, in movement as in stillness, the heart is always one. Through one's own eye of wisdom, one contemplates and knows the reality of all dharmas. In the various gates of dharma, one always enters through equal contemplation. One's heart, liberated by wisdom, is silent; the three realms cannot equal it. Therefore, one knows that leaving home, practicing the precepts, and following the path is very easy.

Moreover, by leaving home and practicing the precepts, one obtains countless and excellent codes of discipline, all perfectly accomplished and fulfilled. Therefore, laypeople and others should leave home and receive the complete precepts. Moreover, in the Buddha's dharma, the method of leaving home is the most difficult to practice. As the brahmin Jambudvīpa asked Śāriputra: "In the Buddha's dharma, what is most difficult?" Śāriputra replied: "Leaving home is difficult." He asked again: "What is difficult about leaving home?" He answered: "In leaving home, inner joy is difficult." "Once this inner joy is obtained, what is still difficult?" "Practicing all virtuous dharmas is difficult." Therefore, it is fitting to leave home. Moreover, when a person leaves home, the demon-king is seized with fear and says: "This person sees their passions weaken; they will certainly attain nirvāṇa and fall into the number of the community's jewels."

Moreover, in the Buddha's dharma, even if a monastic transgresses the precepts and falls into fault, once the fault is expiated, they attain liberation, as stated in the Sūtra of the Past Lives of the Bhikṣuṇī Utpalavarṇā. During the Buddha's lifetime, this bhikṣuṇī had attained the six supranormal powers and had become an arhat. She entered the dwellings of nobles and always praised the method of leaving home. She said to noble ladies: "Sisters, you should leave home." The noble ladies replied: "We are young, our beauty is at its peak, it is difficult for us to keep the precepts."

we might transgress them.” The bhikṣuṇī said: “Transgress them then, but leave home.” They asked: “If we transgress the precepts, we will fall into hell; how could we transgress them?” She replied: “Fall into hell, then.” The noble ladies, laughing, said: “In hell, one undergoes punishments; how could one fall there?” The bhikṣuṇī said: “I myself remember a past life where I was an actress. I wore various costumes and spoke ancient lines. Sometimes, I wore the robe of a bhikṣuṇī for amusement. Because of this cause, at the time of Buddha Kāśyapa, I became a bhikṣuṇī. Proud of my noble birth and beauty, my heart gave rise to arrogance and I transgressed the precepts.

Because of the fault of transgressing the precepts, I fell into hell and underwent various punishments. Once these punishments ended, I met Buddha Śākyamuni, left home, and attained the way of the arhat with the six supranormal powers.” Therefore, it is known that if one leaves home and receives the precepts, even if one later transgresses them, because of the cause of the precepts, one attains the way of the arhat. If one only does evil without the cause of the precepts, one does not attain the way. I, at that time, fell life after life into hell; when I came out of hell, I was an evil person. The evil person died and fell back into hell, obtaining nothing at all. Now, by this evidence, I know that if one leaves home and receives the precepts, even if one transgresses them, because of this cause, one can attain the fruit of the way.

Moreover, as when the Buddha was at Jetavana, there was a drunken brahmin. He came to where the Buddha was and asked to become a monk. The Buddha ordered Ānanda to shave his head and have him put on the robe of the dharma. Once the drunkenness passed, astonished to see himself suddenly become a monk, he immediately fled. The monks asked the Buddha: “Why did you allow this brahmin to become a monk?” The Buddha said: “This brahmin, for innumerable kalpas, never had the thought of leaving home. Today, because of drunkenness, he momentarily awakened a subtle thought. Because of this cause, later, he will leave home and attain the way.” Because of various causes of this kind, the merit of leaving home is infinite. Therefore, even if laypeople have the five precepts, it does not equal leaving home.

The Blessed One already allowed this drunken brahmin to leave home and receive the precepts, making him the first seed for attaining the way. It is clear that beings who, since ancient times, lack the merit of leaving home will not for long attain the fruit of awakening. This brahmin, simply because of drunkenness, momentarily awakened a subtle thought, had his head shaved, received the precepts, and became a monk. Although this lasted only as long as the drunkenness, the Buddha declared that he would protect this merit and make the root of goodness grow for attaining the way: these are the true golden words of the Blessed One, the fundamental intention of the appearance of the Tathāgata.

All beings must clearly, in the past, present, and future, believe them, receive them, and practice them with respect. Truly, the awakening of the thought and the attainment of the way certainly occur in an instant. The merit of this brahmin momentarily leaving home is already such. How much more so, would the merit of leaving home and receiving the precepts while turning the vessel of human life throughout an entire existence be inferior to that of the drunken brahmin?

The wheel-turning king appeared at the age of over eighty thousand years and ruled the four continents; the seven jewels were perfectly accomplished. At that time, these four continents...

they were like a pure land. The joy of the wheel-turning king is indescribable. It is also said that he sometimes governed the three thousand worlds; there is the distinction of gold, silver, copper, and iron wheels, corresponding to the governance of one, two, three, or four continents. He certainly had none of the ten evils within him. Although this wheel-turning king was so rich in joys, when a single white hair appeared on his head, he transmitted the throne to his son and, for himself, quickly left home, donned the kāṣāya robe, entered the mountains and forests, practiced there, and upon his death, he was certainly reborn in the Brahmā heaven.

He himself placed this white hair from his head in a silver box and deposited it in the royal palace, transmitting it to subsequent wheel-turning kings. When a white hair later grew on a wheel-turning king, it was the same as for the previous king. The length of the remaining life of the wheel-turning king after he left home is incomparable to that of people today. Since it is said that the wheel-turning king had more than eighty thousand years, his body was endowed with the thirty-two marks; people today cannot equal it. Yet, seeing the white hair, he understood impermanence and, in order to practice white deeds and accomplish merit, he necessarily left home and practiced the way.

The kings of today cannot equal the wheel-turning king. Passing time vainly in greed without leaving home will be regrettable in future lives. All the more so, in small countries and border regions, there is the name of king but not the virtue of king; one should not cling to it with avidity. If one leaves home and practices the way, the gods will rejoice and protect, the dragons and deities will venerate and protect. The buddhas, with their buddha-eye, will clearly witness and rejoice.

In her past, the actress did not have faith; she donned the robe of a bhikṣuṇī for amusement. One might fear that there is the fault of despising the dharma, but the power of having worn this robe on her body allowed her to encounter the dharma of the Buddha for two lives. The robe of a bhikṣuṇī is the kāṣāya. Due to the power of having worn the kāṣāya in play, she encountered, in her second life, the Buddha Kāśyapa. She left home, received the precepts, and became a bhikṣuṇī. Although she fell into hell and underwent punishments due to transgressing the precepts, her merit not being exhausted, she eventually encountered the Buddha Śākyamuni, saw the Buddha, heard the dharma, awakened the thought, practiced and trained, forever departed from the three worlds, and became a great arhat, endowed with the six powers and the three clarities; she will certainly attain the unsurpassable way.

Thus, if from the beginning, solely for unsurpassable awakening, one concentrates pure faith and receives with faith the kāṣāya, the growth of this merit will be faster than that of the actress. All the more so, if for unsurpassable awakening one awakens the thought of awakening, leaves home, and receives the precepts, this merit will be infinite. Without the human body, it is rare to accomplish this merit. In India as in China, there are many bodhisattvas, monks and laypeople, and many patriarchs, but none equals the patriarch Nāgārjuna. The causes of the drunken brahmin, the actress, etc., are precisely cited by the patriarch Nāgārjuna to exhort beings to leave home and receive the precepts; the patriarch Nāgārjuna is the one whom the golden mouth of the Blessed One predicted.

The Blessed One said: In the southern continent, there are four most excellent things. First, seeing the Buddha. Second, hearing the dharma. Third, leaving home. Fourth, attaining the way. One must clearly know that these four most excellent things surpass even the northern continent.

and even surpass the gods. Now that we, drawn by the power of our past good roots, have obtained this most excellent body, we should, joyful and rejoicing, leave home and receive the precepts. We must not waste this excellent body of goodness and abandon the dew-like life to the wind of impermanence. By accumulating life after life of leaving home, we will accumulate merits and virtues.

The Blessed One said: In the Buddha’s dharma, the retributive fruit of leaving home is inconceivable. Even if someone erected a stūpa of the seven jewels, as high as the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, the merit they would obtain would not equal leaving home. Why? Because the stūpa of the seven jewels can be destroyed by greedy, evil, and foolish people. The merit of leaving home, however, cannot be destroyed or ruined. Therefore, whether teaching men or women, freeing male or female servants, allowing common people, or oneself leaving home and entering the path, the merit is infinite. The Blessed One clearly showed the measure of merit and made such a comparison. Puṣya, hearing this, though one hundred and twenty years old and very aged, insisted on leaving home and receiving the precepts; he took his place at the end of the seats of the young, practiced, and became a great arhat.

We should know that the human body of this life is temporarily formed by the union of the causes of the four great elements and the five aggregates; the eight sufferings are constant within it. Moreover, it is born and dies moment by moment, without ever stopping; furthermore, although in a snap of the fingers there are sixty-five moments of birth and death, due to our own obscurity, we do not yet know it. Although in one day and night there are six hundred forty-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred eighty moments where the five aggregates are born and die, we do not know it. It is pitiful that, although we are born and die, we do not know it ourselves.

The measure of this moment-by-moment birth and death is known only to the Buddha Blessed One and Śāriputra. Although there are many other saints, none know it alone. Due to the principle of moment-by-moment birth and death, beings create good and evil deeds; and due to the principle of moment-by-moment birth and death, beings awaken the thought and attain the way.

Such a human body that is born and dies like this, even if cherished, will not remain. Since ancient times, no one has ever cherished and retained it. Although this human body that is not us is like this, if we turn it toward leaving home and receiving the precepts, it is realizing anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, the indestructible diamond-like fruit of buddhahood, attested by all buddhas of the three times. What person of wisdom would not joyfully seek it? Therefore, in the past, the eight sons of Buddha Candrasūryapradīpa all abandoned the royal throne ruling the four continents and left home. The sixteen sons of Buddha Mahābhijñājñānābhibhū left home together.

While Mahābhijñā was in samādhi, he expounded the Lotus Sūtra for the multitude; they have now become tathāgatas in the ten directions. The eight hundred million people of the retinue of the wheel-turning king, their father, seeing the sixteen princes leave home, also requested to leave home, and the wheel-turning king permitted them. The two sons of Subhavyūha, as well as the king their father and the queen their mother, all left home.

We should know that it is clear that when great saints appear, they necessarily take leaving home as the true dharma. We must not say that these companions left home out of foolishness; if we know that they left home...

Regarding wisdom, one might think they are equal. At the time of the Buddha Śākyamuni, Rāhula, Ānanda, and others all left home; there was also the ordination of a thousand Śākyas, the ordination of twenty thousand Śākyas: it can be said that these are glorious traces. From the beginning, the ordination of the first five monks, until the end, when Subhadra left home, those who aligned themselves with the Buddha necessarily left home. One must know that this is an infinite merit.

Thus, if worldly people have compassion for their descendants, they should make them leave home quickly. If they have compassion for their parents, they should urge them to leave home. That is why the gāthā says: If there were no past world, There would be no past buddhas. If there are no past buddhas, There is no ordination by leaving home. This gāthā is the gāthā of all buddhas tathāgatas; it refutes those heterodox ones who say there is no past world. Thus, one knows that leaving home and receiving the precepts is the dharma of all past buddhas. We who have the fortune of encountering the marvelous dharma of the buddhas that is ordination by leaving home, if we do not leave home and receive the precepts in vain, one does not know by what obstacle. Realizing the highest merit with the lowest support: in Jambudvīpa and in the three worlds, it will be the highest merit. As long as this human body of Jambudvīpa is not destroyed, one must absolutely leave home and receive the precepts.

An ancient saint said: One who has left home, even if they transgress the precepts, is still superior to one who, remaining in the secular world, receives and upholds the precepts. That is why the sūtras specifically say: Urging people to leave home, this favor is difficult to repay. Furthermore, one who urges to leave home, that is, one who urges people to practice the venerable act, the retributive fruit they obtain surpasses that of King Yama, the wheel-turning king, and the god Śakra. That is why the sūtras specifically say: Urging people to leave home, this favor is difficult to repay.

Urging people to receive and uphold the precepts of upāsaka, etc., there is nothing like it; that is why the sūtras do not provide proof of it. One must know that, even if one transgresses the precepts after having left home, one is superior to one who, remaining at home, does not transgress the precepts. Aligning with the Buddha and necessarily leaving home to receive the precepts is superior. The retributive fruit of urging to leave home surpasses even that of King Yama, surpasses even that of the wheel-turning king, surpasses even that of the god Śakra. Even if one is a vaiśya or a śūdra, if one leaves home, one will surpass even the kṣatriya. One will surpass even King Yama, the wheel-turning king, and the god Śakra. The precepts for laypeople are not like this; that is why one must leave home.

One must know that the words of the Blessed One are inconceivable. The Blessed One and the five hundred great arhats have extensively gathered them. One truly knows that, in the dharma of the Buddha, the principle is clear. The wisdom of a saint, of the three clarities and the six powers, is already beyond the reach of ordinary masters of recent times; how much more so that of five hundred saints! Although they knew what ordinary masters do not know, saw what they do not see, and attained what they do not attain, what ordinary masters know is not unknown. Thus, one must not compare the obscure and foolish discourses of ordinary masters with the words of saints endowed with the three clarities.

The Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra, one hundred twenty, says: Even one who awakens the thought of leaving home is already called a saint; how much more so one who

obtains the patience of the dharmas. It must be known that arousing the thought of leaving home is called being a saint.

Among the five hundred great vows of the Buddha Śākyamuni, the one hundred thirty-seventh vow: “In the future, when I have attained perfect awakening, if there are people who, in my dharma, desire to leave home, I vow that there will be no obstacles. Even if they are weak, distracted, mad, arrogant, fearless, stupid, without wisdom, with many passions, scattered in heart—if it is not thus, I will not attain perfect awakening.” The one hundred thirty-eighth vow: “In the future, when I have attained perfect awakening, if there are women who, in my dharma, desire to leave home, study the way, and receive the great precepts, I vow to grant them fulfillment.

If it is not thus, I will not attain perfect awakening.” The three hundred fourteenth vow: “In the future, when I have attained perfect awakening, if there are beings who have few roots of good and, amid the roots of good, their hearts generate attachment and joy, I will cause that in future lives, in the dharma of the Buddha, they leave home and study the way. I will establish them and make them abide in the ten pure precepts of Brahmā.

If it is not thus, I will not attain perfect awakening.” It must be known that now, the good sons and good daughters who leave home are all aided by the power of the Blessed One’s former great vows and can leave home and receive the precepts without obstacle. Since the Tathāgata has already vowed to make them leave home, it is clearly known that this is the most venerable and supreme great merit.

The Buddha said: “And even if there are those who, relying on me, shave beard and hair, put on a piece of kāṣāya, but do not receive the precepts, making offerings to these persons also allows one to enter even to the city of fearlessness. Because of this cause, I speak thus.” It is clearly known that if one shaves beard and hair and puts on the kāṣāya, even without receiving the precepts, one who makes offerings to this person will enter the city of fearlessness.

It is also said: “If again there is a person who, for my sake, leaves home without obtaining the precepts, shaves beard and hair, puts on a piece of kāṣāya, and someone, by unlawful means, torments and harms them, even to destroying the dharma bodies and reward bodies of all buddhas of the three times, even to filling the three evil paths.” The Buddha said: “If there are beings who, for my sake, leave home, shave beard and hair, put on the kāṣāya, even if they do not keep the precepts, all are already marked by the seal of nirvāṇa.” “If again someone who has left home does not keep the precepts, and another, by unlawful means, causes them torment and trouble, insults them, slanders them, strikes them, binds them, cuts them with hand, knife, or stick, or takes their robe and bowl, as well as various objects of sustenance, that person then destroys the true reward bodies of all buddhas of the three times, and pierces the eyes of all humans and gods.

That person, in order to obscure and make disappear the seeds of the true dharma and the three jewels of all buddhas. So that gods and humans do not obtain benefits and fall into hell. So that the three evil paths grow and fill.” It must be known that if one shaves the head and puts on the dyed robe, even if one does not keep the precepts, one is marked by the seal of the unsurpassed great nirvāṇa. If someone torments this person, they destroy the reward bodies of the buddhas of the three times. This must be equal to the crime of a major offense. It is clearly known that the merit of leaving home is immediately close to all buddhas of the three times.

The Bud

The Buddha said: "One who has left home should not produce evil. If one produces evil, it is not leaving home. One who has left home should have body and speech in harmony. If they are not in harmony, it is not leaving home. I have abandoned parents, brothers, wife, children, family, friends, acquaintances, to leave home and practice the way. This is precisely the time to cultivate and accumulate all virtuous thoughts, not the time to cultivate and accumulate non-virtuous thoughts. Virtuous thought is having compassion for all beings as for one's own children. Non-virtuous thought is the opposite."

The essential nature of leaving home is having compassion for all beings as for one's own children. This is precisely not producing evil; it is having body and speech in harmony. When the appearance is already that of one who has left home, their virtue is now thus.

The Buddha said: "Moreover, Śāriputra, if the bodhisattva mahāsattva, on the day he leaves home, immediately attains anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, and on that same day turns the wheel of the dharma, at the moment he turns the wheel of the dharma, countless asaṃkhyeyas of beings, removed from dust and separated from defilement, obtain, amid all dharmas, the pure vision of the dharma; countless asaṃkhyeyas of beings, because they obtain non-attachment to all dharmas, see their hearts freed from impurities; countless asaṃkhyeyas of beings obtain irreversibility in anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, if they desire this, they should study the prajñāpāramitā."

What is called the bodhisattva who studies prajñā, these are the patriarchs. Yet, anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi necessarily matures on the very day one leaves home. However, although one practices and realizes for three asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas, for countless