Page Text
________________
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING.
11,7
If you remove (from conduct) the purpose of the mind, the bodily act is but as rotten wood; wherefore, regulate the mind, and then the body will spontaneously go right. 527
(You say that) to eat pure things is a cause of religious merit, but the wild beasts and the children of poverty ever feed on these fruits and medicinal herbs; these then ought to gain much religious merit. 528
"But if you say that the heart being good then bodily suffering is the cause of further merit, (then I ask) why may not those who walk (live) in ease, also possess a virtuous heart? 529
'If joys are opposed to a virtuous heart, a virtuous heart may also be opposed to bodily suffering; if, for instance, all those heretics profess purity because they use water (in various ways), 530
Then those who thus use water among men, even with a wicked mind (karma), yet ought ever to be pure. But if righteousness is the groundwork of a Rishi's purity, then the idea of a sacred spot as his dwelling, 531
Being the cause of his righteousness (is wrong). What is reverenced, should be known and seen 1. Reverence indeed is due to righteous conduct, but let it not redound to the place (or, mode of life).' 532
Thus speaking at large on religious questions, they went on till the setting sun. He then beheld their rites in connection with sacrifice to fire, the drilling (for sparks) and the fanning into flame, 533
1 This is, as it seems, the meaning of the line, or it may be rendered, What is esteemed of weight ought to be seen in the world.'
Diglized by Google
| SR No. | 007676 |
| Book Title | Text of Confucianism Part 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | James Legge |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1882 |
| Total Pages | 2405 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 43 MB |