Sex, Marriage and Family in World Religions (75 page)

Two final points to make: first, the
Sutra on the Filial Son
is really unusually direct in pointing out the dangers of sexual desire in the home sphere and seems intent on applying Buddhist models of discipline to men at home, presumably in the hopes of maintaining stability and fiscal solvency. Thus, it could be argued that the familial sphere is, after a fashion, harvesting the enviable levels of discipline generated in the monastic space, and bringing them back within the purview of the reproductive family. In several of the selections to follow we will again see evidence of a kind of “at-home-monk,” who nonetheless is expected to play his role in the normal reproductive family. Second, this text, much more than any other translated here, is written in a rough style, with odd vocabulary and twisted syntax. I’ve left question marks in the more difficult passages, but I want to signal to the reader that several passages of this text may not ever be fully resolved.

Document 5–13

x i a o z i j i n g : t h e s u t r a o n t h e fi l i a l s o n The Buddha said to the monks, “When your parents gave birth to you, [your mother] was pregnant for ten months, her body was as though it had a severe sickness. On the day of your birth, she was scared and your father was terrified.

These emotions are hard to describe. After you were born she put you in the dry places and slept in the damp ones.5 She was so completely sincere [in her caring for you], that she even turned her blood into milk [for you]. [Then] you were petted, fed, bathed, and given clothes, food, and instruction [on the need]

to pay respect to teachers and friends, and to offer support to the worthy and the elderly
(junzhang).

When the son’s face was happy his parents were happy. When the son was sad, his parents’ heart burned. When you went out, they missed you. And when you returned they asked where you had been. They were so concerned that you
Buddhism
355

not do something bad. With your parents giving you so much
(en)
how are you going to repay it?”

All the
sŕaman
.
as
(renunciants) replied, “We must with total politeness
(li)
and with complete compassion care for them
(gongyang)
to completely match the kindness
(en)
of our parents.”

The World Honored One said, “If sons offer
(yang)
to their parents ambrosia
(ganlu)
of a hundred flavors for them to eat, heavenly orchestras for them to listen to, and first-rate clothes that make their bodies resplendent, or again, if a son carried his parents around on his shoulders throughout the world until the end of his life—to match the benevolence and nurturing [they showed him]— could that be called filiality?”

All the
sŕaman
.
as
said, “Great filiality could not surpass this.”

The Buddha said, “It is not to be considered filial piety. As long as one’s parents are ignorant and do not worship
(feng)
the Three Jewels
(zun)
and are cruel and vicious, deceitful and dishonest, lecherous and adulterous, lying, drunken and rowdy, with their backs turned against the Way in this manner, then a son must do everything possible to enlighten them, as they are so de-luded. In order to convert them, you should present them with a similitude [of their fate] by showing them the emperor’s prisons. [Explain to them that] all the prisoners’ punishments are due to their own waywardness. Their bodies covered with various poisons, they summon their own deaths. At the end of their lives, their spirits
(shen)
are tethered to Mt. Tai. There they are scalded and burned, suffering thousands of tortures, and one is alone with no way to escape. [Tell them] it is because of their evil ways that they will meet this awful fate. If after this instruction, they still do not reform [their evil ways], then you must cry and lament and go on a hunger strike. Your parents, even though they are stupid, will, from the pain of love
(aien zhi tong)
and fearing that their son will die, fully admit their [errors], get control over their minds and worship the Way
(chongdao)
.”

“If your parents will make a resolution to uphold the five Buddhist precepts to 1. be benevolent and do not kill, 2. be pure and yielding and not steal, 3. be chaste and not lascivious
(yin),
4. be trustworthy, do not lie or cheat, 5. be filial, do not get drunk—then in the lineage
(zong)
parents will be benevolent and children/sons will be filial.6 The husband will be upright and the mother will be chaste, and the nine generations7 of the clan will be harmonious and the servants will be obedient. The benefit will spread far and wide, and [all] those who have blood8 will be grateful
(shouen).
And, among all the Buddhas of the ten directions, along with the heavenly nagas, the ghosts and gods, the upright princes, the loyal officials and the vast commoners, there will be none who do not respect and cherish [your family] or protect it and make it peaceful. Even if there are perverted [government] policies, with the machinations of deceitful concubines and wicked sons, and witchy wives [making] everything weird and depraved, there is nothing they could do [to this household]. And thus both 356

your parents would, while alive always be at ease, and at death their spirit
(guiling)
would be reborn in heaven [where] they would be with all the Buddhas and get to hear the dharma and achieve the Way, and thereby transcend this world and be forever free of suffering.”

Then the Buddha said to the
sŕaman
.
as,
“When I look at the world, I do not see any who are filial. Only this kind of [practice] can be considered [real]

filialness, which is causing your parents to leave evil and turn toward the good: to uphold the five precepts, to maintain the three refuges continually to the end of their lives. The profound kindness
(en)
of parents [shown in] the nurturing of breastfeeding
(rubu)
is [a case of] limitless benevolence. So if you are unable to, with the three honorables [Buddha, Dharma, Sangha], convert
(hua)
your parents, then though you take care of them
(xiaoyang)
with filialness it still is as though you are unfilial.”

“You must not fall under the spell of your wife/wives who might cause you to separate from wise men and avoid them, and you must not [indulge] in your desire for girls which might be so intense and indefatigable that it breaches filialness even to the point of killing your parents and making a mess of the national government and causing the masses to flee for their lives. . . . So when all those polluted wives get together, or those sexy women, crazed with desire and intent on bewitching, or those goblin [women] with numberless provoca-tive poses, then men short on wisdom and officials short on insight who see such things, will not see signs [of trouble] and will gradually be seduced and led away until their intention [to follow the Way] is lost. Thus, by the evil magical words of these goblinesses, [these men] may endanger their relatives, and may [even] kill lords. With a poker face [on the outside] but with roiling emotions [on the inside], they are angry and arrogant, minds a mess, and blind—their actions resemble beasts. ( . . . ) “Thus,
sŕaman
.
as
be single and do not pair. To be pure in this intention [to study] the Way, that is your responsibility. Only those who uphold wisdom, and the precepts should serve as ministers
(jun)
and protect the four oceans, or be officials loyal [in their efforts to] nurture the people with benevolence
(ren).

Only when the father understands dharma, will the son be filial and benevolent.

Only when the husband is trustworthy will the wife be chaste. When male and female householders are able to maintain practice like this, then lifetime after lifetime they will meet the Buddha, see the Dharma and attain the Way. The Buddha taught it thus, and the disciples were overjoyed.

[
Taisho¯ shinshu¯ daizo¯kyo¯,
translated by Alan Cole]9

THE GHOST FESTIVAL SUTRA

This text, which was probably composed in China in the sixth century, pulls together previous narrative elements from other works, some forged in China, some of Indian provenance, and makes the complex argument that normal
Buddhism
357

family reproduction necessitates the intermediary powers of the Buddhist monastic system. The text, though clumsy in many ways, still moves rather effec-tively from a narrative account of Mulian learning to rescue his mother from hell, where she apparently is suffering for her profound sins, into a ritual pre-scription that details how all men are to respond similarly and save their mothers with offerings presented to the Buddhists on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. What is crucial to note is that the story works to show that direct attempts to feed the dead, something widely practiced in pre-Buddhist China, not only fail but literally enflame the situation. Thus, this form of Buddhist family values is breaking into the hallowed pattern of exchange between the living and their ancestors to articulate a triangular arrangement in which, as in India, the Buddhist institution takes over as the mediator for the family’s calen-drical efforts to care for the dead. This text is, like those above, also notable for its construction of “milk-debts” which, in terms of the narrative at least, drive the entire sequence. Thus, the author has taken the natural sequences of life-production and folded them into an ideological package in which not only is there no free-lunch, but the reception of mother’s milk and her kindness seem to impel her into hell and hunger. The implication that Mulian’s mother is in hell simply for reproducing is made all the clearer since no one else but her progeny are apparently required to act on her behalf. Thus though her sins are left unexplained the structure of the narrative and the way the second half of the text universalizes the problem to all mothers, implies that at this early stage we have something like a Buddhist “sin of life” taking form. The more developed versions of this story, such as
The Blood Bowl Sutra
(see below) that would appear in the following centuries, make Mulian’s mother’s sins explicitly related to her sexuality and reproductive powers.

Note: The phrase
yulan bowl
that appears in the title and several times in the final section of the sutra simply means the bowl of offerings, whatever their content, made on this festival date that goes by the formal title
yulan.

Document 5–14

y u l a n p e n j i n g : t h e g h o s t f e s t i v a l s u t r a Thus have I heard. Once, the Buddha resided in the kingdom of Sŕa¯vastı¯, among the Jetavana trees in the garden of Ana¯thapin.d.ika. The Great Mu Qian Lian [Mulian] first obtained the six penetrations and then, desiring to save his parents to repay the kindness of breastfeeding, he used his divine eye to search the worlds. He saw that his departed mother had been reborn among the hungry ghosts where she never saw food or drink—[it was so bad] that her skin hung off her bones. Mulian took pity, filled his bowl with rice, and sent it to his mother. When his mother received the bowl of rice, she used her left hand to guard the bowl and her right hand to gather up the rice, but before the food entered her mouth it changed into flaming coals, so in the end she could not 358

eat. Mulian cried out in grief and wept tears. He rushed back to tell the Buddha and explained everything as it had happened.

The Buddha said, “The roots of your mother’s sins are deep and tenacious. It is not within your power as a single individual to do anything about it. Even though the fame of your filial devotion moves heaven and earth, still [all] the spirits of heaven and the spirits of earth, harmful demons and masters of the heterodox paths—the Daoist priests, and the four spirit kings of heaven, cannot do anything about it. You must rely on the mighty spiritual power of the assembled monks of the ten directions in order to obtain her deliverance. I shall now preach for you the method of salvation, so that all beings in dire straights may leave sadness and suffering, and have their sinful impediments swept wiped way. “

The Buddha told Mulian, “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when the assembled monks of the ten directions release themselves, you should, for the sake of seven generations of ancestors, up to and including your current parents—those in dire straights—gather food of the one hundred flavors and five kinds of fruit, basins for washing and rinsing, incense, oil lamps and candles, and mattresses and bedding. Then place these, the sweetest, prettiest things in the world, in a bowl and offer it to the assembled monks, those of great virtue of the ten directions. On this day, the entire assembly of saints—those in the mountains practicing meditation and concentration; those who have attained the fruit of the four paths; those who practice
(jinxing)
under trees; those with the six penetrations, and composure
(zizai)
who convert others, the Hearers, and the Solitary Realizers, and the great men, those bodhisattvas of the ten stages who provisionally manifest the form of a monk—all of those who are part of the great assembly shall with one mind receive the bowl of rice. The assembly of saints possess fully the purity of the precepts and the Way—their virtue is vast indeed. When you make offerings to these kinds of monks as they release themselves, then your current parents, your seven generations of ancestors, and your six kinds of relatives will obtain release from the suffering of the three evil paths of rebirth and will be liberated and clothed and fed naturally. If one’s parents are still living, then they will have one hundred years of joy and happiness [from this offering]. If they are already deceased, then [they and] the seven generations of ancestors will be reborn in the heavens; born freely through magical transformation, they will enter into the light of heavenly flowers and receive unlimited joy.”

Then the Buddha decreed that the assembled monks of the ten directions should first chant prayers on behalf of the family of the donor for the seven generations of ancestors and practice meditation and concentrate their thoughts before receiving the food. In receiving the bowls, they should first place them in front of the Buddha’s stupa, and when the assembled monks have finished chanting prayers, they may then individually partake of the food.