地藏菩薩本願經 利益存亡品

This chapter opens the second fascicle of the sūtra. The first fascicle was all vast scenes: the divided bodies, the sea of karma, the names of the hells. Turn the fascicle, and the first sentence comes down in the smallest place of all — in every stirring of the mind and every rising of a thought there is nothing that is not offence.

Then comes a very exact observation: if by chance they get some benefit from the good, for the most part they lose again the mind they began with; and if they meet with an evil condition, then thought upon thought it grows and increases. The good side is easily lost, the evil side easily grows. The two run at different speeds, and this line is the premise of everything that follows.

Carrying It for Him, Not Walking for Him

The sūtra sets up a simile: like one walking upon a muddy road with a heavy stone upon his back, the wearier the further, the heavier the longer, his steps sinking ever deeper.

Then it writes the turn: if he is able to meet a good friend who takes off part of the burden for him, or who takes the whole burden upon himself — someone shares half of it, or takes the whole of it over.

But the sūtra does not write that anyone walks for him. The stone is off; the road is still walked to the end by himself.

Five That May Be Done, and One That May Not

Of what can be done at the end of life the sūtra lists five: hanging up pennants and canopies, lighting oil lamps, reading through the honored scriptures, making offerings to images of the buddhas and of the sages, calling the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas and pratyekabuddhas. Not one of the five requires anything of the person concerned.

Then the sūtra turns the matter around: on the day when life comes to its end, take the greatest care not to kill any living thing, and not to make an evil condition — sacrificing to ghosts and spirits, and begging of the sprites.

The reason the sūtra gives itself: it has not a hair’s breadth of power to benefit the one who has died; it only knots up the conditions of offence, and makes them deeper and heavier instead.

What the sūtra forbids is not sacrifice as such. It is taking a life to make the sacrifice.

Six Parts Belong to the Living

Someone asks: when the kin cultivate merit for him, how much does he actually get?

The answer is a ratio with nothing polite about it: of seven parts he gains but one, and the merit of six parts is the benefit of the living themselves.

Of seven parts he gets only one; six belong to the people who did the work for him.

The sūtra then turns to the living: cultivate for yourselves while your hearing is still sound and strong, and part by part it is all your own.

Cultivating blessings for another is not useless. It is only that the one who does it gets the larger share.

Forty-Nine Days

The great ghost of impermanence arrives without appointing a day; the spirit roaming in the dark does not yet know its own offences or blessings, and within the seven times seven days it is as if dull-witted, as if deaf.

He does not yet know his own offences and blessings; he cannot hear, and he cannot make it out. Through that stretch of days he has only one thing: he looks to his own flesh and blood among the kin to make a power of blessing for him and rescue him.

The word the sūtra uses is look to. What is written is not a verdict but a waiting.

A Basin of Rice-Washing Water

Having spoken through the whole chapter, at the last it walks into the kitchen: the water in which the rice is washed and the leaves of the vegetables are not to be thrown away upon the ground. Food not yet offered to the Buddha and the saṃgha may not be eaten first.

Two outcomes, and the drop between them is enormous: for what is not according to the Dharma, he gets no strength from it at all; for what is according to the Dharma, he gains one part out of seven.

The same rice and the same vegetables, the same one feast. The sūtra puts the difference in four characters — wholehearted in mind, earnest without slackening — and not in how large a thing was put on.

The last sentence is that the living and the dead both gain benefit. The dead half gains one part, the living half gains six — from beginning to end this one sentence is speaking of two people.

Śikṣānanda’s translation, made under the Tang, of the chapter “Benefiting the Living and the Dead” in The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Taishō T13n0412, the first chapter of Fascicle Two, from the title at the head of the fascicle down to “the elder Great Eloquence bowed and withdrew.” The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔1 · The title at the head of the fascicle and its translator〕（0783c24）The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Fascicle Two.（0783c26）Translated by Śikṣānanda (in the Tang tongue, Delight-in-Learning), Tripiṭaka śramaṇa of the country of Khotan under the Tang (a country of the Western Regions; the name is properly pronounced Kusatana, and in the Tang tongue means Earth-Milk).

〔2 · The title of the chapter〕（0783c27）Benefiting the Living and the Dead, Chapter Seven.

〔3 · Every stirring of the mind and rising of a thought is offence〕（0783c28）At that time Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! I look upon the beings of Jambudvīpa, and in every stirring of the mind and every rising of a thought there is nothing that is not offence. If by chance they get some benefit from the good, for the most part they lose again the mind they began with; and if they meet with an evil condition, then thought upon thought it grows and increases.

〔4 · The simile of walking upon a muddy road〕（0784a01）People of this kind are like one walking upon a muddy road with a heavy stone upon his back: the further he goes the wearier he grows, the longer he carries it the heavier it grows, and his steps sink ever deeper.

〔5 · Meeting a good friend who takes the load〕（0784a03）If he is able to meet a good friend who takes off part of the burden for him, or who takes the whole burden upon himself — this being because that friend has great strength — and who further supports and helps him and exhorts him to set his feet firm; and if he reaches level ground, then he should look back upon that evil road and not travel it a second time.”

〔6 · Practising evil, from a hair’s breadth to the measureless〕（0784a05）“World-Honored One! Beings who practise evil begin from a hair’s breadth and come to the measureless.

〔7 · At the end of life the kin should set up blessings〕（0784a06）These beings having such habits, at the time when life comes to its end their parents and kin should set up blessings for them, to provision the road ahead.

〔8 · The five things by which blessings are set up〕（0784a07）Whether by hanging up pennants and canopies and lighting oil lamps; or by reading through the honored scriptures; or by making offerings to images of the buddhas and to the images of the sages. And even by calling the names of buddhas, of bodhisattvas, and of pratyekabuddhas (the Sanskrit is transcribed bizhijialuo, rendered by sense as one awakened through conditions; because such a one awakens to the Way by contemplating causes and conditions, he is also rendered solitarily awakened) — one name, one title, passing through the ear-faculty of the dying person, or heard down into his root-consciousness (the eighth consciousness).

〔9 · All the many offences are extinguished〕（0784a10）The evil karma these beings have made, if one reckons the fruit it stirs up, must bring them down into the evil destinies; but because the kin have cultivated these holy causes for the dying person, the many offences such as these are all extinguished.

〔10 · Within the seven times seven days, making much of every good deed〕（0784a13）And if besides, within the seven times seven days — the forty-nine days after his body has died — they make much of every kind of good deed, they can cause these beings forever to leave the evil destinies, and to be born among humans and gods and receive a rare and wondrous joy; and the benefit gained by the kin now living is beyond all measure.”

〔11 · Take the greatest care not to kill, nor to sacrifice to ghosts and spirits〕（0784a15）“Therefore I now, before the Buddha, the World-Honored One, and before the eightfold host of devas, nāgas, and the rest, and humans and non-humans, exhort the beings of Jambudvīpa: on the day when life comes to its end, take the greatest care not to kill any living thing, and not to make an evil condition — sacrificing to ghosts and spirits, and begging of the wangliang sprites (goblins formed out of the essences of miscellaneous things, which roam about the villages of men, and having nothing to eat work all manner of prodigies to stir up people’s minds).

〔12 · Neither killing nor sacrificing benefits; both increase offence〕（0784a18）Why so? Because such killing, and even such sacrificing, has not a hair’s breadth of power to benefit the one who has died; it only knots up the conditions of offence, and makes them deeper and heavier instead.

〔13 · Even one who had a portion of the holy is dragged into it〕（0784a20）Suppose that in a life to come, or in this present life, he could have obtained a portion of the holy (the seven limbs of awakening, the eight limbs of the holy path, the portion that is a bodhisattva’s fruit) and been born among humans and gods; only because at the end of his life his kin made this evil cause, that person whose life has ended is also dragged into the calamity and must go to be confronted and argue his case, and is late in being born into a good place.

〔14 · One with no roots of goodness has karma added to him besides〕（0784a22）How much more the person at the end of life who, while alive, had not the least root of goodness, and who according to his own karma goes of himself to receive the recompense of the evil destinies — how could one bear that his kin should add yet more karma to him?

〔15 · The simile of the man three days without food〕（0784a24）It is as though a man came walking from a far country, three days now without food, and what he carried and bore came to a little more than a hundred catties. Suddenly he meets a neighbor, who puts a few more things upon him; and for that reason he grows wearier and more heavily burdened still.

〔16 · A single hair, a single drop — all of it gained by oneself〕（0784a26）World-Honored One! I look upon the beings of Jambudvīpa: if only they can, within the teaching of the buddhas, do even one good deed — as little as a single hair, a single drop, a single grain of sand, a single mote of dust — the benefit of it is all gained by themselves.”

〔17 · The elder Great Eloquence raises his question〕（0784a28）While these words were being spoken, there was in the assembly an elder named Great Eloquence (eloquence is the talent of speech, turning and turning without hindrance and distinguishing things plainly, and so it is called unobstructed eloquence; eloquence is of four kinds: in meaning, in dharma, in wording, and in delight in speaking) — this elder had long since realized the unborn (that dharmas do not arise), and transforms and delivers in the ten directions, manifesting the person of an elder — who joined his palms in reverence and asked Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: “Great being! When the beings of this southern Jambudvīpa come to the end of life, and kin great and small cultivate merit for them, and even set out a vegetarian feast and make every kind of good cause — can this person whose life has ended gain the great benefit, and release?”

〔18 · Kṣitigarbha consents to speak〕（0784b04）Kṣitigarbha answered: “Elder! I now, for all beings of ages to come and of the present, and upheld by the Buddha’s awesome power, will speak of this matter in brief.

〔19 · Hearing a name at the end of life, all gain release〕（0784b06）Elder, if beings of ages to come and of the present, on the day when life comes to its end, are able to hear the name of one buddha, the name of one bodhisattva, or the name of one pratyekabuddha, then whether they have offences or have none, they all gain release.”

〔20 · Of seven parts he gains but one〕（0784b08）“If there be a man or a woman who while alive did not cultivate good causes and made many offences of every kind, then after life has ended, though kin great and small make blessing and benefit for him and perform every holy work, of seven parts he gains but one, and the merit of six parts is the benefit of the living themselves.

〔21 · Cultivate while still sound of hearing · every part is one’s own〕（0784b11）For this reason, good men and good women of ages to come and of the present should cultivate for themselves while their hearing is still sound and strong, and part by part it is all gained by themselves.

〔22 · Within the seven times seven days, as if dull, as if deaf〕（0784b12）The great ghost of impermanence arrives without appointing a day; the spirit roaming in the dark does not yet know its own offences or blessings, and within the seven times seven days it is as if dull-witted, as if deaf. Or it is among the several offices (the various bureaus of the dark realm), where the fruits of karma are argued out; and only when the case has been examined and settled does it go according to its karma to receive birth. In the interval before that is determined there are already a thousand myriad sorts of sorrow — how much more when one falls into the several evil destinies?

〔23 · Looking to the kin to make blessings and rescue him〕（0784b16）This person whose life has ended has not yet received birth, and within the seven times seven days, thought upon thought, he looks to his own flesh and blood among the kin to make a power of blessing for him and rescue him.

〔24 · After those days, recompense follows the karma〕（0784b18）After those days have passed, he receives recompense according to his karma. If he is one with offences, then at the very least he passes a thousand or a hundred years with no day of release. If it is the five offences of uninterrupted retribution (the highest grade among the ten evils), he falls into the great hells, and through a thousand kalpas and ten thousand kalpas forever receives every kind of suffering.”

〔25 · The method of preparing the feast and guarding purity〕（0784b20）“Furthermore, Elder! When beings who have made karmic offences such as these have come to the end of life, and their flesh and blood among the kin prepare a vegetarian feast for them to provision their path of karma: while the food of the feast has not yet been eaten to the end, and while the feast is being prepared, the water in which the rice is washed and the leaves of the vegetables are not to be thrown away upon the ground (they should be kept in a vessel and given to the animals after the feast). And so long as none of the food has yet been offered to the Buddha and the saṃgha, it may not be eaten first.

〔26 · According to the Dharma, and not according to the Dharma〕（0784b23）If there be any who transgress by eating first, and who are not diligent and earnest, then this person whose life has ended gets no strength from it at all. If they are diligent and earnest, and guard purity, and offer it up to the Buddha and the saṃgha, then this person whose life has ended may gain one part out of seven.

〔27 · Concluding: the living and the dead both gain benefit〕（0784b25）Therefore, Elder! If the beings of Jambudvīpa are able, for their fathers and mothers and even their kin, after life has ended, to set out a vegetarian feast as an offering, wholehearted in mind and earnest without slackening — persons such as these bring benefit both to the living and to the dead.”

〔28 · The ghosts and spirits arouse the resolve · the elder bows and withdraws〕（0784b28）While these words were being spoken, in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three a thousand myriad koṭis of nayutas of ghosts and spirits of Jambudvīpa all aroused a measureless resolve for awakening. The elder Great Eloquence bowed and withdrew.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing, before which stands the Guiding Thread in one fascicle. In glossing the title of this chapter the Guiding Thread first explains why it follows upon the chapter before: 「前品既讚歎威神之力，今明利益存亡，以顯其實」—“The previous chapter having praised the power of awesome spiritual might, the present makes plain the benefiting of the living and the dead, to display its substance.” 〔X21n0383 0648c24〕, and cites an old saying as a footnote — 「古聖云：駕之於空言，不如見之於實事」—“The sages of old said: to ride upon empty words is not so good as to see it in actual fact.” 〔X21n0383 0648c24〕 The previous chapter praised the power of awesome spiritual might; this chapter sets that power down upon one concrete matter. The Outline and Commentary divides this chapter into three passages: 「二、品文，三。初、地藏正明；二、大辯助顯；三、鬼神發心」—“Second, the text of the chapter, in three: first, Kṣitigarbha makes it plain directly; second, Great Eloquence helps to display it; third, the ghosts and spirits arouse the resolve.” 〔X21n0384 0718c08〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

At the Head of a Fascicle, a Thought First

This chapter is the first of Fascicle Two in the base text. The title at the head of the fascicle, 「地藏菩薩本願經卷下」 — The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Fascicle Two — is written out, and immediately after it comes the chapter title: the sūtra changes fascicle here.

The first six chapters spoke of the original vows, the divided bodies, karmic conditions, karmic impulsions, the names of the hells, and the Tathāgata’s praise, all of them vast scenes throughout. Turn the fascicle, and the first sentence comes down in the smallest place of all: 「舉心動念，無非是罪。」 — in every stirring of the mind and every rising of a thought there is nothing that is not offence.

The reading handed down takes this sentence apart: 「心念指六識，舉動是功能」—“Mind and thought point to the sixth consciousness; stirring and moving are its function.” 〔X21n0384 0718c14〕; 「由六七二識和合，濁亂八識主人」—“through the combining of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, the master that is the eighth consciousness is muddied and thrown into disorder.” 〔X21n0384 0718c14〕, and the eighth in turn drives the first five to covet sounds and cling to forms and to grasp at everything on every side, 「故曰無非是罪」—“and therefore it is said that there is nothing that is not offence.” 〔X21n0384 0718c16〕

Immediately after, the sūtra writes a very exact observation: 「脫獲善利，多退初心；若遇惡緣，念念增益。」 — if by chance they get some benefit from the good, for the most part they lose again the mind they began with; and if they meet with an evil condition, thought upon thought it grows and increases. The good side is easily lost, the evil side easily grows — an observation not strange to us. The commentator of old cites a line of scripture here in witness: 「僧護經云：閻浮提人，為性難信」—“The Senghu Sūtra says: the people of Jambudvīpa are by nature hard to bring to faith.” 〔X21n0384 0718c17〕

The two sides move at different speeds. This sentence is the premise of every method set out later in the chapter — for if good and evil went at the same rate, there would be no need for anyone to act on a dying person’s behalf.

The Heavy Stone in the Mud, and the One Who Carries It for Him

The sūtra then sets up a simile: 「如履泥塗，負於重石，漸困漸重，足步深邃。」 — like one walking upon a muddy road with a heavy stone upon his back, growing wearier and the stone heavier, his steps sinking deep. The reading handed down makes plain what it points to: 「初喻南洲眾生，善退惡增，如履淖泥之途」—“The first simile is of the beings of the southern continent, whose good recedes and whose evil grows, like walking a road of miry mud.” 〔X21n0384 0719a10〕 A muddy road is hard to walk in any case, and how much more with a stone on one’s back; the wearier, the heavier, and the heavier, the deeper he sinks — the sūtra uses a simile that accelerates of itself.

The simile is not yet finished. The sūtra at once writes the turn: 「若得遇知識，替與減負，或全與負。」 — if he is able to meet a good friend who takes off part of the burden for him, or who takes the whole burden upon himself. As to what a friend is, of old it is divided into a near and a far layer: 「知識有近遠。近指父母眷屬，為作福事者；遠指佛、菩薩等，銷滅其罪者」—“Friends are of the near and of the far. The near are parents and kin, who do deeds of blessing on his behalf; the far are the buddhas and bodhisattvas and the rest, who extinguish his offences.” 〔X21n0384 0719a15〕 The near are the family who act on his behalf; the far are the buddhas and bodhisattvas who dissolve his karmic offences. To lessen the load is to share half of it; to take the whole load is to take the entire thing over.

The sūtra has four more clauses below: 「復相扶助，勸令牢脚」 — and further supports and helps him, and exhorts him to set his feet firm — and 「若達平地，須省惡路，無再經歷」 — and if he reaches level ground, he should look back upon the evil road and not travel it again. The commentator of old matches each back to a place in practice: 「相扶，喻教十善；牢脚，喻持心無退」—“Supporting him figures teaching the ten good deeds; setting the feet firm figures holding the mind without falling back.” 〔X21n0384 0719a24〕; 「平路，譬升出人天；省惡，譬念三塗苦」—“Level ground likens rising out into the human and heavenly states; looking back upon the evil likens recollecting the suffering of the three evil paths.” 〔X21n0384 0719b01〕

There is a point in this simile easily passed over: the friend carries the stone for him, but does not walk for him. The stone is off, and that road is still walked to the end by himself.

The Few Things to Be Done at the End of Life

The simile told, the sūtra returns to the dharma in a single line: beings who practise evil begin from a hair’s breadth and come to the measureless.

Turn the two characters 「習惡」, practising evil, about, and you have 「惡習」, evil habit; and it is exactly this reversal that the commentator of old distinguishes: 「惡習，指種子。習惡，指現行」—“Evil habit points to the seed; practising evil points to the present activity.” 〔X21n0384 0719b05〕 The part that lies stored is called evil habit; the thing being done just now is called practising evil. Only where there is a seed is there a present activity, and so a hair’s breadth can reach the measureless.

One order of two characters divides cause from fruit into two ends. And the sūtra goes on to say 「是諸眾生，有如此習」 — these beings have such habits — and what it says is exactly that 「有」, have: not what he is doing at this moment, but what is stored in him.

「臨命終時，父母眷屬宜為設福，以資前路。」 — At the time when life comes to its end, the parents and kin should set up blessings for him, to provision the road ahead.

The sūtra lists five: hanging up pennants and canopies, lighting oil lamps, reading through the honored scriptures, making offerings to images of the buddhas and of the sages, and calling the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas and pratyekabuddhas. The reading handed down divides the five into two classes: 「此中修福有二栽果」—“In cultivating blessings here there are two kinds of fruit planted.” 〔X21n0384 0719c05〕 — 「一修事福果，懸旛設葢然燈，一敬三寶果，轉經供像稱名」—“one is the fruit of cultivating blessings in matters — hanging pennants, setting up canopies, lighting lamps; one is the fruit of revering the Three Jewels — reading the sūtra, offering to images, calling the name.” 〔X21n0384 0719c05〕 The first three are blessings upon the plane of things; the latter two are blessings of reverence for the Three Jewels.

Of the five, the sūtra speaks in special detail of the last: 「一名一號，歷臨終人耳根，或聞在本識。」 — one name, one title, passing through the ear-faculty of the dying person, or heard down into his root-consciousness. It does not say whether he believes, nor whether he understands; only that the sound passes through the ear-faculty and comes down into the lowest layer of consciousness. A simile is set up of old for this: 「譬之金剛入腹，經久不爛，要必穿腸而出」—“It is like a diamond swallowed into the belly: however long it stays it does not rot, and must in the end pass through the bowels and come out.” 〔X21n0384 0719c16〕 — a swallowed diamond will not be digested, and in time it must come out again. Hence it is said, 「一歷耳根，永為道種」—“once it has passed through the ear-faculty, it is forever a seed of the Way.” 〔X21n0384 0719c18〕

There is in truth not much that can be done at the moment of death. The five things the sūtra picks out all require nothing of the person concerned — which is to say, they are all things we can accomplish on his behalf.

A Sentence One Can Take Back and Test Oneself By

The five told, the sūtra gives the result: the evil karma these beings have made, if one reckons the fruit it stirs up, must bring them down into the evil destinies; but because the kin have cultivated these holy causes for the dying person, the many offences such as these are all extinguished. This is exactly the 「全與負」 of the earlier simile — the whole burden taken over. The commentator of old sets down two similes for it in succession: 「如猛風之吹浮雲，似大水之滅小火」—“like a fierce wind blowing away drifting cloud, like a great water putting out a little fire.” 〔X21n0384 0720a09〕

But just before this sentence he has inserted a passage of another kind. He cites a sūtra and asks: when beings cast off this body and receive that body, who is it that carries them across? The answer is 「業風力吹，移識將去，自所受業，而受其果」—“the force of the wind of karma blows, and shifting the consciousness carries it away; and according to the karma he himself has taken on, he receives its fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0720a05〕 Then he cites a line of Great Master Guifeng: 「欲驗臨終受生自在不自在，但驗尋常行心自由不自由」—“If you would test whether at the end of life you will be free or unfree in receiving birth, only test whether in ordinary times the mind you set going is free or unfree.” 〔X21n0384 0720a06〕; 「二六時中，常當省察」—“through the twelve watches one should constantly take stock of it.” 〔X21n0384 0720a07〕

This whole chapter speaks of things others do on one’s behalf — kin setting up blessings, a friend lessening the load, the saṃgha receiving offerings. This one sentence alone hands the matter back into one’s own hands: to know whether one will be master of oneself at the moment of death, one need not wait for that moment; look at whether the ordinary everyday mind is free, and one knows. And the time given is the twelve watches, the twelve hours of a day, with no gap left over in which taking stock is unnecessary.

The sūtra then pushes one step further on: if besides, within the seven times seven days after the body has died, they make much of every kind of good, they can cause the dead to leave the evil destinies forever and to be born among humans and gods. And having written this far, the sūtra suddenly adds a sentence that has nothing to do with the dead: the kin now living gain benefit beyond measure.

Does the blessing made for the dead vanish along with the dead? The commentator of old cites the Sūtra on Upāsaka Precepts here and answers hard: when blessings are pursued for the dead, the giving being done after the life has ended, 「是福追人，如影隨形」—“this blessing pursues the person as a shadow follows a shape.” 〔X21n0384 0720b03〕; 「或有說言，終已便失，是義不然」—“Some say that once life has ended it is simply lost; this is not so.” 〔X21n0384 0720b03〕 Some say that once a person is gone the blessing disperses; that is wrong.

Blessing is not a thing set down upon a person; it is a shadow that goes along with him.

The One Thing That Ought Least to Be Done

Then the sūtra turns the matter around: 「臨終之日，慎勿殺害，及造惡緣——拜祭鬼神，求諸魍魎。」 — on the day when life comes to its end, take the greatest care not to kill, nor to make an evil condition — sacrificing to ghosts and spirits, and begging of the sprites.

On the single character 「慎」, take care, the philology of old comes down heavily: 「慎，恒謹也」—“Shen is constant carefulness.” 〔X21n0384 0720b14〕; 「惟慎為真心，故从心从真」—“only carefulness is the true mind, and so the graph is made of ‘mind’ and ‘true.’” 〔X21n0384 0720b15〕; and then the character 「勿」, do not, is added — 「勿者，禁止也。慎而復禁，斷斷誓不殺害矣」—“Wu is prohibition. To be careful and to forbid besides is to pledge absolutely that there shall be no killing.” 〔X21n0384 0720b16〕 Careful, and forbidden besides: this is the hardest tone in the chapter.

The reason the sūtra gives itself: 「無纖毫之力利益亡人，但結罪緣，轉增深重。」 — it has not a hair’s breadth of power to benefit the one who has died; it only knots up the conditions of offence, and makes them deeper and heavier instead. The commentator of old cites a sūtra here on the limits of ghosts and spirits: 「十方譬喻經云：天上天下鬼神，知人壽命罪福，當至未至」—“The Sūtra of Parables of the Ten Directions says: the ghosts and spirits above the heavens and below know a person’s lifespan and his offences and blessings, what is about to come and what has not yet come.” 〔X21n0384 0720c03〕, and yet 「不能活人，不能殺人，不能使人富貴貧賤」—“they cannot keep a person alive, cannot kill a person, cannot make a person rich and noble or poor and mean.” 〔X21n0384 0720c04〕 To know is one thing; to be able to alter is another — two things we too commonly run together.

Of the two things the sūtra forbids, the four characters 「求諸魍魎」 — begging of the wangliang sprites — are for the most part obscure to a reader. The commentator of old gives no gloss upon them in this chapter, and only cites a passage of the Consecration Sūtra to describe their look: 「襍物之精，浮遊人村，既其無食，作諸變怪，扇動人心」—“Essences of miscellaneous things, drifting about the villages of men; and having nothing to eat, they work all manner of prodigies to stir up people’s minds.” 〔X21n0384 0720c07〕 — essences of miscellaneous things that roam into human villages, and having nothing to eat, work prodigies to shake people’s minds. It is a thing of this sort that is begged of at the end of life.

What matters is this: what the sūtra forbids is not sacrifice as such, but taking a life to make it. Another sūtra cited of old draws the line very plainly — 「不見世人種伊蘭子，生栴檀樹；斷眾生命，而得福德」—“One does not see people of the world plant a yilan seed and have a sandalwood tree grow from it; nor cut off the lives of beings and gain blessed merit thereby.” 〔X21n0384 0721a10〕; and the passage immediately following says: 「若欲祀者，當用香華乳酪酥果，為亡追福」—“If one would sacrifice, one should use incense, flowers, milk, curds, butter, and fruit, and so pursue blessings for the dead.” 〔X21n0384 0721a11〕 Sacrifice if you will; only change what is offered.

The sūtra then states the consequences in two layers. The first is of one who had a portion of good to begin with: he might have 「得獲聖分，生人天中」 — obtained a portion of the holy and been born among humans and gods — that portion being glossed of old as 「聖分即七菩提分、八聖道分、菩薩果分」—“the portion of the holy is the seven limbs of awakening, the eight limbs of the holy path, and the portion that is a bodhisattva’s fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0720c18〕 — and yet, because at the end of his life his kin made this evil cause, he comes to be 「殃累對辯，晚生善處」 — dragged into the calamity, made to be confronted and argue his case, and late in being born into a good place. The second is of one who had no root of goodness to begin with, and the sūtra closes with a single question turned back: 「何忍眷屬，更為增業？」 — how could one bear that his kin should add yet more karma to him? A simile is supplied for it of old: 「譬如抱石沉淵，人更投物壓之，求出應難矣」—“It is as though one sank into a deep pool clutching a stone, and someone threw more things down to press upon him: to seek to get out would surely be hard.” 〔X21n0384 0721a07〕

A Man Three Days Without Food, and a Little More Put upon Him

For that second layer the sūtra gives a simile of its own: a man comes from a far country, three days without food, and what he carries and bears comes to a little more than a hundred catties; suddenly he meets a neighbor, who puts a few more things upon him — 「以是之故，轉復困重」 — and for that reason he grows wearier and more heavily burdened still.

The commentator of old matches it word by word: 「有人，喻閻浮眾生」—“‘A man’ likens the beings of Jambudvīpa.” 〔X21n0384 0721a16〕; and 「隣人合眷屬，體心者是親友，不體心者如隣人」—“The neighbor answers to the kin: one who enters into his mind is a close friend; one who does not is like a neighbor.” 〔X21n0384 0721a21〕 Kin they are alike; the one who feels with him is a close friend, the one who does not is merely a neighbor.

The fineness of this simile lies in the two characters 「少物」, a few things. What is added is not in itself heavy; the weight lies in whom it is added to, and when. For a man three days without food and already overloaded, a little more is far too much.

In the earlier simile of the muddy road, someone lessens his load; here the neighbor adds to it. One sūtra, two similes, one taking off and one putting on — and both ends of what Kṣitigarbha has to say are said.

The Question the Elder Great Eloquence Asked

At this point an elder in the assembly puts a question. The sūtra first sets out where he comes from: 「久證無生，化度十方，現長者身」 — he had long since realized the unborn, transforms and delivers in the ten directions, and manifests the person of an elder — he is not really an elder; he manifests an elder’s person. His name is glossed of old: 「長者如前，梵語鉢底婆，此云辯才」—“Elder is as before; the Sanskrit is transcribed bodipo, and here it means eloquence.” 〔X21n0384 0721b15〕; 「辯，說也，展轉無滯，辯別分明，故曰辯才無礙」—“Bian is speaking: turning and turning without hindrance, distinguishing and dividing plainly, and so it is called unobstructed eloquence.” 〔X21n0384 0721b16〕, and eloquence 「有四種：一義，二法，三詞，四樂說」—“is of four kinds: first in meaning, second in dharma, third in wording, fourth in delight in speaking.” 〔X21n0384 0721b17〕

And what a man of unobstructed eloquence brings out is the plainest of questions: when after life has ended the kin cultivate merit for him, does the person whose life has ended 「得大利益及解脫不」 — gain the great benefit, and release?

Kṣitigarbha’s answer comes in two layers. The first gives the best case: on the day when life comes to its end, to hear the name of one buddha, one bodhisattva, or one pratyekabuddha, and then 「不問有罪無罪，悉得解脫」 — whether he has offences or has none, all gain release. The reading handed down here first asks two things on the reader’s behalf: 「既言臨終得聞，則平時不念可知」—“Since it says he hears it at the end of life, one may know that in ordinary times he did not call the name.” 〔X21n0384 0721c23〕 — the sūtra is speaking precisely of those who did not call it in ordinary times; how then should a single hearing at the end have such power? The answer: 「良由事急而心專也」—“It is truly because the matter is urgent and the mind is concentrated.” 〔X21n0384 0722a01〕 For this the words of the bhikṣu Nāgasena to the king are cited of old: 「如持百枚大石置船上，因船故不沒」—“as when a hundred great stones are taken and set upon a boat: because of the boat they do not sink.” 〔X21n0384 0722a07〕; and one further judgment below: 「真金一兩，勝百兩之疊華」—“One ounce of true gold surpasses a hundred ounces of cotton floss.” 〔X21n0384 0722a12〕 The measure lies not in quantity but in the stuff itself.

Of Seven Parts He Gains but One

In the second layer the sūtra gives a ratio with nothing polite about it: 「七分之中，而乃獲一，六分功德，生者自利。」 — of seven parts he gains but one, and the merit of six parts is the benefit of the living themselves. One part out of seven — most of us will feel it to be little.

The commentator of old says it very directly: 「七分獲一，得之甚少也。然功不唐捐，生者自得六分矣」—“One part in seven: what he gets is very little. Yet the merit is not spent for nothing, for the living themselves get the six parts.” 〔X21n0384 0722b03〕 And he cites a sūtra in corroboration: 「故往生經云：亡後作福，死者七分獲一，餘者屬現在者。兩經相同也」—“Thus the Sūtra of Rebirth says: when blessings are made after a death, the dead gets one part in seven and the remainder belongs to the living. The two sūtras agree.” 〔X21n0384 0722b04〕 The two accounts agree, and this ratio is not the word of this sūtra alone.

As to why he gets only one part, a reason has been given too. In the passage below the commentator cites another sūtra: the bodhisattva Universally Broad asks the Buddha whether, when parents and kinsfolk have died and are suffering, and blessings are cultivated for them, they gain much blessing. The Buddha answers: 「七分獲一。緣前生不信道德故」—“One part in seven; because in his former life he did not believe in the Way and its virtue.” 〔X21n0384 0722b15〕 The smallness lies not with those who cultivate blessings for him, but with that portion of unbelief in his own lifetime.

The sūtra at once turns its point toward the living: 「聞健自修，分分己獲。」 — cultivate for yourself while sound of hearing, and part by part it is gained by yourself. The sense of “sound” is glossed of old as 「聞健者，謂耳聰強健之時」—“‘Sound of hearing’ means the time when the ears are keen and the body strong.” 〔X21n0384 0722b08〕, and the intent of the sentence is stated plainly too: 「此勸人極早為之耳」—“this is exhorting people to do it as early as ever they can.” 〔X21n0384 0722b09〕

This passage speaks on the surface of the dead, and in fact leaves the largest share to the living. The sūtra does not say that cultivating blessings for another is useless — what it says is that the one who cultivates blessings for another gets more than the one they are cultivated for. And the six parts fall to the living precisely because the deed was theirs.

Within the Seven Times Seven Days, as if Dull, as if Deaf

What follows is the stillest passage in the chapter: 「無常大鬼，不期而到，冥冥遊神，未知罪福，七七日內，如癡如聾。」 — the great ghost of impermanence arrives without appointing a day; the spirit roaming in the dark does not yet know its offences or blessings, and within the seven times seven days it is as if dull-witted, as if deaf.

Each clause has its source. Impermanence is glossed of old as 「梵語薩迦耶薩，此云無常」—“The Sanskrit is transcribed sajiayesa; here it means impermanence.” 〔X21n0384 0722c02〕, with a treatise cited: 「大論云：一切有為法，盡屬因緣，新新生滅，故曰無常」—“The Great Treatise says: all conditioned dharmas belong wholly to causes and conditions, arising and ceasing newly and newly, and therefore are called impermanent.” 〔X21n0384 0722c02〕 The roaming spirit is glossed as the body of the intermediate state: 「大論云：凡夫人憶想分別，隨我心取相，故計有神，即中陰身也」—“The Great Treatise says: ordinary people, imagining and discriminating, take marks according to the mind of self, and so reckon that there is a spirit; that is the body of the intermediate state.” 〔X21n0384 0722c16〕 The two characters for offence and blessing are glossed most simply: 「罪福，即十惡十善」—“Offence and blessing are just the ten evils and the ten goods.” 〔X21n0384 0722c20〕 And the four characters 「如癡如聾」 are explained of old as 「故於七七日內，如癡狂無知，如耳聾無聞。正初死時也」—“Therefore within the seven times seven days he is like a madman knowing nothing, like a deaf ear hearing nothing. This is just at the first time after death.” 〔X21n0384 0722c21〕

For the provenance of the number seven times seven the commentator marks the ground he stands on — 「統紀明七七齋」—“the Comprehensive Record makes plain the seven-times-seven rites.” 〔X21n0384 0723a22〕, whose text cites a treatise: 「瑜伽論謂人死，中有身若未得生緣，極七日住，死而復生」—“The Yogācārabhūmi says that when a person dies, if the body of the intermediate state has not yet found the condition for birth, it abides at most seven days, dies, and is born again.” 〔X21n0384 0723a22〕, 「如是展轉生死至七七日，決定得生。若有生緣即不定」—“turning thus through death and birth up to seven times seven days, it certainly obtains birth; but if the condition for birth is present, it is not fixed.” 〔X21n0384 0723a23〕 Going back to the treatise itself, the text reads 「又此中有，若未得生緣，極七日住」—“Furthermore, this intermediate state, if it has not yet found the condition for birth, abides at most seven days.” 〔T30n1579 0282a27〕, and 「如是展轉未得生緣，乃至七七日住，自此已後，決得生緣」—“turning thus without finding the condition for birth, it abides up to seven times seven days; and after this it certainly finds the condition for birth.” 〔T30n1579 0282a29〕

But in the treatises this number has two accounts and not one only. One account is 「尊者世友言：此極多七日，若生緣未合，便數死數生」—“The Venerable Vasumitra says: this is at most seven days; if the condition for birth is not yet met, it dies and is born over and over.” 〔T29n1558 0046b27〕; the other is 「有餘師言：極七七日」—“Some other masters say: at most seven times seven days.” 〔T29n1558 0046b28〕 Both accounts have stood together from of old, and were never settled into one. The commentator himself records an exception in the same place: 「今尋經旨，極善惡，無中有」—“Now, seeking the sūtra’s intent: for the extremely good and the extremely evil there is no intermediate state.” 〔X21n0384 0723a24〕 — the extremely good and the extremely evil do not pass through this stretch.

As for the sūtra’s 「或在諸司，辯論業果」 — or he is among the several offices, where the fruits of karma are argued out — there is also a reading of old which says that there is no actual bureau out there: 「準正法念經及俱舍論，直是罪人惡業熏心，令心變異，無中妄見，實無閻羅在中，判諸罪人也」—“Following the Sūtra of the Mindfulness of the True Dharma and the Abhidharmakośa, it is simply that the evil karma of the guilty perfumes their minds and makes the mind change, so that they see falsely where nothing is; there is in fact no Yama within, judging the guilty.” 〔X21n0384 0723a14〕 This account is recorded here; the sūtra itself makes no such judgment.

And why people should make merit within these several sevens of days the commentator answers plainly: 「今世人於七七日作功德者，正所以慰亡人之望救耳」—“That people today make merit during the seven times seven days is precisely to console the dead one’s looking for rescue.” 〔X21n0384 0723b03〕

The sūtra here uses the one character 「望」, to look toward — 「望諸骨肉眷屬，與造福力救拔」 — he looks to his own flesh and blood among the kin to make a power of blessing for him and rescue him. What is written is not a verdict but a waiting.

The Rice-Water and the Vegetable Leaves Are Not Thrown on the Ground

Having spoken through the whole chapter, at the last it walks into the kitchen.

「未齋食竟，及營齋之次，米泔菜葉，不棄於地。乃至諸食未獻佛僧，勿得先食。」 — while the food of the feast has not been eaten to the end, and while the feast is being prepared, the rice-water and the vegetable leaves are not to be thrown away upon the ground; and so long as none of the food has been offered to the Buddha and the saṃgha, it may not be eaten first. The sense of “feast” here is settled first of old: 「初勸營齋，此明奉齋三寶，非指過午為齋」—“The first exhortation to prepare a feast: this makes plain the offering of a feast to the Three Jewels, and does not refer to the fast of not eating past noon.” 〔X21n0384 0723b22〕 — what is meant is an offering to the Three Jewels, not that other fast of eating nothing after noon. As for why the rice-water and vegetable leaves are not to be thrown on the ground, the commentator gives a practical method too: 「米泔菜葉不棄地者，當盛於器中。齋後施與畜生」—“That the rice-water and vegetable leaves are not thrown on the ground means that they should be kept in a vessel and given to the animals after the feast.” 〔X21n0384 0723b22〕

As for why 「諸食未獻佛僧，勿得先食」 should be set up as a rule at all, the reason the commentator of old gives does not lie in etiquette. He cites a treatise: the Buddha’s adamantine body does not depend upon food and drink, and only for the sake of delivering beings does he appear to eat, while in fact he does not; and 「為佛設食，佛未食者，人不能消」—“food set out for the Buddha, which the Buddha has not yet eaten, a person cannot digest.” 〔X21n0384 0723c02〕 — that portion having been marked out for the Buddha, whoever puts his mouth to it first cannot digest it. 「故未獻佛僧，勿得先食」—“Therefore, before it has been offered to the Buddha and the saṃgha, it may not be eaten first.” 〔X21n0384 0723c03〕

What follows upon breaking the rule he takes from the Sūtra on Guarding Purity, and the words are very heavy: to set out a gathering of blessing and then to taste and sip of it first oneself makes the food into leavings, so that the whole occasion is held in vain and had better not be held at all; 「諸天不歡，鬼神不喜」—“the gods are not gladdened and the ghosts and spirits are not pleased.” 〔X21n0384 0723c05〕, and the one who tasted first 「五百世中，受餓鬼苦」—“through five hundred lifetimes undergoes the suffering of a hungry ghost.” 〔X21n0384 0723c06〕

That acting for the dead must pass through the hands of the saṃgha another sūtra states still more directly: Maudgalyāyana by his own strength could not save his mother, and 「當須十方眾僧威神之力乃得解脫」—“the awesome spiritual power of the assembled saṃgha of the ten directions is required before she can gain release.” 〔T16n0685 0779b08〕 So this rule is not a regulation of the refectory but the fulcrum upon which the whole business rests: the food goes out, and only then can the power be borrowed back.

And in a feast held for the dead, if the one who holds it puts his mouth to it first, that recompense falls upon the one who held it.

Then the sūtra gives two outcomes, and the drop between them is enormous: for what is not according to the Dharma, 「是命終人，了不得力」 — this person whose life has ended gets no strength from it at all; for what is according to the Dharma, 「是命終人，七分獲一」 — this person whose life has ended gains one part out of seven. The same one feast, the same rice and vegetables: in the one case nothing whatever is got, in the other one part out of seven.

Where does the difference lie? The sūtra’s last sentence says it itself: 「設齋供養，志心勤懇，如是之人，存亡獲利。」 — to set out a feast as an offering, wholehearted in mind and earnest without slackening: persons such as these bring benefit to the living and to the dead. The commentator of old uses a single line to buckle the two ends together: 「志心勤懇，即精勤護淨之意」—“Wholehearted in mind and earnest is just the sense of being diligent and guarding purity.” 〔X21n0384 0723c17〕

The sūtra does not put the difference in the scale of the thing. A whole chapter of merit, of seven parts, of forty-nine days ends upon a basin of rice-washing water.

The Ghosts and Spirits Arouse the Resolve

At the end of the chapter a crowd who were not present suddenly arouse the resolve: 「說是語時，忉利天宮有千萬億那由他閻浮鬼神，悉發無量菩提之心。」 — while these words were being spoken, in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three a thousand myriad koṭis of nayutas of ghosts and spirits of Jambudvīpa all aroused a measureless resolve for awakening.

The reading handed down poses a question of its own here: 「何故鬼神至此發心」—“Why do the ghosts and spirits arouse the resolve at this point?” 〔X21n0384 0723c24〕 The answer is telling: 「上明祭祀鬼神無益，徒自令人造業。鬼亦有良，寧不愧耻，故發心為護法鬼神耳」—“Above it was made plain that sacrificing to ghosts and spirits is of no benefit and only makes people create karma. Ghosts too have good in them; how should they not be ashamed? And so they arouse the resolve to become ghosts and spirits who guard the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0723c24〕 It asks further: do they arouse it of themselves, or do the Buddha and Kṣitigarbha teach them to? The answer: 「但是感應道交而論發心耳」—“It is only that stirring and response meet in the Way, and on that footing the arousing of the resolve is spoken of.” 〔X21n0384 0724a03〕

The very ghosts and spirits a whole chapter has been exhorting people not to worship, having heard all this, walk of themselves into the ranks of those who arouse the resolve. They were not driven off; they were moved.

At the last the elder Great Eloquence bows and withdraws. Even this sentence is questioned of old: 「既同在會，退至何處」—“Being alike present in the assembly, to what place does he withdraw?” 〔X21n0384 0724a06〕; and the answer: 「以問法時，出位前禮，酬唱既竟，禮退歸位」—“Because when he asked about the Dharma he came out of his place and bowed in front; the exchange being finished, he bows, withdraws, and returns to his place.” 〔X21n0384 0724a06〕, and 「即表各各自住三摩地耳」—“which signifies that each abides in his own samādhi.” 〔X21n0384 0724a07〕 To withdraw is to go back to one’s own place.

Transmission — A Classic of Filial Piety, and a Tiantai Mirror in a Qing Hand

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, with the Guiding Thread in one fascicle placed before it, which explains the title and does not go phrase by phrase. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the threefold outline; the division of the five ways of setting up blessings into two classes; the gloss on the two characters for taking care and forbidding; the ground for the number seven times seven; and the self-posed question and answer on the ghosts and spirits arousing the resolve.

In glossing the title of this chapter the Guiding Thread first explains the four characters 「利」「益」「存」「亡」 — benefit, gain, the living, the dead — by worldly usage, and coming to 「亡」, the dead, says: when a filial child’s parent has died and, the burial done, he seeks and does not find, then 「乃祭以求之，事亡如存，猶望其親去而復還也」—“he sacrifices in order to seek the parent, serving the dead as though they were living, still hoping that the parent, gone, may come back again.” 〔X21n0383 0649a10〕 Then he changes eyes and explains it once more: 「若妙玄云：功德利益，一而無異，若分別者，自益名功德，益他名利益」—“As the Profound Meaning says: merit and benefit are one and not different; but if they be distinguished, then to benefit oneself is called merit, and to benefit another is called benefit.” 〔X21n0383 0649a11〕 — what one gains oneself is called merit; only what is given to another is called benefit. And so he judges why this chapter alone is called “benefiting,” on this ground: 「今地藏菩薩自勸諸人，當為病人修福念佛，慎勿殺害拜祭鬼神」—“Now Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva himself exhorts everyone to cultivate blessings and recollect the Buddha for the sick, and to take care not to kill or to sacrifice to ghosts and spirits.” 〔X21n0383 0649a12〕, and this, together with the causes of reciting the sūtra and offering the feast that the elder Great Eloquence brings out, are 「皆不為自身，惟為存亡眾生，故唯稱利益」—“none of them for one’s own sake, but only for beings living and dead; and therefore it is called benefiting alone.” 〔X21n0383 0649a14〕

He opens “benefit” into three layers as well: 「明此利益有三：一、遠益」—“Making plain that this benefit is of three kinds: first, the distant benefit.” 〔X21n0383 0649a15〕, the second being the near benefit, and 「三、當文益，即聞品後，千萬億那由他閻浮鬼神悉發無量菩提心」—“third, the benefit within the text itself: that after hearing the chapter, a thousand myriad koṭis of nayutas of ghosts and spirits of Jambudvīpa all aroused a measureless resolve for awakening.” 〔X21n0383 0649a19〕 — that crowd of ghosts and spirits at the end of this chapter is exactly the benefit within the text. This is reading this sūtra of original vows with a Tiantai eye, and it is where this mirror comes from.

For the source of the number seven times seven he marks his ground honestly: he first writes 「統紀明七七齋」—“the Comprehensive Record makes plain the seven-times-seven rites.” 〔X21n0384 0723a22〕, and only then cites the treatise. He had already used that same treatise passage once, in the first chapter, glossing “after forty-nine days have passed” — 「四十九日等，準瑜伽論：人死中有身」—“‘Forty-nine days’ and the rest: following the Yogācārabhūmi, when a person dies there is the body of the intermediate state.” 〔X21n0384 0672c06〕 The same number occurs twice in one sūtra, and he uses the same ground for both.

Look aside once more at a sūtra that likewise takes 「本願」, original vows, into its title. The Sūtra of the Original Vows and Merits of the Medicine Buddha, Beryl Radiance Tathāgata, speaking of the first of the nine untimely deaths, sets down an admonition answering this chapter almost word for word: such people 「殺種種眾生，解奏神明，呼諸魍魎，請乞福祐，欲冀延年，終不能得」—“kill beings of every kind, make petition and report to the spirits, call upon the wangliang sprites, and beg for blessing and protection, hoping to lengthen their years; and in the end they cannot get it.” 〔T14n0450 0408a07〕 What is killed and what is sacrificed to are the same, but what is sought differs — there they seek to lengthen their own years; here what is written is the seeking of blessings for the dead.

More noteworthy still is where the same number stands in the two sūtras. That sūtra also speaks of forty-nine days: the sick person has already been led away to see the Dharma King Yama, and if his kin can take refuge for him, read the sūtra, light lamps, and hang pennants, then 「或經七日，或二十一日，或三十五日，或四十九日，彼識還時」—“after seven days, or twenty-one days, or thirty-five days, or forty-nine days, when that consciousness returns.” 〔T14n0450 0407b23〕 — that is a living person’s consciousness coming back. The forty-nine days of this chapter is the stretch in which one whose life has ended has not yet received birth. One number: at one end a returning to the light, at the other a waiting to be born; at one end written for the family of a sick man, at the other for the family of a dead one. Set side by side here, with no weighing of higher and lower.

And the sūtra’s own one sentence never changes. It never promised how many parts the dead would get; it only says: 「設齋供養，志心勤懇，如是之人，存亡獲利。」 — to set out a feast as an offering, wholehearted in mind and earnest without slackening: persons such as these bring benefit to the living and to the dead. The living half has never once left that sentence.