Drawn by Mental Lust into Bodily and Verbal Lust

What does it mean that the Buddha said an upāsaka should not give rise to thoughts of desire and ideation of desire? This refers to the mental action among the three actions of body, speech, and mind—mental thoughts, mental imaginings, and mental ideation, which is also called mental lust. When a person cannot subdue greed and lust, the mind will frequently give rise to delusive thoughts, notions, and feelings of desire, immersing itself in mental lust and indulging in wild fantasies. Some people even have a definite object of mental lust; the image of the other person or scenes of lust will appear in their minds, and they cannot suppress it—this is a violation of the precept against sexual misconduct. Some brazen people, when indulging in mental lust, make no attempt to conceal it at all and openly declare it, telling everyone that they had so many concubines in a past life, that some of them were born into this life, and that when the karmic conditions manifested they gathered together again—naming who they are one by one, followed by a whole pile of annotations—so revolting to behold and hear. This is desire of mind and desire of speech; no bodily action has yet appeared.

As long as a person does not sever desire, the mind's thoughts will not cease. Because there is mental intent, as long as the subsequent conditions are complete, bodily acts of desire and verbal acts of desire will appear. Bodily and verbal actions are guided and drawn out by mental action; therefore, cutting off lust lies in cutting off mental lust, and cultivation means cultivating the mind. When bodily and verbal actions appear, the mark of violating the precepts manifests—this is the precept with marks. Before bodily and verbal actions appear, there is only mental action, which is without marks; this is violating the markless precept. If the markless mental action cannot be guarded, the marked bodily and verbal actions cannot be guarded either.

Some people, because they cannot keep the marked precepts and uncontrollably violate them repeatedly in body and speech, have no choice but to find excuses to cover it up, saying: the marked precepts are for beginners to keep; bodhisattvas of spiritual faculties (indriya) who have cultivated for a long time should abandon the marked precepts and hold the markless precept of the mind-ground. Look how inverted this line of thinking and this claim are—if one cannot even keep the beginner's marked precepts, how could one possibly keep the profound markless precept? Is it easier to control body and speech, or easier to control and subdue the mind-ground?

When the mind's thoughts cannot be subdued, body and speech can at least pretend—pretending to be pure, pretending to have cultivation; is that not also the most basic, beginner's method of practice? If one cannot even pretend, is it not even more impossible to control the mind's intentions? Some people even openly advocate going along with afflictions—that is to say, when lust arises in the mind, do not control it, just go and commit lust directly; do not pretend, do not pretend to have cultivation, for practicing Buddhism should not make one increasingly hypocritical. This person, unable to subdue his own mind, simply gave up resisting altogether—smashing the broken pot to pieces—and moreover called on all who follow and learn from him to smash their broken pots too, without any regard for the Buddha's precepts and earnest teachings. What is the result of such behavior? Does one think that just because one knows there is a tathāgatagarbha, the tathāgatagarbha will let you off the hook out of consideration for your face? Truly foolish.

To what degree a person has cultivated, whether they genuinely practice—this is fully revealed in their words and deeds. They cannot deceive those with clear eyes; they can only deceive some beginner novices. These people foolishly prefer to be deceived, willingly allow themselves to be deceived, and feel uncomfortable if not deceived, not knowing what to do. But not everyone in this world is foolish; there are always awakened people, always vigilant people, who can see through everyone's tricks and disguises and see through everyone's human nature.

Cultivation is the process of breaking through ignorance and severing afflictions; the actions of body, speech, and mind are the manifestation of ignorance and afflictions. Where there is ignorance there are afflictions; where there are afflictions there is ignorance and no wisdom. With ignorance and no wisdom, there is no cultivation and no virtue—one is just an ordinary person, subject to birth-and-death and saṃsāra.