Mental Lust Draws Forth the Sexual Misconduct of Body and Speech

What does it mean when the Buddha says that a layman (upāsaka) should not give rise to lustful thoughts and lustful ideation? This refers to the mental action among the three kinds of bodily, verbal, and mental actions—it is mental thinking, mental imagining, and mental feeling, also called mental sexual misconduct. When a person cannot subdue greed and lust, lustful delusions, thoughts, and feelings will frequently arise in the mind, and one will immerse oneself in mental sexual fantasy, indulging in wild imaginings. Some people even have a definite object of mental lust: the image of the other person or scenes of sexual desire will surface in their minds, and they cannot suppress it—this constitutes a violation of the precept against sexual misconduct. Some bold people, when indulging in mental lust, make no attempt to conceal it and speak of it openly, telling everyone that they had so many concubines in a past life, that a portion of them were reborn into this life, and that conditions have ripened so they have gathered together again—naming who they are, followed by a whole pile of annotations—making it unbearable to watch or listen to. This is lust of mind and lust of speech; bodily action has not yet appeared.

As long as a person does not cut off desire, the mind's thoughts will not cease. Because there is mental intent, as long as the conditions later become complete, bodily lustful action and verbal lustful action will appear. Bodily and verbal actions are led and drawn out by mental action. Therefore, cutting off sexual misconduct lies in cutting off mental lust, and cultivation means cultivating the mind. When bodily and verbal actions appear, the mark of violating the precept manifests—this is the precept with marks. Before bodily and verbal actions appear, it is mental action, which is without marks; this is violating the markless precept. If the markless mental action cannot be guarded, then the marked bodily and verbal actions cannot be guarded either.

Some people, because they cannot keep the marked precepts and cannot control their bodily and verbal actions from repeatedly violating them, have no choice but to find excuses to cover it up, saying: the marked precepts are for beginners to keep; bodhisattvas of spiritual faculties who have long cultivated should abandon the marked precepts and hold the markless precept of the mind-ground. Look at 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 bodily and verbal actions, or easier to control and subdue the mind-ground?

When the mind's thoughts cannot be subdued, the body and speech can at least pretend—pretending to be pure, pretending to have cultivation. Is that not the most basic, beginner's method of practice? If one cannot even pretend, is it not even more impossible to control the mind's thoughts? Some people even openly advocate going along with afflictions—that is to say, when lustful thoughts arise, do not control them, just go ahead and indulge; do not pretend, do not pretend to have cultivation, for practicing Buddhism should not become more and more hypocritical. This person, unable to subdue their own mind, simply gave up resisting and smashed the cracked pot altogether, and moreover called on all who follow and learn from them to smash the cracked pot too, without any regard for the Buddha's precepts and earnest teachings. What will be the result of such conduct? Do they think that just because they know there is a tathāgatagarbha, the tathāgatagarbha, out of consideration for their face, will let them off the hook? Truly foolish.

Whatever level a person has cultivated to, whether they have genuine practice or not, 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, are willing to be deceived—if not deceived, they feel uncomfortable and do not know what to do. But not everyone in this world is foolish. There are always people who have awakened, always people who are vigilant, who can see through everyone's tricks and disguises, and can see through everyone's human nature.

Cultivation is the process of breaking through ignorance and cutting off afflictions; bodily, verbal, and mental actions 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 without wisdom, there is no cultivation and no virtue—one is just an ordinary being (pṛthagjana), subject to the cycle of birth and death.