58The Diamond Sutra's Scorn剛經輕賤
Introduction 示眾
依經解義，三世佛冤；離經一字，返同魔說。因不收，果不入底人，還受業報也無？
Read the sutra word for word and you slander every buddha, past, present, and future. Throw out a single word and you might as well be quoting demons. Sow no cause, and no fruit comes. So a person like that: do they still get hit with the consequences of what they've done?
金剛經云：「若為人輕賤，是人先世罪業應墮惡道，以今世人輕賤故，先世罪業則為消滅。」
The Diamond Sutra says: "If someone is treated with contempt, it is because the wrongs they did in past lives should drag them down into a wretched rebirth. Yet because people scorn them in this life, the bad karma from those past lives is wiped clean."
Verse 頌
綴綴功過，
膠膠因果。
鏡外狂奔演若多，
杖頭擊著破竈墮。
竈墮破，
來相賀，
却道：從前辜負我。
Merits and faults, stitched in a tangle.
Cause and effect, glued fast.
Yajnadatta races about, hunting the head outside the mirror.
One whack of the staff, and the Stove God topples.
The stove cracks open, falls apart,
and here they come to offer their congratulations.
Then he turns and says: all this time you've been cheating me.