http://www.sutrasmantras.info/sutra14.html佛說不增不減經
Buddha Pronounces the Sūtra of Neither Increase Nor Decrease
Translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in the Northern Wei
Dynasty by The Tripiṭaka Master Bodhiruci from India
Thus I have heard: At one time the Buddha was staying on the
Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain, near the city of Rājagṛha, together with 1,250
great bhikṣus and an innumerable, countless multitude of
Bodhisattva-Mahāsattvas, in numbers beyond reckoning. In the huge
multitude, Śāriputra the Wise rose from his seat, came to the
Buddha, and bowed down at His feet. He then stepped back to sit on
one side. Joining his palms, he said to the Buddha, “World-Honored
One, since time without a beginning, sentient beings have been
transmigrating, through the four modes of birth, to and fro along
the six life-paths in the Three Realms of Existence, suffering
endlessly in saṁsāra. World-Honored One, is this mass of sentient
beings, or ocean of sentient beings, increasing or decreasing? I am
unable to understand this profound meaning. How should I answer if
someone asks me about this?” The World-Honored One told Śāriputra,
“Very good! Very good! You are able to ask me about this profound
meaning because you want to give peace to all sentient beings, to
give happiness to all sentient beings, to sympathize with all
sentient beings, to help all sentient beings, and to give comfort
and benefits to all sentient beings, such as gods and humans.
Śāriputra, if you did not ask the Tathāgata, the Samyak-Saṁbuddha,
about this meaning, there would be many faults. Then, in present
and future times, gods, humans, and all other sentient beings would
long undergo distress and harm, and lose forever [the opportunity
for] all benefits, peace, and joy. “Śāriputra, the enormously wrong
view refers to seeing increase or seeing decrease in the realm of
sentient beings. Sentient beings that hold this enormously wrong
view are born without eyes and walk the evil way in the long night.
For this reason, they go down the evil life-paths in their current
lives. Śāriputra, the enormous perilous tribulation refers to one’s
obstinate adherence to the wrong view of increase or decrease in
the realm of sentient beings. Śāriputra, those who are obstinate in
their wrong adherence willfully walk the evil way in the long
night. For this reason, they will go down the evil life-paths in
their future lives….
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