Intention and Everyday Conduct
The City God explains intention through an example of three people buying the same kind of black garment. One wants to give it to a poor neighbour: black will conceal dirt and save frequent washing. Another wants its darkness to help him steal at night. The third has no particular purpose and buys it because the shopkeeper suggests it. The purchase looks much the same in each case, but the purpose is different.
He calls the first action wholesome, the second unwholesome and the third wuji, morally unclassified. The first buyer is attending to a neighbour's need; the second is preparing a theft; the third is doing neither. The City God then connects these kinds of action with rebirth. Predominantly wholesome karma brings human or heavenly results; predominantly harmful karma leads to hell, hungry ghosts or animals. Predominantly unclassified karma, he says, commonly leads to human or ghost existence. These results all remain within the Three Realms. The book's ghost population also includes ordinary residents of the underworld; ghost life is not described only through the suffering of hungry ghosts.
Release beyond that cycle requires a more sustained purpose. The City God speaks of keeping the precepts, reciting the Buddha's name, doing good without seeking recognition, and aspiring to awakening so as to help suffering beings. He asks for good vows free from selfish or harmful wishes, explaining that even a small selfish element has its own consequence. Intention matters both at the start of an action and in the way that action is carried through. [1]
Some of the book's instructions concern conduct before it reaches an outward sexual act. One passage addresses unmarried men and women who have not had sexual relations with a person of the opposite sex. Viewing pornography is classed as an offence that diminishes good fortune, lifespan and worldly prospects. One viewing is assigned a month's loss of life; continued viewing is assigned a loss of a year or more. If the viewing has not gone further into action, prompt repentance can lessen the offence. The month and year describe the stated loss of lifespan, not the length of time spent viewing.
Another passage concerns the mind more directly. Dongyue Dadi, a senior deity of the underworld, sets out what he requires for future retribution for sexual misconduct to be prevented. Even the slightest thought he classes as sexual wrongdoing must be met with immediate repentance, a sincere resolve not to repeat it, and continuing efforts to persuade others to stop. His instruction reaches further than avoiding an external act: it asks for the removal of the conditions through which a harmful cause would bear fruit. [2]
These passages make careful distinctions necessary when speaking about a thought. An image can appear unexpectedly and be unwelcome to the person experiencing it. Psychological research describes such experiences as unwanted mental intrusions. Having an unwanted thought, choosing to dwell on an idea and making a plan describe different things. The passage about pornography concerns viewing; Dongyue Dadi's instruction explicitly reaches even a slight thought. The psychological term describes a mental experience, while the religious passages state their own demands for conduct and practice. Dongyue Dadi's passage does not separately discuss involuntary, unwanted intrusions, so it does not tell us how that psychological category would be treated under his instruction. [3]
The relation between intention and action also runs through the book's discussion of food. The judge begins with what makes a meal possible: earth, sunlight, air and water; a farmer's work through the seasons; and the parents who fed and raised the eater. He asks that these contributions be met with gratitude. He also describes the ability to enjoy food as fubao, good fortune arising from earlier generosity, observance of the precepts and other good deeds.
To cherish that good fortune is xifu. The judge describes each mouthful as using part of the good fortune allotted to a person’s present life. He says that exceptional goodness or evil can alter the conditions otherwise set for that life, including material circumstances and lifespan. Food nourishes the body through which a person lives and practises. His counsel is therefore to use it carefully without becoming governed by appetite. Paying attention to what one buys, stores and serves gives that care a practical form.
Two accounts show how waste can become a settled habit. One woman constantly bought new foods, ate little for fear of gaining weight and discarded the rest because she wanted fresh food. She also left water running while brushing her teeth and washing her face. Another bought more than she needed to save herself shopping trips and let it spoil. When her husband objected, she argued until he fell silent, then deliberately bought more to leave unused. In the Hell of the Abundant Harvest, each must consume the food she herself had thrown away.