The karmic sea of suffering denotes the bitter karmic abyss. “Yong” here means a long time; to fall means to descend, and to sink means to be submerged. Having defiled the pure lotus pond, such wrongdoers shall be hurled by the heavenly gods into the karmic abyss, submerged for a long time without attaining release.
Before the gates of hell, there are many Buddhist monks and Daoist priests. Is this an empty saying? How could this not be true?
Hell is the prison of the netherworld. The old saying holds that many of those who suffer punishment at hell’s gates are Buddhist monks and Daoist priests. This phrase here refers to religious practitioners and spiritual cultivators. These are no idle words, and the truth of this warning is plain to see.
In recent times, foreign customs and new fashions have invaded the Middle Kingdom.
The phrase “In recent times” means recent years. Foreign customs refer to frivolous foreign Western mores, and new fashions denote popular novel trends. The word “invaded” means encroaching and eroding. The term “The Middle Kingdom” stands for China. It means that frivolous, dissolute foreign customs have spread into China, bringing great harm to society.
Men and women alter their bearing; their attire is grotesque, and they cast aside all sense of shame and honor.
To alter their bearing means to change one’s inherent demeanor. Grotesque attire refers to outlandish and inappropriate clothing. It means men and women forsake their original honest, chaste dispositions, dress in bizarre outfits devoid of propriety, and abandon all feelings of shame.
Some dress in revealing attire to flaunt themselves in public, indulging in disorderly love and sowing karmic evil, losing chastity before marriage.
“Flaunt” means parading oneself impudently in public. Disorderly love denotes improper romantic entanglements and casual illicit relationships. Sowing karmic evil means to plant the seeds of bad karma — such as premarital conception or forbidden liaisons across social bounds, which bring endless misfortune. Losing chastity means to lose one’s sexual purity. This speaks of those who wear revealing garments to display their bodies, pursue unregulated romance, and enter into improper relations before wedlock, forfeiting their chaste innocence.
Others play all manner of trades, deploying countless strange and crafty stratagems.