Yuhua: “What about torn, hole‑ridden trousers?”
Magistrate: “That is not permissible either. No exposure of the lower body is allowed. Fashionable trends are not necessarily correct. Do not follow others blindly under the delusion that such conduct is harmless. Propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame must be upheld. Those lacking a sense of integrity and shame forfeit human dignity and moral norms, and will be reborn into the animal realm in their next life, with no clothes or shoes to wear.”
Yuhua: “Many people on the street wear cropped midriff‑baring tops. Surely that is unacceptable.”
Magistrate: “Frequent wear of midriff‑baring tops allows pernicious cold energies to invade the abdomen, triggering lower‑abdominal ailments. It will also affect fertility in future lives: for instance, stillbirth, difficulty conceiving, susceptibility to tumours, or gynaecological disorders that afflict one from early childhood and are hard to cure.”
Yuhua: “Magistrate, may one wear open‑toed shoes?”
Magistrate: “It is better to avoid them when possible. Outward physical allure can bewilder people’s minds, dissipate their upright integrity, and lead them to commit the karmic offence of illicit sexual conduct.”
Yuhua: “Magistrate! Eating and dressing are ordinary human needs. How can worldly people know they are incurring karmic guilt in such trivial matters?”
Magistrate: “In truth, many offences arise from impairing the cosmic vital energy and upsetting its balance. The righteousness or depravity of every person’s thoughts is intimately intertwined with the universal vital energy.
The Buddha taught: ‘The three realms are transformed solely from consciousness; all dharmas are manifested solely through the mind.’ Thus human consciousness creates all phenomena in the world. Every good or evil idea constantly influences the external environment. This is akin to how many people question whether hell truly exists.
In truth, hell is also manifested by the mind, revealed only to those whose minds harbor hell. If hell has no place within one’s mind, one shall never behold it. When people transgress precepts and commit sins, the resulting karmic forces bring the various hells into perpetual existence. Hell can never seize the innocent, for they bear no seeds of wrongdoing, and share no karmic affinity with the hells.”