Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra
by Gelongma Karma Migme Chödrön | 2001 | 941,039 words
This page describes “being without laziness” as written by Nagarjuna in his Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra (lit. “the treatise on the great virtue of wisdom”) in the 2nd century. This book, written in five volumes, represents an encyclopedia on Buddhism as well as a commentary on the Pancavimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita.
Bodhisattva quality 7: being without laziness
7. akusīda:
Sūtra: They were without laziness (akusīdaiḥ).
Śāstra: In householders (gṛhastha), laziness (kausīdya) ruins wealth (dhana) and merits (puṇya); among monastics (pravrajita), it ruins celestial happiness (svargasukha) and the bliss of nirvāṇa (nirvāṇasukha); in both, one’s good name (yaśas) is lost. Even great culprits and great thieves avoid laziness. A stanza says:
Laziness ruins good minds.
The shadows of ignorance replace the light of wisdom.
All good resolutions disappear.
Great works also are doomed to failure.
This is why the bodhisattvas are said to be akusīda.