楞伽阿跋多羅寶經註解 1.4

1.4

[Your subject] has heard: Although the flourishing of the fortunes of the Dharma is said to depend on people, it must also have its proper time. If there are the people but not the time, or the time but not the people, even though one may wish to make it flourish, how could that be attained? Therefore, there must be a ruler of keen intelligence and holy wisdom, presiding over an age when the realm is peaceful and secure, to make it flourish. As for this single scripture, the Laṅkāvatāra, our Great Awakened World-Honoured One spoke it two thousand years ago, and His Present Majesty implements it two thousand years later—is this not having both the people and the time? Otherwise, why is it that, although this sūtra has flowed eastward to China for over a thousand years, none of the emperors of previous dynasties ever paid such close and sustained attention to it as our Sage Son of Heaven, investigating its tenets and imperial-commanding all the clergy to apply themselves to its study in such flourishing abundance? Now, the reason why our Buddha spoke this sūtra was to eliminate the deluded minds of sentient beings and cause them to return to the genuine and correct Way. And the intention of His Majesty is to wish that the people of the realm and future generations all abandon delusion and return to truth, cast off evil and follow good, so as to ascend to the realm of benevolence and longevity. How wonderfully this accords with the Buddha's mind! Furthermore, the essentials of this sūtra do not go beyond the five dharmas, the three svabhāvas, the eight consciousnesses, and the two kinds of selflessness; and they encompass the true and the false, cultivation and nature, sages and worldlings, causes and effects, none of which lie outside the one mind. Those who can fathom this mind will fear evil and turn toward good, abandon delusion and return to truth, and attain the ground of self-realized right knowledge. Those who cannot fathom this mind will indulge their passions and give rein to their desires, drifting away and forgetting to return, to the point of losing their loyalty and filial piety, corrupting customs and disturbing the standard norms, willingly incurring penal punishment as if stepping into water and fire. This is why our Buddha gave rise to great compassion to rescue and deliver them, just as an emperor's benevolence nurtures the common people as though caring for infants.