注大乘入楞伽經 1.3

1.3

When Bodhidharma came from the west, fundamentally he did not establish words and letters; when the Laṅkā was transmitted to the east, it was to seal and convey the mind doctrine of the Buddha. Although this saying was widely prevalent in the monasteries, patch-robed monks still worried over its profundity and obscurity. There was then the Venerable Śikṣānanda, who appeared during the Jiushi era of the Li-Tang dynasty. Collation was made of the chapter titles of the three translations, fully verifying the wondrous principle of this single sūtra. Compared to former times, its phrasing is fluent and expressive, and its meaning luminous; it directly causes later generations to expend no arduous labor and yet surely double their results. At that time it was praised as greatly complete, yet no one had yet been seen to annotate and explain it. [I, Baochen,] have boldly gathered the old texts of several commentaries and transferred them into a new exposition in seven fascicles; mending gaps and cracks, investigating actualities and setting aside doubts—just as an old peasant or a horse groom keeps to his own specialty, how could I dare boast of myself as if displaying rare pearls? May scholars of the Way behold its purport in full!