注大乘入楞伽經 1.7

1.7

Tracing this sūtra text back, it came from the western lands. When the Yuanjia reign title was established, the translation by [Guṇa]bhadra was not widely propagated (the four-fascicle text first translated under the Liu Song); when the Yanchang reign was recorded, the meanings in [Bodhi]ruci's [text] contained many discrepancies (the ten-fascicle text translated next under the Later Wei). We reverently reflect upon the entrusted transmission, with an earnest feeling to inherit and magnify it. In the first year of the Jiushi era, the cyclical year gengzi, when the sixth month attuned the pitch-pipes and the Fire Emperor governed the season, at that time avoiding the heat at Mount Ji and observing the local customs by the Ying River, within the Sanyang Palace, this sūtra was produced anew: examining the essential expositions of the three editions, it was completed as a definitive teaching in seven fascicles. The Tripiṭaka Śramaṇa, the Venerable Monk Śikṣānanda of Khotan, the Monk Fuli of Da Fuxian Monastery, and others—their fame rivaled [Dao]an and [Hui]yuan, their virtue matched [Kāśyapa] Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna; inheriting the fragrant precedents of Nāgārjuna, probing the secret treasury of Aśvaghoṣa; the fragrance of their precepts and the flowers of their awakening were equally fragrant, the jewel of their mind and the moon of their nature were together complete. Hence they were able to penetrate the subtle and profound, unfolding the esoteric and abstruse; on the fifteenth day of the first month in the fourth year of Chang'an, the transcription was completed. Reflecting on Our own shallowness, Our words fall short of jade and scepter; looking upon the four unobstructed knowledges We feel much shame, and gazing toward the ekayāna We find it unfathomable. Yet unable to refuse the requests of monastics and laity, We have reluctantly applied brush and ink; the phrasing is clumsy and the principle flawed, which only increases Our embarrassment. Humbly considering this sūtra to be wondrous and profound, most exceedingly rare, it shatters the darkness of deep confusion, its verses of passing the lamp are inexhaustible; it unfolds the function of the flowing stream, its meanings of a surging spring are boundless. The title and the sequence of chapters are set forth below.