四分律行事鈔資持記 1.2

1.2

Those who have gone forth receive the precepts as their essence and gather the Dharma to abide in their persons. Practice must be cultivated based on the essence; therefore, as the cause, it is termed subsequent practice. The body must move in accord with the Dharma; therefore, as the fruit, it is named the Dharma-body. Truly, this is because setting forth has its principle, and relying on causes attains its proper locus. Furthermore, the single consciousness is fundamentally luminous, and defilement or purity cannot be apprehended. Flowing and mutating in accord with conditions, [the dichotomy of] other and self blazes fiercely; encountering objects gives rise to passions, and following delusion generates karma. Bound in the prison of the realms of existence, one receives bodily forms of ten thousand kinds; rising and sinking across billions of kalpas, there is no rest. Therefore, our Tathāgata mounted the Path of reality and opened the gate of great compassion; intending to bring about the exhaustion of the source of suffering, he instituted rules to first eliminate defiling karma. For example, in felling a tree, one must begin by pruning its branches; not only do seeds and fruits have nothing to depend upon, but the roots and trunk are gradually made to rot away. The Vinaya as a teaching finds its ultimate import in this. Humbly [we consider that] from its arising in central India, the five schools vied in expounding it. When translated and transmitted to the Eastern Lands, the Four-Part [Vinaya] was predominantly propagated; though transmitted across nine generations, the six masters took divergent paths. Then our Patriarchal Master manifested the likeness of the four reliances and wielded the authority of a single word; exerting his strength to support the fallen, he acted as an emissary of the Tathāgata. Extending compassion to regulate things, he served as a guide for all beings. He first composed this text to guide the assembly of the time across the board: none among the five vehicles failed to ride abreast, and the seven assemblies were all moistened [by its grace]. The protocol for gathering the Saṃgha and protecting the Dharma held high the essential guidelines; the daily and timely obligations exhausted all norms and standards. Therefore, successive generations have revered it as a great instruction. However, its underlying principles are profound and abstruse, so those who discuss it rarely find the entrance; its matters and categories are vast and dense, so those who put forward expositions may introduce errors. For this reason, I have thoroughly investigated what is sound and what is not, searched through past and present, exhausted all that I have seen and heard, and set it down fully in brush and ink. Reverently receiving the purport of the Transactions Manual, I have titled it Record Supporting the Maintenance [of the Vinaya]. Without violating the tenet of the three practices, I have compiled and opened its scrolls. Truly, this is because the entire work collectively culminates in the three practices, and the three practices do not exceed the two maintenances. In dividing and explaining the words of the text, it is prized to illuminate profoundly the marks of dharmas; in weighing and evaluating the transactions and functions, it enables one definitively to uphold the reception[-essence] and subsequent [practice]. Thus teaching and practice are both propagated, and both self and others are benefited; once the opening title is raised, the purport of the entire work is fully manifested. Yet because holy wisdom is universally vast while ordinary sentiments are meager and crude, taking a conch to measure the ocean, one sighs incessantly without plumbing its depths; carrying a handful of earth to block a river, one is truly ashamed of not knowing one's own measure. To repay the virtue of the Patriarch and slightly fulfill my longstanding wish, I hope it will circulate forever, aspiring to contribute even one ten-thousandth.