四分律比丘含注戒本 1.6

1.6

In my youth, I looked up to the profound teaching and resolved to enhance the pure model. Formerly in the imperial capital, I frequented the lecture halls, bowing with deference to receive instruction, year after year in succession. When was I ever not holding the scroll and facing the text, lamenting these blockages and entanglements? Thereupon, in the fourth year of the Zhenguan era, the year of gengyin, I traveled through the mountains and rivers, broadly evaluating the Vinaya schools. But I saw only confused and tangled recitations, with no thought of broad and far-reaching vision; high talk was treated as an obligation, but in practical application there was no utility. Barely enumerating the terms of the seven [categories] and five [groups], they falsely assumed the head of a single word; merely narrating the essentials of conduct and retirement, how could they open a mind that decides on what is right? When questioned on the decline and rise of the precepts and Vinaya, they relied wonderfully on commentary and explanation; but when pressed to connect sentiment to the original authority, there was no text to rely upon. There are those whose broad learning was innate, and whose practice and fame were equally prominent, yet their spiritual application lacked standard, and their personal inclinations diverged completely. Where my mind remained uneasy, the meaning should rightly be determined by the Dharma; then the wheel of dispute will subside on its own, so why await verbose words!