瑜伽論記 1.7

1.7

Bodhisattva Maitreya, responding to Asaṅga's capacity, constantly descended from the Tuṣita heaven into the meditation hall during the night and taught the verses of five treatises for him: first, the Yogācārabhūmiśāstra; second, that called the *Vibhāgayogaśāstra* concerning discernment of contemplation; third, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra; fourth, the Madhyāntavibhāga; fifth, the Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā. At that time, among the disciples, some saw the radiance but did not see the bodily marks, nor did they hear the instructions; some saw the bodily marks but did not hear the teaching of the Dharma; and some both saw and heard. Yet the era is remote, and their names have already vanished; only Asaṅga was known to gods and humans alike, moving Maitreya's transformation and receiving the various teachings. Now within this treatise, no principle is left unplumbed, no matter unexhausted, no text unexplained, no meaning unexpounded, no doubt undispersed, no attachment unbroken, no practice incomplete, and no fruit unrealized. Unless one were an eminent scholar of profound insight, who could ever harmonize with and join in this? Master Xuanzang, with a capacity surpassing the mundane world, lamented the obstruction in the flow returning to the source; thus he was able to pass beyond the Jade Gate on a distant expedition and tread the golden sands to lay down his life for the Dharma. He reached the monastery of Nālandā in Magadha in Central India, met the great Tripiṭaka master Śīlabhadra, and first heard this śāstra, grasping its text and meaning as if water were poured from one vessel into another. Although he traveled through various kingdoms and thoroughly mastered the marvels of numerous scriptures, in investigating the characteristics of phenomena he gave special contemplation to this text. Later, turning his carriage back to the imperial capital, by imperial decree he began translating this śāstra at Hongfu Monastery on the fifteenth day of the fifth month in the twenty-first year of the Zhenguan era [647 CE], putting down his brush and rising from his seat on the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the twenty-second year [648 CE]. The Sanskrit text of this śāstra has forty thousand verses, each verse being thirty-two syllables, and it was translated into one hundred fascicles. Since the eastward flow of the Buddha's Dharma over long years, although the name of the Śāstra on the Seventeen Stages had been heard, people did not know what the seventeen were! The Dichilun and the Shanjiejing are only the single stage of the Bodhisattvabhūmi; the Juedingzang lun is the beginning of the Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī; everything else had not yet existed in the Chinese lands. (The Shanjiejing was translated by Guṇavarman, and the Dichilun was translated by Dharmakṣema. It is traditionally reported that during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Liang, in the tenth month of the gengwu year, the fourth year of Taiqing [550 CE], Paramārtha went to the residence of Lu Yuanzhe, Magistrate of Fuchun, and translated the Śāstra on the Seventeen Stages for Ze Qiong and twenty other eminent scholars, only producing five fascicles.) Now for the first time its divisions are complete and its text and meaning are fully illuminated, broadly manifesting a great illumination within the manifold recesses and resonantly sounding a rare voice across the realm. This may truly be called harnessing the chariot on the profound path and opening the secluded barrier within the empty chamber.