肇論 1.4

1.4

By unmerited good fortune, I encountered this correct voice, rejoicing ceaselessly and feasting upon it without fatigue. Whenever opening and reading it, I could not help dancing with joy, vowing to propagate and expound it with all my life, birth after birth. If my regard for Sengzhao's extant writings is such as this, how could it fail to increase all the more for the contemplations of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, the Śataka, and the Dvādaśamukha Śāstra, down to the profound vaipulya sūtras! Common gossip in the world all says: 'Sengzhao's writings are merely the paramārtha-satya of the Tattvasiddhi, the universal doctrine of the Daśabhūmika-śāstra, and the reckless discourses relying on Zhuangzi and Laozi.' Such statements are truly the talk of great mischief-makers, slandering the deceased—vulgar street chatter not worth picking up. The spiritual way is formless; the nimbleness of the mind is difficult to depict. Since words are restrictive and the meaning is distant, various interpretations run astray. How could Sengzhao's intended meaning have been in vain? It truly had good reason. If one should instead indulge in such [slanderous] words, I vow not to meet them birth after birth, until, having attained the patient mind [of non-arising], I return to deliver those low beings.