肇論新疏 1.150

1.150

此以外事故類證爾。梵志解遷中不遷如孔莊，隣人非之如凡淺。西域淨行梵志十五遊學、三十歸娶、五十入山，今言出家謂入山也。白髮復歸，隣人以常情問之云：「昔人尚在耶？」見今問昔亦已誤矣。故梵志答之但似昔人。豈今之新吾是昔之故吾哉？隣人不達隨變之理，執今白首是昔朱顏。

This cites an external event as analogical proof. The brahmacārin's understanding of immutability within movement is like that of Confucius and Zhuangzi; the neighbors' rejecting him is like ordinary shallowness. In the Western Regions, pure-living brahmacārins travel to study at fifteen, return to marry at thirty, and enter the mountains at fifty; here, 'leaving home' refers to entering the mountains. Returning again with white hair, the neighbor asked out of ordinary perception: 'Is the person of the past still here?' Seeing the present and asking about the past was already an error. Therefore, the brahmacārin answered that he merely resembled the person of the past: how could the new 'I' of today be the old 'I' of the past? The neighbor did not understand the principle of changing along with conditions, clinging to the white head of today as the ruddy face of the past.