[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [止觀輔行傳弘決](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912) › 1.2 # 止觀輔行傳弘決 1.2 止觀輔行傳弘決 1.2 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912.1.2) 宗虛無者，名教之道廢；遺文字者，述作之義乖。古先梵皇乘時利見，聖賢道契德音莫違，尚假言詮寄諸結集，況時淹像季學鮮知幾，領會之賓十無一二，至有窮年默坐甘節於惛懵，白首論心遲回於半滿，人之多僻其若是乎！未階捫象各陳乳色，或謂即心是佛悟入之門，色不異空本末誰迹，將冥絕待章句何施？嗚呼！大教陵夷若是，蓋由未辨文字之性離，孰喻總持之功深。惟昔智者大師降生示世，誕敷玄德大拯橫流，咨覆簣於大思、振絕維於龍猛，命家作古以中觀為師宗，立極建言以上乘為歸趣，爰付灌頂。頂公引而伸之，欽若弘持廣有記述，教門戶牖自此重明。繼之以法華威，威公宿植不愆于素。復次天宮威，威公敬承如水傳器，授之於左谿玄朗。朗公卓絕天機獨斷，相沿說釋遑恤我文，載揚於毘壇湛然。然公間生總角頴悟，左谿深相器異，誓以傳燈，嘗言止觀二門乃統萬行圓頓之設，一以貫之。噫！纘承四世年將二百，魚魯斯訛不無同異。方將繹思津導玄流，遂廣斥邪疑旁薄今古，質而不野、博而不繁，著《輔行記》凡十卷，備前聖廣略之旨、允今人勝劣之機，豈唯錯綜所聞將以隱括所治。所治即行三多之妙運遽階，所聞唯解一真之玄覽斯㳷。夫行有岐路則始終天隔，解無方隅亦淺深隨類，建言輔行以舉其全，故自遠方來詢疑請益，擊蒙發覆孜孜日夕，庶幾幽贊欽若傳弘，道之將行不孤運矣。咨予末學輕議上乘，其猶爝火增輝二曜。君山除饉男普門子敬序。時永泰首元興唐八葉之四載。 > Those who take nothingness as their principle discard the path of the nominal teaching; those who abandon written words deviate from the purport of composing treatises. In ancient times, the Brahma King \[Śākyamuni\], taking advantage of the proper time, appeared to benefit \[beings\]; the sages and worthies harmonized with his path, and none contravened his virtuous voice. Yet he still relied on verbal formulations, committing them to the councils of compilation. How much more so as time has prolonged into the semblance and final eras, when students rarely discern the subtle beginnings! Guests who grasp and comprehend are not even one or two in ten. Some sit silently for exhausted years, relishing moderation in dullness and ignorance; others discuss the mind until their heads are white, hesitating between the partial and the full. That people are so prone to bias—how could it be like this? Before mounting to touch the elephant, each expounds on the colour of milk: some claim that "this mind itself is the Buddha" is the gate to awakening and entry; if form is not different from emptiness, who traces the root and branch? If one would merge into the absolute, why apply chapters and verses? Alas! That the great teaching has declined like this is entirely because they have not distinguished that the nature of written words is detached; who can comprehend how profound the efficacy of dhāraṇī is? Formerly, Great Master Zhizhe descended to be born and manifest in the world, extensively propagating the profound virtue to vastly rescue \[beings from\] the cross-currents. He sought consultation to pile up earth under Dasi, and raised the broken mainstays under Nāgārjuna. Establishing his lineage and composing canonical works, he took the Middle Contemplation as his guiding school; setting up the ultimate and formulating doctrines, he took the Supreme Vehicle as the destination. Thereupon he entrusted it to Guanding. Master Guanding extended and elaborated it, respectfully revering and widely upholding it, leaving extensive written records, so that the portal of the teaching was once again illumined from this point on. He was succeeded by Fahua Wei; Master Wei had cultivated seeds from past lives and did not err in his original purity. Next was Tiangong Wei; Master Wei reverently received it as water is poured from vessel to vessel, and transmitted it to Zuoxi Xuanlang. Master Xuanlang was peerless, with natural genius and independent judgment; following tradition in exposition and explanation, he had no leisure to care for his own writings, and carried on the propagation through Pitan Zhanran. Master Zhanran was born at intervals, possessed of remarkable insight from his youth; Zuoxi deeply appreciated his extraordinary capacity and vowed to transmit the lamp \[to him\]. He used to say that the two gates of calming and contemplation unify the myriad practices, being an arrangement of the perfect and sudden that is threaded together by one \[principle\]. Ah! Continuing through four generations for nearly two hundred years, corruptions like "fish" and "Lu" have not been without similarities and differences. Just as he was about to unravel thoughts to guide the profound stream, he extensively refuted heterodoxies and doubts, drawing broadly on the present and the past; plain without being crude, extensive without being verbose, he composed the Notes on Supporting Practice in ten fascicles, fully providing the extensive and concise purports of earlier sages, and according with the superior and inferior capacities of contemporary people. How could it merely interweave what was heard? It was meant to regulate what is cultivated. What is cultivated is practice—the wondrous movement of the three abundances is swiftly attained; what is heard is understanding alone—the profound insight into the one true \[reality\] is hereby united. When practice has diverging paths, the beginning and end are as separated as heaven and earth; when understanding lacks orientation, its shallowness and depth also follow their kind. Establishing doctrines to support practice in order to encompass it fully, \[people\] therefore came from distant regions to inquire into doubts and seek instruction. Dispelling ignorance and uncovering the obscured, he was diligent day and night, in the hope of profoundly assisting, respectfully admiring, transmitting, and propagating, so that the imminent practice of the Path would not proceed in isolation. Alas, I, a student of the final era, lightly discourse on the Supreme Vehicle, which is like a torch trying to add radiance to the two luminaries. Reverently prefaced by the chuji'nan Pumenzi of Junshan, in the fourth year of Yongtai, the first year of the reign era, under the eighth generation of the flourishing Tang. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912.1.1) - [Next: 1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912.1.3) - [Up: 1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912.1) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912~en-mt.1.2) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1912.1.2) · Pramāṇa