修習止觀坐禪法要 1.184

1.184

隋開皇十八年，智者大師去世，至皇朝建中垂二百載，以斯文相傳凡五家師：其始曰灌頂，其次曰晉雲威，又其次曰東陽小威，又其次曰左溪朗公，其五曰荊溪然公。頂於同門中慧解第一，能奉師訓集成此書，蓋不以文辭為本故也，或失則煩，或得則野。當二威之際緘授而已，其道不行。天寶中左溪始弘解說，而知者蓋寡。荊溪廣以傳記數十萬言，網羅遺法，勤矣備矣。荊溪滅後，知其說者適三四人。古人云：「生而知之者上，學而知之者次，困而學之又其次。」夫生而知之者，蓋性德者也；學而知之者，天機深者也；若嗜欲深、耳目塞，雖學而不知，斯為下矣。今夫學者，內病於蔽，外役於煩，沒世不能通其文，數年不能得其益。則業文為之屢校，梏足也；棼句為之簸糠，眯目也。以不能諭之師，教不領之弟子，《止觀》所以未光大於時也。予常戚戚於是，整其宏綱、撮其機要，其理之所存，教之所急，或易置之、或引伸之；其義之迂、其辭之鄙，或薙除之、或潤色之。大凡浮疎之患十愈其九，廣略之宜三存其一。是祛鄙滯道蒙童，貽諸他人則吾豈敢！若同見同行且不以止觀罪我，亦無隱乎爾。建中上元甲子首事，筆削三歲。歲在析木之津，功畢云爾。

In the eighteenth year of the Kaihuang era of the Sui dynasty, the Great Master Zhizhe passed away. Down to the Jianzhong era of the imperial [Tang] dynasty, nearly two hundred years have elapsed, and this text has been transmitted through a succession of five masters: the first was Guanding; the next was Jinyun Wei; the next after that was Dongyang Little Wei; the next was Master Lang of Zuoxi; and the fifth was Master Ran of Jingxi. Guanding was foremost in wisdom and understanding among his fellow disciples; able to receive his master's teachings, he compiled this work. Because he did not take literary style as his primary concern, it is sometimes excessively prolix where it is deficient, and unpolished where it captures [the sense]. At the time of the two Weis, it was merely kept confidential and bestowed [in secret]; the Way was not widely practiced. During the Tianbao era, Zuoxi first began to expound and explain it broadly, yet those who understood it were few indeed. Jingxi expanded upon it with tens of thousands of words in commentaries and treatises, gathering together the bequeathed teachings with diligence and completeness. After Jingxi passed away, those who understood his exposition numbered barely three or four. The ancients said: 'Those born with knowledge are highest; those who attain knowledge through study are next; those who study only when troubled [by difficulty] are next again.' Now, those born with knowledge are those endowed with natural virtue; those who attain knowledge through study are those of profound natural capacity. But if one's cravings are deep and one's ears and eyes are blocked, so that even though one studies one does not understand, this is indeed the lowest grade. Today, students are afflicted internally by obscurity and driven externally by vexing complications; they pass their whole lives without mastering its text, and spend many years without reaping its benefits. Thus, to have text-oriented scholarship repeatedly shackling their steps is like fettering their feet; and to have tangled sentences winnowing chaff before them is like blinding their eyes. With teachers who cannot explain it instructing disciples who fail to grasp it, this is why Calming and Contemplation has not yet shone forth brightly in our age. I have constantly grieved over this. Arranging its grand outline and extracting its essential points—where the principle resides and where the teaching is of urgent concern—I have rearranged some parts or expanded others; where the meaning was circuitous or the diction was crude, I have excised some portions or embellished others. In general, of the defects of superficiality and carelessness, nine out of ten have been healed; of the balance between expansiveness and brevity, one part in three has been retained. This is merely to dispel my own vulgar blockages and guide beginners; how could I dare pass it on to others as an authority! Yet if those of identical views and shared practice do not condemn me on account of this [treatment of] Calming and Contemplation, then I have concealed nothing. I began this work in the jiazi year of the Shangyuan [epoch] in the Jianzhong era, and applied brush and chisel for three years. In the year when [the Jupiter station] was in the Ford of Ximu, the work was completed.