四明尊者教行錄 7.29

7.29

When it speaks of the 'Great Teaching', this is not dividing the great from the small by contrasting the doctrines of bodily analysis, partial, or perfect within the doctrinal approaches; here it is discussed in terms of the internal and external traditions. As the Shiqian explains Zhang'an's phrase 'the eastward transmission of the Great Dharma' by saying that it refers generally to the Buddhist teaching as the Great Dharma, this is it. The Wenxuan says: 'The Dao has its rise and decline.' The commentary says: 'Long means flourishing. Yi means level.' Flourishing and level also have the sense of high and low. The Zhouyi says: 'To render it divine and illuminate it depends upon the person.' 'The patriarchs' refers to the various masters from Jingxi onward. The Taixuan jing says: 'What is distant and dark is called xuan.' Now, using the profound, distant, subtle, and esoteric purport of the Tiantai school, it is called the 'abstruse transformation'. The character 幾 is pronounced ji; the Wenxuan uses 其, and their pronunciations are close.