法華三昧懺儀 1.3

1.3

As the sacred teachings recede in time, their phrases and sentences fall into error; this is caused by the superficiality and confusion of those who transmit them. If one does not collate the similarities and differences and clearly display the defects and merits, day by day and month by month [the errors] worsen, losing the true flavor in the distance. The *Repentance Ritual of the Lotus Samādhi* was written down by the hand of the Great Master of Tiantai at Waguan Monastery. It is precisely the text referred to as the separately circulating [work] for the third samādhi in the *Calming and Contemplation*. For enlightening later students, for serving as the revered standard of the age, for smashing obstacles and destroying māras, for entering the realm of the Buddhas, and for driving the jeweled carriages abreast with Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra to journey across realms to the ultimate, this really is the progressive path. Fearing that the old rules would gradually be altered or the essential core lost—and furthermore, among the ten disciplines of the ritual tracks, the contemplation of principle is the principal one, so that if one [point] is mistaken, the nine methods will be applied in vain—some people have added a fifth phrase to the contemplation method in seated meditation. I now present it: The text states, "Is it due to the mind that there is mind? Is it not due to the mind that there is mind? Is it both due to the mind and not due to the mind that there is mind? Is it neither due to the mind nor not due to the mind that there is mind? (original text) Is it not-neither due to the mind and not-neither not due to the mind that there is mind? (recent addition)" Now, in our mountain tradition, whenever phrases are used for contemplation, they only reach four; who knows what text the fifth phrase comes from? Furthermore, when analyzing it, what is to be taken as the object under the fifth phrase? How is contemplation to be applied? The *Fuxing* itself states: "That separately circulating text only analyzes four phrases; therefore, in the present text, the contemplation of the elephant is broadly cultivated so as to expand upon that one (main text of the *Fuxing*)." How much more so given that the contemplation of the elephant is still an engagement with phenomena, whereas the single gate of correct contemplation entirely rests on the present four phrases—how could one harbor doubt and confuse its main substance? Moreover, they have rashly cited scriptural passages and appended them to the end of the roll, recklessly inserted crude commentaries to confuse the text within the fascicle; such minute faults are too numerous to recount. Therefore, I have now directly collated the original edition and carved printing blocks to circulate it, hoping to preserve the former regulations. From this time forward, whoever seeks the samādhi and wishes to transmit this text, please preserve this preface steadfastly to distinguish it.