顯密圓通成佛心要集 2.18

2.18

Regarding these two traditions now, according to the accounts in the Zuanling ji and the Biography of Yijing: after the Tathāgata entered extinction, the people of the time neither heard of nor knew them (they did not hear of the exoteric perfect [teaching] and did not know of the esoteric perfect [teaching]). It was only when Nāgārjuna Bodhisattva appeared in the world around seven hundred years [later] and propagated both the exoteric and esoteric perfect traditions that they finally began to circulate in the human world. Now, living in the midst of the Final Dharma age, we are blessed to encounter the Heaven-favored Emperor and Bodhisattva King, who circulates the two teachings throughout the whole realm. A humble, insignificant monk has had the good fortune to meet with this; a sense of grateful celebration fills my thoughts all day long, like a sick person encountering an efficacious elixir and wondrous medicine, or a destitute man obtaining a wish-fulfilling jewel. Joyful beyond measure, it has taken shape in chanted words, thus composing the verse: