樂邦文類 2.166

2.166

I once examined the scholar-officials of former dynasties who studied the world-transcending Dharma and were able to know the Tathāgata’s original intention in establishing the teachings, without falling into the traps of emptiness and existence: in the Jin, there was Liu Zhongsi; in the Tang, there was Liu Zihou; and in our dynasty, there was Yang Zigong. When Zhongsi entered Master Yuan's Lotus Society, at the approach of death he requested only that the monks recite the two sūtras of the *Sūtra of Immeasurable Life* and the *Lotus Sūtra*. Zihou composed the stele for the Wuxing Monk, praising him for reading only the *Lotus Sūtra*, and pointing out the correct path of the Land of Ultimate Bliss as that to which living beings return. Zigong composed the stele for the Tiantai Wuxiang Cloister, likewise stating that the Great Being Zhiyi established transformation on Mount Tiantai, taking the Lotus Samādhi as the utmost achievement and the Land of Peaceful Nurture as the refuge. Indeed, if one does not read the *Lotus*, one has no means to clarify the wondrous Dharma inherently possessed by one's mind; if one is not born in Peaceful Nurture, one has no means to realize the wondrous Dharma inherently possessed by one's mind. The Tathāgata instructed with earnest exhortations, and Zhiyi proclaimed the sūtra with heartfelt zeal; hence we know that the compassion bequeathed by the Buddhas and patriarchs had originally no disparate paths. In our present era, scholar-officials who lodge their minds in the Buddha-vehicle and vigorously seek liberation are certainly not few. Yet those who are led astray by divergent views are still not exempt. Dharma Master Yin exhorted faithful patrons to donate money and carve woodblocks to circulate the repentance master of Ciyun’s Dharma-gate and abridged biographies of Pure Land practices and vows—was this not perhaps with the intent to remedy this fault? Hearing of it, I was overjoyed and could not sleep, and so I gathered the words and deeds of these three gentlemen to serve as testimony. May the sincere, worthy, and eminent know that there is an orthodox tradition of the Buddhadharma, and cultivate it together to escape the wheel of suffering together. As for those worms within the lion's body who feed on the lion's own flesh, even if the National Teacher of Nanyang were reborn, nothing could be done about them; what purpose would my words serve for them?