明覺禪師語錄 6.3

6.3

予天禧中寓跡靈隱，與寶真禪者為友，或遊或處，固以道義相揖，投報相襲，冷冷然自樂天常之性也。一日真公謂予曰：「愚近偶作三寶讚三十韻。宜請賡唱。」因披閱加歎，率爾而繼之，類蝕木也。俄屬分飛吳楚將二十載，殊不復記憶，真公不以事曠誠隔，遠遠附僧如衍而至，再窺荒斐，愧慰多集。且夫聖人之立言也，必眹虛、必冥奧，使文外之士同振古風、垂千萬世，又焉知來者及之不及道在其中也。斯之讚辭，曾不沽不待，但遐仰覺皇宗致禪徒，告而行之，得不曲為序引。

During the Tianxi reign era, I lodged at Lingyin and became friends with Chan Practitioner Baozhen. Whether traveling or residing, we bowed to one another in morality and righteousness, responding and reciprocated, cool and detached, naturally rejoicing in heavenly nature. One day Venerable Zhen said to me: 'I recently happened to compose a thirty-rhyme Praise of the Three Treasures. I invite you to sing in response.' Thereupon, unrolling it and admiring it with praise, I casually continued it, like an insect gnawing wood. Soon after, parting like flying birds toward Wu and Chu for nearly twenty years, I no longer remembered it at all. Venerable Zhen did not consider the distance in time or separation in sincerity, and sent a monk named Ruyan from afar to deliver it. Peering once more at my crude and unpolished work, shame and solace gathered together. Now, when sages establish words, they must foreshadow the void and plunge into the profound, causing men beyond the letters to jointly revive the ancient style and transmit it for ten million generations; and how could one know whether those who come after will reach it or not, when the Way resides within it? These words of praise were never meant to seek fame or wait for an occasion; merely gazing with reverence from afar toward the ancestral aims of the King of Awakening and his Chan followers, I proclaim them and put them into practice. How could I not compose this humble preface?