禪源諸詮集都序 1.6

1.6

雪堂禪師。智識雄邁行解圓通。喜修為。樂施與。一日謂余曰。愚甞患世之學佛者。不究如來設教之因妄執空有競分大小。曰頓曰漸曰禪曰律。訾訾紛紛千數百年。如護父足使具受病。雖遇一二同志有以啟之。恨不能家喻而戶曉也。幸得圭峯所述禪源詮。其文博雅其旨切當。悉敘前所患者道其所以然。且作圖示心一真實諦含三大義。無明緣染諸相妄起。依修斷法獲證入理。提綱舉要如指諸掌。昔至元十二年春正月。世祖皇帝萬機之暇。御瓊華島延請帝師。太保文貞劉公亦在焉。乃召在京耆宿問諸禪教乖互之義。先師西菴贇公等八人。因以圭峯禪源詮文為對。允愜宸衷。當時先師囑其弟雙泉泰公為之記。仍命雪堂鏤板流行。愚以參問諸方。未暇及此。向於雲中普恩興國二寺各獲一本。後在京萬壽方丈。復得遼朝崇天皇太后清寧八年印造頒行天下定本。與文士較正擬欲刻梓以傳永久。請敘一言庸伸先師遺志。余聞之喜曰。今子之心即圭峯師憂世之心也。然不有斯文無以解其惑。不壽其傳無以利其眾。學者覩之而情不遣解不生。亦何益矣。古人所謂四難者。今三難不具其一。則在諸方參學者儻能不負二師弘法利人之念。盡心披玩。情遣解生。如王良總六轡馳通衢。阿師駕般若航登彼岸。豈有不達者哉。翰林待制朝列大夫同修。

Chan Master Xuetang was grand in wisdom and discernment, and fully penetrated both practice and understanding. He delighted in cultivation and rejoiced in giving. One day he told me: 'I have often been distressed that worldly students of Buddhism fail to investigate the Buddha’s reasons for establishing the doctrinal teachings. They falsely cling to emptiness or existence, and vie over distinguishing Great and Small vehicles, sudden and gradual, Chan and vinaya. For over a thousand years they have wrangled and disputed endlessly, just like guarding a father's foot only to make him suffer disease all over. Although I have met one or two like-minded persons who offered instruction, I regret that it cannot be made known to every house and every door. Fortunately, I obtained the Collected Writings on the Source of Chan composed by Guifeng. Its text is erudite and refined, its purport pertinent and precise; it fully explains the former predicaments and relates their underlying causes. Furthermore, it provides a chart showing that the one true reality of the mind contains the three great principles: ignorance conditions defilements, so marks arise falsely; relying on the methods of cultivation and cessation, one attains realization and enters the truth. It grasps the outlines and raises the essentials as clearly as pointing to one's palm. Formerly, in the first month of spring in the twelfth year of the Zhiyuan era, during a pause in his myriad affairs of state, Emperor Shizu held court on Qionghua Island and invited the Imperial Preceptor; the Grand Protector Duke Liu Wenzheng was also present. Thereupon he summoned senior masters residing in the capital to inquire into the mutually conflicting tenets of Chan and doctrine. My late teacher Duke Xi'an Yun and eight others answered using the text of Guifeng's Collected Writings on the Source of Chan. It fully satisfied the imperial mind. At that time, my late teacher entrusted his junior fellow Shuangquan Duke Tai to record it, and additionally ordered Xuetang to carve the printing blocks for circulation. Because I was traveling around inquiring at various quarters, I had no leisure to attend to this. Previously, in Yunzhong, I obtained one copy each at Pu'en and Xingguo monasteries. Later, in the abbot's quarters of Wanshou Monastery in the capital, I again obtained the authoritative edition printed and distributed throughout the empire in the eighth year of the Qingning era by the Grand Empress Dowager Chongtian of the Liao dynasty. Collating it with scholars, I intended to carve the printing blocks to transmit it perpetually. Please write a few words to express my late teacher's dying wish.' Hearing this, I rejoiced and said: 'Your present intention is precisely Master Guifeng's mind of concern for the world! Yet without this text, there would be no means to dispel their confusion; without perpetuating its transmission, there would be no means to benefit the multitude. If learners behold it without casting off sentiment and generating understanding, what benefit would there be? Among the four difficulties spoken of by the ancients, of the three difficulties today, not one is lacking. If those practicing and studying in all quarters can live up to the two masters' purpose of propagating the Dharma and benefiting humanity, reading and pondering it with all their hearts, sentiments will be dispelled and understanding generated. Just as Wang Liang gathered the six reins to race along the thoroughfare, or the venerable monk boarded the vessel of prajñā to reach the other shore, how could they fail to arrive?' Preface by Jia Ruzhou, Hanlin Waiting Official, Grand Master of Court Splendor, and Joint Compiler