禪源諸詮集都序 1.10

1.10

Dhyāna Master Guifeng compiled the various explanations of the source of dhyāna into a dhyāna canon and wrote a general preface for it. Pei Xiu of Hedong states: It is unprecedented! Ever since the Tathāgata appeared in the world and established teachings according to capacities, and bodhisattvas appeared at intervals pointing out medicines according to ailments, the teachings of his single lifetime opened three gateways of varying depth, and from the one true pure mind expounded distinct teachings of nature and phenomenal marks. The two masters Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna both propagated the teachings of the Tamer, yet their schools diverged into emptiness and the nature. The two masters Huineng and Shenxiu both transmitted Bodhidharma's mind, yet their endowments differed in sudden and gradual. Heze pointed directly to awareness and seeing; Jiangxi regarded everything as true; Tiantai relied exclusively on the threefold contemplation; Niutou held that not a single dharma exists. In other traditions, emptiness and existence refute one another, the true and the false include one another, directly overturning and gently accommodating, implicitly indicating and explicitly expounding; hence, in India and China, the lineages are truly numerous. Truly, because ailments have a thousand sources, medicines are produced in many kinds; matching the capacity and following the vessel, they cannot be identical. Although they are all gateways to realization and awakening, and are entirely the correct and true Path, among the various school traditions there are few that are universally comprehending and many that are limited. Consequently, over several decades the master-lineages have increasingly deteriorated: taking their own transmissions as their households, each establishing their own domains; taking the sūtras and treatises as weapons, mutually attacking one another; their sentiments shifting according to the armor-maker and the arrow-maker. (Mencius said: 'Is the maker of arrows really less benevolent than the maker of armor? The maker of armor only fears that men will be hurt; the maker of arrows only fears that men will not be hurt. This is because of the craft they have practiced.' Today's students merely follow their own school's adherents and mutually disparage one another. The character *han* [函], according to the *Tangyun*, is derived from metal [䤴]; it means armor. In the *Zhouli*: 'The *hanren* makes armor'—that is, the maker of armor. In ancient script it was often written simply; hence Mencius also wrote it simply.) Teachings rise and fall according to [the pride of] self and other; right and wrong are entangled in confusion, with none able to distinguish and analyze them. Thus the teachings and schools of the World-Honoured One, the bodhisattvas, and all directions of the past have merely served to give rise to disputes; causing later people to multiply their afflictive ailments, what benefit could there be? The Great Master Guifeng sighed for a long time and said: 'Having met with this time, I cannot remain silent!' (When Confucius edited the Odes and the Documents, and rectified the rites and music, it was all done out of necessity; therefore he transmitted rather than innovated. This means the sage values the Way and does not value mere traces. The idea is: 'I have long cultivated the Buddha-Dharma of our own school; if I now suddenly harmonize the various schools, could it be that I wish to establish traces? It is out of necessity.' *Ding* means to meet with; that is, precisely meeting the time when harmonization is needed.) Thereupon, using the three kinds of doctrinal teachings of the Tathāgata, he sealed the three kinds of methods of the Chan school. He melted down vases, plates, hairpins, and bracelets into a single gold; he churned sour milk, curd, and clarified butter into a single taste. Shaking the collar of a garment, all that is lifted falls into place; (Xunzi says: 'It is like shaking the collar of a fur robe; bending the five fingers and tugging it, those [hairs] that fall into place cannot be counted.') taking hold of the essential pivot, all who come converge in common purpose. (The character *qu* is pronounced in the level tone. The *Zhouyi lüeli* states: 'Taking hold of the essential pivot to observe the convergence of the directions, then the gathering of the six directions into the hub is not enough to be considered many.' The General Preface relies on the perfect teaching to seal all schools; even with a hundred lineages, there is nothing it does not subsume.) Still fearing that it would be difficult for students to understand, he further directly demonstrated the fundamental and the derivative of the source of the schools, the blending of the true and the false, the concealment and revelation of emptiness and nature, the differences in doctrine and principle, the similarities and differences between sudden and gradual, the mutual alternation of refutation and affirmation, the depth and shallowness of the provisional and real, and the right and wrong of the universal and the limited. (Below this, it praises the narrative as clear, bright, and painstaking, wishing to make people awaken.) There was nothing he did not tell by pulling them by the ear, (The *Mao Commentary to the Classic of Odes* says: 'Not merely instructing you to your face, but pulling you by the ear.' At that time, hating that the person did not cultivate virtue and was wildly disorganized, it says: 'Not only did I speak to you face to face, but I also pulled your ear and raised it, telling you right beside your ear; yet you still did not change.' The meaning is to speak with extreme pains.) and show them by pointing at his palm. (The *Analects* says: 'He who knew its meaning would deal with all under Heaven as easily as looking at this!' and he pointed to his palm. This means that after the Master spoke, he pointed to his own palm to show his disciples, saying that seeing this matter is distinct, as easy to understand as an object in the palm of one's hand.) He roared like a lion yawning to awaken them, and gently enticed them with affectionate softness. (Below this, it praises his compassion and anxious care, like nurturing an infant.) Nursing them and giving them medicine, he worried that the Buddha-seed would be cut short prematurely. (Having no small good roots and becoming an icchantika is to be cut short prematurely.) Embracing them to his bosom, (The *Mao Commentary to the Classic of Odes* says: 'Embraced me in her bosom and looked back at me.' This describes a compassionate mother caring for her young child, holding me to her bosom; when rising briefly to leave, she turns her head to look back at me, her loving affection being profound.) he was mindful of being swept away by water or consumed by fire. (Desires are water and fire.) Leading and guiding them, he feared they would be misled into delusion by heterodoxy and the Hinayāna. (Having both good roots and having separated from the five desires, he further feared they would not enter the Mahāyāna.) Waving his sleeves to disperse them, he grieved over the firmness of contention. The great illumination cannot break through the gloom of the long night; a compassionate mother cannot protect her child after her death. (Below this, it praises his compassion and wisdom as being identical to the Buddha's. Although the Buddha-sun is brilliant, only when obtaining our master does it turn its light to illuminate gently; although the Buddha's compassion is universal, only when obtaining our master are its vast benefits further multiplied.) As for our master, he held aloft the Buddha-sun and gently turned its light to illuminate, so that all doubts and obstructions were eliminated; he accorded with the Buddha-mind and stretched across with great compassion, so that throughout exhausted kalpas all receive benefit. Thus the World-Honoured One was the Lord who expounded the teachings, and our master was the person who harmonized the teachings; the fundamental and the derivative support one another, the distant and the near illuminate one another. It can be said that he completed the functions of the teachings of [the Buddha's] entire lifetime! (From when the World-Honoured One expounded the teachings down to the present day, by harmonizing and penetrating them, the functions have only now been completed.) Someone may say: 'Since the Tathāgata [himself] never comprehensively unified them, now suddenly disobeying the tenets of the schools and not preserving them, discarding the defenses and not holding them—is this not contrary to the way of the secret treasury and tacit transmission?' I reply: 'Within the assemblies of the *Lotus Sūtra* and the *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra*, the Buddha also had already melted them into a single taste; it is only that the benighted do not perceive it. Therefore, in the *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra*, Bodhisattva Kāśyapa said: "All Buddhas have secret words, but no secret treasuries." The World-Honoured One praised him, saying: "The words of the Tathāgata open up and reveal, being pure and unobstructed. Foolish people do not understand them and consider them a secret treasury; the wise clearly comprehend them and do not call them a treasury." This is the proof. Therefore, when the Kingly Way flourishes, outer doors are not shut, and defenses reside at the borders; when the Buddha Way is complete, all dharmas are retained in dhāraṇī, and defenses reside against Māra and heterodoxy.' (The perfect teaching of the *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* harmonizes all dharmas, merely excluding the preachings of Māra and the heterodox schools of outsiders.) One should not continue to cling to sentiment and roll up one's sleeves [in anger] among them. Alas! Later students should place their trust in the Buddha, and not place their trust in men; they should seek confirmation in the fundamental Dharma, and not seek confirmation in derivative habits. (The General Preface uses the Buddha's words to seal the various schools, and uses the fundamental Dharma to illuminate biased teachings; hence it painstakingly urges them to have deep faith.) If one can be like this, then one will not fail the virtue of Guifeng's toil! (How sorrowful are mother and father, who bore me with toil! Our master's virtue surpasses even this. If later people view his Dharma without giving rise to grief and emotion, they are no different from wood and stone. One must take care of this!)