禪林寶訓 1.2

1.2

As for the *Precious Lessons*, they were originally compiled jointly by Miaoxi and Zhu'an in the past, when they cleared thatch [to build their huts] at Yunmen in Jiangxi. During the Chunxi era, when I was visiting Yunju, I obtained them from the elder monk Zu'an. It was a pity that over the course of many years, having suffered worm damage, the beginning and the end were incomplete. Later, I came across some of them in recorded sayings and biographies, and after accumulating them for ten years, there were barely over fifty chapters. Therefore, taking the surviving words of various elders from Huanglong down to Fozhao and Jiantang, I edited and arranged them into roughly three hundred chapters. The times I acquired them varied, so they are not arranged according to chronological order. The general purpose is simply to cause students to cast aside worldly power, gain, self, and others, and to turn toward the Way and virtue, benevolence and righteousness. Their prose style is gentle, peaceful, and straightforward, free from any traces of boastful wildness, remoteness, or deceitful eccentricity; they can truly assist the far-reaching scheme of entering the Way. Now, about to carve the woodblocks to circulate them widely, there will certainly be scholars of like mind who will approve of them at first glance. Even though I may grow old and die among the hills and valleys, my aspirations will have been fulfilled. Written by Jingshan, a śramaṇa of Dongwu.