勅修百丈清規 2.10

2.10

疏語成道　無量劫來成佛。豈假進修。眾生日用不知。示以先覺覺自覺他。而成　覺道。世出世間而稱　世尊　闡一代之化儀　遵先佛之遺軌　坐菩提樹。魔宮隱而無光　現優鉢花法輪熾然常轉。故始喻初日之先照。而末示拈花之正傳　圓明真常則空有俱亡。聖凡夢幻　埏埴萬化。則今古一瞬天地豪芒。顧末裔之何知。誦遺言而有惕。伏願色空明暗咸宣　微妙法音。蠢動含靈共證　智慧德相　涅槃　各赴群機　法華之囑累授記　力制後學　遺教之扶律談常。矧　拈花得旨付法正傳。而落葉歸根。畢吾能事。囿放化者終於盡。順世無常。寓諸幻而返諸真。是名寂滅。然神珠恒照於濁垢。而　寶月不避於污流　大定無方。常住恒河沙劫　圓機普應。示現千百億身。顧世相之難忘。臨諱日而增慕。伏願　闢末流之邪見　回季運之澆漓　定慧兼修。長如　正法住世。天魔率化。皆為外護宗綱。

When the word of tribute is completed, he immediately calls for chant-

ing the sutras and concludes with the same invocation of merit transference

as before.

3. The Word of Tribute for Enlightenment Day

Since enlightenment has originally been accomplished in the imme-

morial past, how should one rely on one’s experience and practice for

becoming a Buddha? People use it in daily life, they are not aware of

it, only attributing it to the enlightened [beings] of the past. It is only

when one realizes insight oneself, and helps others realize the same

insight, that the ultimate path of enlightenment is accomplished. The

Buddha is called the World-honored One because he knows both the

world of convention and its transcendence. He initiated the path of

conversion through his entire career by following the standard tradi-

tion of the past Buddhas. When he sat under the bodhi tree, the Evil

One’s (Māra’s) palace darkened the entire world, but the Buddha made

the lotus flower (utpala) bloom and the wheel of the Dharma forever

turn brightly. Thus, enlightenment is compared to the initial moment

of brilliant illumination and only later, upon reflection, did he demon-

strate the authentic transmission of that enlightenment to his disciples

by [silently] lifting a flower by its stalk. At the moment when one fully

realizes what is truly eternal, both existence and nonexistence disap-

pear, enlightened and unenlightened become equally a dream or illu-

sion. While myriad phenomena continue to change, past and present

become one moment in which heaven and earth are lost in a dazzling

ray of light. Indeed, what do any of the remote descendants really

know? They only chant the words that have been left by the Original

Teacher and are anxious about [their lack of real insight]. It is earnestly

wished: May form and non-form, light and darkness, all equally express

the miraculous sound of the Dharma, and may squirming worms and

living creatures equally realize ultimate insight and meritorious virtue.

4. The Word of Tribute for Nirvana Day

When the Buddha preached his teachings to people, he did so in

accordance with their respective individual capacities. The Lotus Sutra

informs us that he entrusted to his disciples the future task of religious

propagation and granted them the certificate of authentication of their

future realization. To encourage and restrain his disciples, the Buddha

instructed in his last teaching the strict observance of Vinaya rules and

disciplines and spoke of what is permanent. How much more authen-

tic could a transmission be when the realization of Buddhahood was

directly transmitted to [the second patriarch, Kāśyapa,] who under-

stood the meaning that Śākyamuni imparted by [silently] lifting a flower

by its stalk. Thus, at the moment when the fallen leaves (i.e., the sen-

sory faculties) returned to their source, he was gratified with the com-

pletion of the tasks he was given.

Whoever is trapped in the world of illusion is bound to reach its

end according to the universal fact of impermanence. Abiding in mul-

tiple illusions, one is obliged to return to what they really are; this is

called “ultimate quiescence.” Yet, the mysterious gem (i.e., the mind)

always illuminates turbidity and filth without discrimination, and the

precious moon does not avoid casting its reflection onto polluted water.

Great concentration has no limit in space and always abides through

myriads of kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges River. The one

who is perfectly endowed is able to respond anywhere and at any time,

manifesting myriads and myriads of forms of his body. Nevertheless,

we cannot forget the historical aspect of the Buddha and we feel that

his memory is ever more dear to us on this memorial day. We earnestly

wish: May the Buddha rectify wrong views entertained by those of us

who are remote descendants of his teaching, reverse the trend of this

degenerate period to that of Right Dharma in which both [supreme]

concentration and insight are equally practiced, and convert the Evil

One (Māra) and his entire clan to be leading protectors of the religion.

5. A Brief Biography of the Buddha

The Buddha was born on the continent of India. His family belonged to the noble class (kṣatriya), and his family name was Gautama. This Sanskrit name is translated as “Sweet Beet” in Chinese. The first ancestor, a royal sage, was shot with a hunter’s arrow. At his death, his blood flowed into the ground,

from which two sugarcane stalks sprouted. One grew into a male child called

King Gautama, and the other a female child called Queen Sumatī. Together

they bore a child who then became a universal ruler (cakravartin), turning the

wheel of governance over his realm. Because the king came from a descen-

dant of the sun, his race was also called “the sun’s race.” From that time, after

seven hundred generations, the lineage reached the time of King Śuddhodana.

Because [during his previous lifetimes] the Buddha had fulfilled meritorious

deeds for myriads of kalpas, he entered the womb of Queen Māyā by descend-

ing from the Tuṣita Heaven. He was born on the eighth day of the fourth month

in the twenty-sixth regnal year, Jia and Yin of King Shao (r. 1052–1001 B.C.E.)

of the Zhou dynasty. He was named Sarvasiddhārtha (“One Whose Every Goal

Has Been Accomplished”). On the seventh day after his birth, his mother died

and he was raised by his mother’s younger sister, Mahāprajāpatī.

At the age of twenty-five, Prince Siddhārtha left the palace and went

to the forest of the sage Bhārgava. He cut off his hair and became a men-

dicant. He exchanged his luxurious garments for a hunter’s clothing, crossed

the Ganges River to the south, and reached the hills of Gayā, where he prac-

ticed meditation and austerities. For six years, Siddhārtha toiled hard, main-

taining his endurance with only a single grain of hemp and rice [a day]. He

thought to himself that if he continued the ascetic way, heretics would claim

that self-abnegation is the way to reach nirvana. So, instead he bathed in the

Nairañjaṇā River and accepted a meal of milk-rice gruel from the cowherd

maiden Sujātā. The god Indra made a seat out of kuśa grass and bade him

sit on it cross-legged. [Māra,] the king of the evil ones, mobilized his army

to try to disrupt Siddhārtha’s meditation, but none of Māra’s attempts could

prevail in disrupting his determination. Thus, [Māra] departed after saluting

the Buddha with apologies and repentance. On the morning of the eighth

day of the second month, when he saw the morning star, Siddhārtha sud-

denly attained a great intuitive understanding and realized the highest path,

highest, perfect enlightenment (anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi). (Some tradi-

tions hold that this occurred on the eighth day of the twelfth month, the first

year of Zhengjian of Zhou; there are different interpretations in other tradi-

tions.) He was then thirty years old.

Immediately, the Buddha is said to have preached the Flower Ornament

Sutra at the seat of enlightenment (bodhimaṇḍa) in the forest of Magadha.

The listeners, [whose understanding] had not yet ripened, were unable to comprehend the teaching as if they were deaf and dumb. For three weeks, the Buddha meditated under various trees and thought of entering nirvana. Meanwhile Brahmā and Indra respectfully requested the Buddha three times to remain and teach what he had realized. Thus, the Buddha traveled to the Deer Park where he conducted the First Turning of the Great Wheel and taught the three vehicles (i.e., the śrāvakayāna, the pratyekabuddhayāna, and the bodhisattvayāna) initially to his five disciples, including Kauṇḍinya. Here he taught the Four Noble Truths, the twelve links of the chain of causation (pratītyasamutpāda), the six principles (pāramitās) of practice, and so forth.

Twelve years later, at the age of forty-two, the Buddha introduced a more advanced teaching, recorded in the general Mahayana texts (the Vaipulya sutras), and thereby was able to educate more disciples and consolidate a firm basis of his sangha. It was during this period that he criticized the shortcomings of the Hinayana and praised the perfect teaching of the Mahayana. From this time on, for thirty years, the Buddha taught the general Mahayana teachings in such texts as the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa-sūtra, the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, and so forth. By then, having reached his seventy-second year, he began to teach the Lotus Sutra and thereby entrusted his [evangelical] task to his disciples and assured their future realization of Buddhahood. Yet, in the following eight years, he continued to detail his original intent.

In the fifty-third regnal year of King Mu, year of Ren and Shen, at the age of seventy-nine, the Buddha for the first time visited the Tuṣita Heaven to preach for his mother. In his absence, King Udayana, who yearned for his master, ordered a golden image to be cast, and when the Buddha descended from heaven the golden statue is said to have welcomed his return. The Buddha’s aunt Mahāprajāpatī and her five hundred female followers, as well as such saintly disciples as Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, seventy thousand arhats, and so forth, felt unable to bear the passing of their master and hence passed away at the same time. The bodhisattvas, the four groups of followers (i.e., monks [bhikṣus], nuns [bhikṣuṇīs], laymen [upāsakas], and laywomen [upāsīkās]), the eight groups of demigods, and the kings of the birds and animals all assembled, while the Buddha allowed Cunda, a smith, to make the last food offering. For the sake of his disciples, the Buddha preached

the principles of impermanence (anitya), suffering (duḥkha), and emptiness

(śūnyatā).

The Buddha also announced that the supreme Right Dharma had already

been entrusted to his primary disciple Mahākāśyapa, and that Mahākāśyapa

would become a great refuge for the rest of the disciples in the same way as

the Tathāgata himself had been. He also knew that Ānanda had been way-

laid by the Evil One (Māra) outside the śāla forest, and he summoned Mañjuśrī

to call him back, saying that Ānanda was his brother who had served him