勅修百丈清規 8.4

8.4

上古之世有化而無教。化不足而禮樂作焉。擊壤之歌不如九成之奏。窪樽之飲不若五齊之醇。然文生於質貴乎本也。吾天竺聖人最初示化。謂人人妙覺本無凡聖。物物全真寧有淨穢。無假修證不涉功用。而昧者茫然自失。若聾瞽焉。於是隨機設教擊犍椎。以集眾演之為三藏。修之為禪定。迄于四十九年而化儀終矣。梵語犍椎凡瓦木銅鐵之有聲者。若鍾磬鐃鼓椎板螺唄。叢林至今倣其制而用之。于以警昏怠。肅教令導幽滯而和神人也。若夫大定常應大用常寂。聞非有聞覺亦非覺。以考以擊玄風載揚。無思無為化日自永。雍雍乎仁壽之域。清泰之都矣。

In the high antiquity of the world, there was transformation without formal teaching; when transformation was insufficient, rites and music arose. The song of hitting the ground with clods did not equal the music of the Nine Accomplishments; drinking from hollowed rocks did not match the mellow brew of the five clarified wines. Yet culture arises from natural substance, and value resides in the fundamental. When our Indian Sage first revealed transformation, he held that everyone's wondrous awakening is fundamentally devoid of the ordinary and the sacred, and that the complete truth of every thing admits of neither purity nor defilement. It does not rely on cultivation and realization, nor does it involve purposeful effort. Yet the ignorant were utterly lost and confounded, as if deaf and blind. Thereupon, in accordance with capacities he instituted teachings and struck the gaṇḍī, thereby assembling the multitude, expounding it as the Three Pitakas, and cultivating it as meditative concentration, until after forty-nine years the deportment of transformation came to an end. The Sanskrit word gaṇḍī applies generally to anything made of earthenware, wood, bronze, or iron that produces sound, such as bells, chiming stones, cymbals, drums, clappers, boards, conches, and chanting. Monastic groves down to the present day imitate their design and use them, thereby startling the dull and indolent, solemnizing teachings and commands, guiding the dark and obstructed, and harmonizing the spiritual and human. As for great samādhi constantly responding and great function constantly tranquil, hearing is not an existing hearing and awareness is not an awareness. Struck and beaten, the mysterious style is proclaimed; without thought and without action, the days of transformation naturally endure. How harmonious—the realm of benevolence and longevity, the city of pure peace!