[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [勅修百丈清規](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt) › 8.4 # 勅修百丈清規 8.4 English (machine translation) 8.4 - **Language:** English ### [8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt.8.4) 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! - [Previous: 8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt.8.3) - [Next: 8.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt.8.5) - [Up: 8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt.8) ## Linked texts (1) - [勅修百丈清規](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025.8.4) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt.8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt.8.4) · Pramāṇa