佛祖統紀 49.9

49.9

Now, what does calming and contemplation accomplish? It guides the principle of all phenomena so that they return to the ultimate reality. What is this ultimate reality? It is the origin of [one's] nature. What prevents beings from returning [to it] is the doing of delusion and agitation. That which illumines delusion is called clarity; that which arrests agitation is called stillness. Clarity and stillness are the essence of calming and contemplation. In the cause, they are called calming and contemplation; in the fruit, they are called wisdom and concentration. The cause is called practice; the fruit is called realization. The practitioner is the one who practices this; realization is the realization of this. Probing the origin: the sage perceived that emotions are enough to destroy one's resolve and agitation is enough to lose one's direction. Thereupon, he calmed and contemplated it, stilled and illumined it, enabling them to be still while active, and clear while still. Depending on mutual opposition, teachings are formed; directly transcending opposition, the source is illumined. He set up the great carriage to steer the true vehicle; major matters being many, he synthesized the expedient means. Restoring and transforming in the arena of non-duality, he inspired movement in the realm of explaining the three. Reaching the utmost subtlety to fully fathom nature; reaching the utmost profundity to embody the spirit. Speaking of what is near, even a single hair's breadth of goodness can penetrate it; speaking of what is distant, the gate of profound mystery can be peered into. Employing the utmost roundness to make them round, things have no bias; employing the utmost reality to make them real, things have no falsehood. The sage raised his words in order to reveal; he broadened his headings in order to inform. Gentle and yielding, he made them seek it themselves; deliberating and discussing, he made them attain it themselves. This is how calming and contemplation came to be composed. Now, what are the three truths? They are spoken of as the one. What are the empty, the provisional, and the middle? They are the designations of the one. The empty and the provisional are mutually relative meanings; the Middle Way is the name for attaining the one. These are teachings of conceptual thought, not the import of the ultimate one. The ultimate one is precisely the three; the ultimate three are precisely the one. It is not that they contain each other, nor that they produce each other; it is not a matter of number, nor an arbitrary designation. It is the principle of nature. That which is transmitted in words is the traces. Principle is called the root; traces are called the branches. The root is the realm attained by the sage; the branches are the teachings shown by the sage. Deriving traces from the root, there are the small, the great, the shared, the distinct, the sudden, the gradual, the exoteric, the esoteric, the provisional, the real, the definite, and the indefinite. Tracing the traces to return to the root, there are the one, the great, the round, the real, the non-abiding, the middle, the wondrous, and the ultimate truth. This is the storehouse of the three and the one. The so-called 'empty' is spoken of as comprehending all phenomena; the 'provisional' is spoken of as establishing all phenomena; the 'middle' is spoken of as making all phenomena wondrous. In destroying all delusions, nothing is greater than the empty; in establishing all phenomena, nothing is greater than the provisional; in thoroughly penetrating all natures, nothing is greater than the middle. If the middle is raised, then no phenomenon is not the middle; if the provisional is designated, then no phenomenon is not provisional; if the empty is raised, then no phenomenon is not empty. When perfected, they are called the three virtues; when cultivated, they are called the three contemplations. To state the essentials: is this not the sage's teaching that plumbs the depths, investigates the minute, exhausts principle, and completely realizes nature? It makes the ignorant clear and the obstructed unblocked. Unblocked, then there is awakening; awakened, then there is attainment; attained, then there is constancy; constant, then there is exhaustion [of delusion]. Clear, then there is illumination; illumined, then there is transformation; transformed, then there is perfection; perfected, then there is oneness. The sage encompassed all phenomena without error, spanned myriad kalpas without omission, sheltered and carried [beings like] the sands of the Ganges without possessing them, and returned to nothingness without being nothing. By provisional designation he is called Buddha; as a makeshift title he is called the Awakened One. Probing his essential intent: is not his liberation and self-mastery the greatest of exceedingly wondrous virtues? Such is the accomplishment of the three contemplations. What is called the round and sudden is neither gradual nor indefinite; it refers to the meaning of the ten chapters in the treatise. The ten chapters are the gateways for comprehensively expounding the beginning and the end to open up the path. The five summaries are the fords that present the great outlines to cut off the flow. The ten objects are the triggers that set things in motion and the truths that establish contemplation. The ten vehicles are the gates through which the wondrous functioning is cultivated and practice is brought forth. To stop at the correct contemplation and conclude with the object of [false] views is because the meaning is complete. Omitting the rest is because they are not essentials for cultivation. What is a vehicle? It carries things and moves them forward. What are the ten? They are the things that complete the task of carrying. Knowing the wondrousness of the object and arriving without traveling: this is the highest virtue. One merely rides the one; how could one rely upon the nine? The nine are nothing other than an exposition of mutual production, trodden by those who have not yet arrived. Therefore, when generating the mind, it is generated without anything generated; when pacifying the mind, it is pacified without anything pacified; when breaking through universally, it is broken through without anything broken through. Coming to the remaining vehicles, they are all spoken of only because it could not be helped. As for distinguishing its doctrinal points and dividing them into chapters and headings: extending and broadening them is not too elaborate; synthesizing and summarizing them is not too brief. Like interlocking rings, they cannot be unfastened; like a string of pearls, they cannot be mixed up; like a suspended mirror, it cannot be covered; like an open river, it cannot be dammed. The doctrinal masters have many approaches, but they are not contentious disputes. Adducing sūtras to verify meanings is not empty talk. Distinguishing the shallow and deep of the four teachings, phenomena have a source. Completing the causes and conditions of a single event, principle is without omission. Ah, calming and contemplation: is it not a book to save the world and illumine the Way? Were it not for sage-like wisdom, transcendent and outstandingly independent, who could have composed it? Were it not for deep intelligence that penetrates meanings and forgets symbols, who could understand it? People today exclusively rely on verses, phrases, and written words to interpret it; how negligent they are! Some claim that the inconceivable object and inconceivable phenomena are all the realm of the ultimate sage, which even the superior beings of equal enlightenment have not yet exhausted; if ordinary mortals, whose minds and mental activities are subject to arising and ceasing, and whose three delusions are turbulent, infer the supremely wondrous principle from within spoken words, it is like a mustard-seed bug speaking of the great Peng bird, or a summer insect discussing layers of ice. That they cannot see it is clear indeed! Now, the words of calming and contemplation number in the tens of thousands; broadly discussing the ground of fruition is of no benefit to beginners. How could it compare to quietly cultivating oneself, where once effort reaches its peak, one will naturally arrive? Why must one make early calculation one's business? This is greatly mistaken. Is the so-called realm of the supreme sage really distant and remote, separated from the realm of the ordinary like heaven from earth? It is only one single nature: attaining it is called awakening; losing it is called delusion. It is only one single principle: in delusion it is an ordinary person; in awakening it is a sage. The deluded separate themselves; principle does not separate them. The lost lose it themselves; the nature is not lost. The composition of Calming and Contemplation is precisely to distinguish identity and difference and probe into the sage and divine, enabling all living beings to rectify their nature and accord with principle. Rectifying nature and according with principle is how one walks the path of awakening and arrives at the wondrous realm. If one does not know this teaching, where can learning enter? Where can effort be applied? Where can wisdom arise? It is like being without eyes and blind to the light of the sun and moon, walking in places of double danger, stumbling and falling—how could it be fully recorded? Ah! Long has it been since the sage passed away, and worthy men do not appear. The mediocre and confused are merely conscious beings, causing demonic heresies and deceptive confusions of various factions to flare up together, chattering about emptiness and existence, becoming pits and snares. There are those glued to texts and phrases, not daring to move; there are those drifting in surging waves, unable to stay; there are those who think it is too distant and willingly accept never arriving; there are those who think it is too close and believe their own body is already it; there are those like dry wood who call it concentration; there are those who howl through cavities and call it wisdom; there are those who rush along improper paths and speak of expedient means; there are those who rely on ghosts and spirits and speak of supernormal penetrations; there are those of unbridled mind who consider it broadness; there are those of rare speech who consider it esotericism; there are those who transmit things privately between tooth and tongue as secret oral instructions. All such types set themselves up as patriarchs and carry on the patriarchs to establish schools, opposing the scriptures and going against the sages, while the ignorant remain unaware. Zhongni had a saying: 'That the Way is not understood—I know the reason: it is due to the burden of external things.' How sorrowful! In the seventeenth year of the Kaihuang reign of the Sui, the Great Master passed away. To the Jianzhong reign of our imperial dynasty, it has been nearly two hundred years. In transmitting these writings, there have been five lineage masters in all. The first was Guanding; the next was Jinyun Wei; the next was Dongyang Wei; the next was Venerable Lang of Zuoxi; the fifth was Venerable Ran of Jingxi. Master Ding was foremost in wisdom and understanding among his fellow disciples; he was able to uphold the master's instructions and compile this book, which was precisely because he did not take ornate literary phrasing as primary. Sometimes it errs on the side of being cumbersome; sometimes its merit is rustic. During the time of the two Weis, it was merely sealed and passed on; the Way was not practiced. In the Tianbao reign, Zuoxi first broadly explained it, but those who understood were few indeed. Jingxi expanded it with records amounting to hundreds of thousands of words, gathering up the remaining teachings—how diligent! How complete! After Jingxi's demise, there were barely three or four people who understood his explanations. The ancients said: 'Those who are born with knowledge are the highest; those who learn and so have knowledge are the next; those who learn after being vexed by difficulties are yet the next.' Those who are born with knowledge possess it through the virtue of their nature. Those who learn and so have knowledge have deep natural capability. If cravings are deep and ears and eyes are obstructed, even if they study they cannot know; these are the lowest. Today's students are afflicted within by obscurity and driven without by complexity; to the end of their lives they cannot penetrate its text, and for years cannot gain its benefit. Thus, the phrasing of the text becomes their stocks and shackles, and tangled sentences become chaff blown into their eyes to blind them. With teachers who cannot explain teaching disciples who do not comprehend, this is why calming and contemplation has not yet shone brightly in our time. I have always been distressed by this. Thereupon, I rearranged its great outlines and gathered its essential points. Where principle resides and where the teaching is urgent, I either transposed or expanded them. Where the meaning was rambling or the phrasing vulgar, I either pruned or polished them. Of the defects of superficiality and sloppiness, nine out of ten have been cured; of the appropriateness of expansion and brevity, one out of three has been preserved. This is to dispel vulgarity and stagnation, and to guide children. To present it to others—how would I dare? But if those of shared views and shared practice do not condemn me on account of calming and contemplation, then I have concealed nothing either. In the first year of the Jianzhong reign, the cyclical year jiazi, I began the work of editing; in the third year, when the year was at the Ford of Ximu, the task was completed, and that is all.