佛祖歷代通載 5.65

5.65

The treatise states: Master Mou's Treatises on Settling Doubts has thirty-seven chapters, and Vinaya Master Sengyou of the Liang recorded them in the Hongming ji, so it may truly be called of ancient origin. Observing how he esteemed virtue, resolved doubts, warded off depravity, and withstood insults, displaying the brilliant radiance of the great teaching, he was indeed a gentleman of vast learning and extensive knowledge. At that time, when the source of our Buddhist Dharma was just beginning to stir, of all the monks from the Western Regions who arrived in China, from Shemoteng and Zhu Falan down, there were no more than ten individuals. The newly translated scriptures numbered more than three hundred scrolls, all belonging to the teachings of the Hīnayāna. As for the subtle and wondrous scriptures of the Mahāyāna, none of them had yet arrived. Yet Master Mou was able through profound insight and keen awakening to accord with the Buddha's mind-essential and attain the flavor of the Dharma to such a depth. Compared to such figures as Mi Heng, Chen Yuanlong, and Kong Beihai at the end of the Han, who vainly bore extraordinary talents but ultimately never heard the Dao and died as nothing more than common worldly scholars, Master Mou was truly worthy! It is regrettable that his book cannot be recorded in full, so I have merely selected twenty chapters to supplement and complete this general discussion. In general, as for the delusions of the world, even when the Bhagavān was in the world, they could not be entirely absent; how much less can one expect the entire world to be uniformly full of correct faith now that we are more than two thousand years removed from the Sage? Is that even possible? Even so, this book must by no means fail to be transmitted to future generations.