唐護法沙門法琳別傳 2.9

2.9

the Celestial Hearing. Unable to bring about my own demise, I merely cling to my remaining breath. Yet Your Excellency deigned to bestow your pure appreciation; how could Lin remain silent? With clumsy effort, I have composed a meager verse in reply, which runs: / Shuye lamented his hidden indignation; / Chensi suffered in blaming himself. / As for me, having missed my season today, / I am vainly akin to the ancients. / In the deep grass, it is hard to see the sun; / From the distant pine, the wind readily arrives. / For those who grasp the meaning beyond the words, / Who again can avoid adversity and success? / Mao Mingsu looked upon the Dharma master's poem and was astonished, asking to form the three friendships and deeply admiring the two difficulties. Su said: "Alas, how late I have come to know you!" In winter, the tenth month, on the day guihai, because the great assembly of Xingshan Monastery sent fine delicacies to the Dharma master, the Dharma master wrote a letter in thanks, saying: "I am honored by the morning meal you have brought, and on bent knees with sincere reverence, I receive it. Not only is it lustrous like jade liquid, but its fragrance also outvies the sweetness of orchids. Filled with gratitude, I look up to your benevolent forgiveness; its flavors have halted my emaciated exhaustion. Fortunate indeed! Fortunate indeed! I humbly trust that the great assembly's demeanor and deeds accord with the auspiciousness and peace of the season. Lin is truly without talent, having unworthily slipped into the dark-robed ranks. In the shifting turns of square and round, I found nowhere to lodge myself. Unable to stand above the throng, I ultimately met with the calamity that imperiled my person; unable to soften the light and mingle with the dust, I finally suffered an unaccountable punishment. In vain do I again clasp my knees, chant at length, feeling ashamed before my soul and condoling with my shadow. From this, I know that for those who eat the dregs and drink the lees, the integrity of the pine and cypress becomes ever more steadfast; for those who stir the mud and raise the waves, the fragrance of the lotus and osmanthus becomes ever purer. As for Lin, what kind of man am I? Naturally lacking the art of flattering court, unversed in making formal visits, I have both invited the slander of mediocre men and stepped into the tracks of lowest folly. Compared to the one who guarded his heels or dragged his tail, how vastly have I missed the mark! Moreover, the realized person has no yearning for glory; the Great Way adheres to keeping the role of the female. When the spring is pure yet the well leaks, how can one not feel sorrow? I was just about to conceal my shadow among precipitous crags and quell my voice in a secluded valley, wandering freely amid the white clouds, strolling under the green pines, inspecting the Grove of Wisdom in the morning and lodging in the Forest of Dhyāna at evening, whiling away these remaining years, unfettering my heart beyond worldly things. Since this wish is unfulfilled, how could I not feel troubled? Yet a prisoner's thoughts are agitated, words exhausted, and reasons scarce. I have merely used brush and ink to express my humble sentiments. But a foot of silk is easily filled, while the inch-wide heart is hard to exhaust." In winter, the tenth month, on the day bingshen, an edict dispatched Liu Dewei, Minister of Justice; Linghu Defen, Vice Minister of Rites; Wei Cong, Attendant Censor; Mao Mingsu, Minister of Works; and others to conduct an interrogation at the prefecture. They then asked the Dharma master, saying: "Shaving the hair and turning the heart to cold ashes requires tranquility; leaving household life and abandoning the mundane world must accord with the principle of non-action. You ought to conceal your tracks in the four dhyānas and lodge your spirit in the six pāramitās, discarding the dregs of the Confucians and Mohists and honoring the blossoms of the partial and complete [teachings]. Why then did you give rein to your intentions among the Nine Schools and entangle your heart with the Five Classics, extensively citing the Three Teachings to recount the rise and fall of governing ways, fully enumerating the Ten Rulers to indicate the superior and inferior in veneration? You sometimes recounted the priority of Buddhism and Daoism, and occasionally discussed the master-disciple relations of the Śākya and the Li. Extensively presenting the ten parables and nine admonitions, you vigorously argued that qi is the root of the Dao; speaking of faith and vilification, you set forth vivid mutual retributions; discussing classifications and appraisals, you ran through various texts. How could a monk know the errors of the Daoists? Devoting yourself to following the Buddha was entirely of your own taking; you are ordered to reveal everything in full. As for the origin of composing the treatise, you studied the heterodox and lingered there; if you have no defense, then your guilt is established." The Dharma master replied: "Lin has heard that the All-knowing One, named Siddhārtha, manifested births through dust-mote kalpas and paid homage to the many sages to study exhaustively. He sometimes displayed dwelling as a non-Buddhist, or manifested as a Confucian scholar, responding to fellow beings to guide ordinary people, and transforming creatures by assuming different forms. Only then was he called the Unsurpassed One and named the God among Gods. Deigning to leave his tracks in the Sahā world, his teachings flowed through sand-like realms. Sometimes relying on calm dhyāna to realize the Way, his heart was opened with wise understanding, bringing about the preaching of Dharma to save people and supernatural powers to transform creatures. But because sentient beings' conditions and awakenings are varied and dissimilar, he unfolded their minds with the partial teachings and complete teachings, and expounded the Way through the One Vehicle and Three Vehicles. To lead each to understand according to capacity—was not the intention here? Therefore, the Buddha commanded that among the twelve double-hours, one should study the heterodox for one double-hour, wishing to subdue rival factions and guide the worldly stream, progressing from shallow conditions to deep, with loving words and shared endeavors. Therefore, the Treatise on Comprehensive Study of the Inner Scriptures says: 'In the heavens, forming images, they become the sun and moon, yet their essences differ in firmness and gentleness; on earth, forming shapes, they become mountains and rivers, yet their qi differs in movement and stillness. As it is with things, so it is with humans. Thus, for the deportment of head and feet, one walks on the square [earth] and wears the round [sky]; for the operation of nature and feeling, it is gloomy in yin and expansive in yang. Honoring our sentience, among spiritual beings we are paramount; our mental conducts are not uniform, and our tastes and desires are not the same. Thus, endowed thinly or endowed richly, fools and worthies are naturally divided; without mindful reflection or with mindful reflection, the mad and the sage are separated. Where branching roads intersect, one weeps at the refusal to pluck a single hair; as the silk's color changes, one sorrows at not sparing to rub the head smooth. Truly, benefiting creatures follows many paths, and enriching the self employs different methods. Once the Nine Schools branched out, the hundred philosophers rose up in competition. The Confucians and Daoists regard ritual and music as disorderly spirits, while the Nine Immortals are held as chaotic gods; the Daoists take emptiness and mystery as their business, regarding the Six Classics as a loss of virtue; the School of Names and Legalists esteem severity, while the Vertical and Horizontal Alliancists prize disputation. Confucius declined to speak of military campaigns, and Duke Liu was drowned in a Confucian cap. Confined to one school, dullness stems from verses and commentary; stringing together compositions, the fault lies in superficiality. Worldly people liken the inner scriptures to nihilism; monks compare external books to chaff and bran. Preserving minor rules, they abandon the vaipulya; practicing the Great Way, they discard the vinaya. Wise men arrogantly assume the honor of leading to merit; meditators claim the treasury of guarding wisdom. Diverse and discordant teachings cannot be fully spoken of; when each suits what is fitting, how could one allow not studying them? Fond of conformity and loathing difference, clinging to delusion without returning—this is truly the cause of great sighs. Rarely realizing the comprehensive method, how lacking in understanding they are! How can it compare to combining the refined and the unadorned, integrating the secular and the true, widely perusing the various books and encompassing the diverse arts? Only the Benevolent and Capable One's all-encompassing knowledge surpassed ancient and modern times. Thus, there was the rustic of Rājagṛha who tested him with the secret of herding cattle, and the brāhmaṇa of the Jetavana who examined him with the marvel of counting leaves. His vast opening of the pattra leaves is truly difficult to detail. Therefore, the youth Sudhana sought spiritual friends without remiss, and the elder Jīvaka was devoted to learning and thereby achieved mastery. Indeed, not discarding a single speck of dust builds the vastness of the mountain of virtue; not leaving out a drop of water accumulates the greatness of the ocean of wisdom. Thus, there were Nāgārjuna of magnificent capacity and Aśvaghoṣa of profound virtue, who propagated the Way in their time and transmitted their fragrance for a thousand generations. As for Dao'an recognizing the cauldron of Lantian, and Falan discerning the ashes of Kunming; Senghui's speech and demeanor being clear and lofty, and Huiyuan's spiritual countenance being uninhibited and refined—all these were leaders of ancestral manners and models for later followers. How could it merely be Fangshuo who commanded fame through his manifold abilities, or Zhang Hua who became celebrated through his extensive erudition? I have heard that red salt invites the ridicule of ignorance, and the white pigeon gives rise to the taunt of unknowing. When there are versatile scholars who study comprehensively, they may be free of such shame. In my humble view, when virtue encompasses both the inner and outer, the various heterodoxies revere one's wind and withdraw their tracks; when understanding penetrates both the Great and Small [Vehicles], disparate capacities behold one's radiance and incline toward it. If one has not mastered the Lesser Teaching, one's wisdom-category will be insufficient; if one's external learning is deficient, one will still violate the chapters of precepts. Therefore, skillfully ornamenting literary expressions originally perfects the virtue of the four analytical knowledges; subtly mastering sounds and rhymes truly belongs to the methods of the five sciences. Yet while the Avataṃsaka reproaches much learning, and the Lotus Sutra cautions against close association, when I examine myself for lack of attachment, am I not quite different from them? It is not to hawk myself and vie for fame, or boast to the contemporary world; I merely wish to aid the True Path and provide resources for Right Awakening. If even Lord Tian's low-seat performers could still save the day, and the petty counting techniques of the men of Qi could still achieve their ends, how much more so for those who polish literary refinement and transmit morality? Just as metal, stone, silk, and bamboo all make pleasing music to the ear, and oranges, pomelos, hawthorns, and pears are all delicious tastes to the palate; the metaphor of the high mountain refers to the First Ground, and the Overcoming-the-Difficult follows the ways of the world. Thus, refined tradition has not fallen, and the culture is preserved herein! I hope to enable monks to combine worldly texts so as not to abruptly abandon the ancient mounds and graves, and Confucians to understand the Buddhist lineage so as not to slight the precepts and samādhi. Therefore it is said: 'The great being studies comprehensively; the versatile person hears widely.' How could they be like those solitary and narrow persons who guard a restricted mind? However, the reason Lin composed the Bianzheng lun had its origin. Formerly, in the mid-winter month of the fourth year of Wude, I obtained the Shiyi jiumi composed by Li Zhongqing, a Daoist of Qingxu Belvederes, and treatises such as the Xianzhen by Liu Jinxi, which insulted the Great Sage, blinded sentient beings, and falsely cited ancient canons to gloss over wrongs and make them seem right. Lin was lamented their lack of knowledge and pitied those innocent people. I therefore extensively collected the Nine Schools and composed a treatise in eight fascicles, describing the Three Teachings with the intention of clarifying what benefits the state. Indicating the ten eras was meant to display veneration. Relying on historical records, I discerned priority; based on instructions and admonitions, I clarified respect for the teachers. The ten parables refuted his ten differences; the nine admonitions broke his nine delusions. That qi is the root of the Dao is entirely found in the canons; faith and vilification are clearly shown, not without factual records. But Lin was formerly a Daoist and knows their fallacies in detail; thoroughly understanding that the Buddhist teachings are venerated by Confucius and Laozi, how could my devotion be of my own taking? Since principle aligns and matters are in accord, purity is made manifest; when the origin is shown, the delay is explained." Wei and the others again asked the Dharma master, saying: "Zhongqing's treatise on superiority and inferiority had only nineteen articles, and Jinxi's text of Xianzhen was merely one fascicle; nor did they falsely set forth good and bad or extensively cite emperors and kings. Why then were the words of the Bianzheng so tangled and contentious as this? Falsely citing the imperial academy, you merely constructed hollow words and falsely presented bodhisattvas and Confucian scholars without any factual basis. You only wished to analogize the ancient with the present, intending to criticize. We order you to state everything accurately without concealment." The Dharma master replied: "Lin has heard: Wuyou and Wangshi displayed Sima's rhetoric; the Child of Ink and Hanlin belonged to Yang Xiong's rhapsodies. Next, there were those of profound subtlety and keen discernment who transmitted magnificent prose in their day, and those who gave themselves to splendor and vast detachment, demonstrating literary mastery in former times. Since the canons are like this, how could Lin be different? If one does not borrow them to establish the theme, how could one fully exhaust the meaning to the end? Therefore, I initially presented the Three Teachings to recount the reason for writing the treatise; next, I displayed the nine admonitions to answer Zhongqing's arguments. Among them, there were also ancient perplexities common to all, which were explained and resolved through the treatise. Later, in the mid-spring month of the eighth year of Wude,