[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) › [高僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059) › 1.18 # 高僧傳 1.18 高僧傳 1.18 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [1.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059.1.18) 曇柯迦羅，此云法時，本中天竺人。家世大富，常修梵福。迦羅幼而才悟，質像過人，讀書一覽，皆文義通暢。善學《四圍陀論》，風雲星宿圖讖運變，莫不該綜，自言天下文理，畢己心腹。至年二十五，入一僧坊，看遇見《法勝毘曇》，聊取覽之，茫然不解，殷懃重省，更增惛漠，乃歎曰：「吾積學多年，浪志墳典，遊刃經籍，義不再思，文無重覽。今覩佛書，頓出情外，必當理致鉤深，別有精要。」於是齎卷入房，請一比丘略為解釋，遂深悟因果，妙達三世，始知佛教宏曠，俗書所不能及。乃棄捨世榮，出家精苦，誦大小乘經及諸部《毘尼》。 > Dharmakāla, translated here as 'Dharmatime', was originally a man of Madhyadeśa. His family had been very wealthy for generations and constantly cultivated pure merit. From his youth, Dharmakāla possessed talent and insight, and his bearing exceeded that of ordinary people; with a single glance at a text, he fully understood both words and meaning. He was skilled in studying the Four Vedas, and in the wind and clouds, stars and constellations, charts and prognostica, and cyclic revolutions, there was nothing he did not master; he said of himself that all the literary principles under heaven were completely within his mind and belly. When he reached the age of twenty-five, he entered a monastery and chanced upon the Abhidharmasāra (Faxing pidan); he idly took it up to read, but was utterly bewildered and could not comprehend it. Examining it again with care, he grew all the more confused. Thereupon he sighed and said: 'For many years I have accumulated learning, letting my ambition roam across the ancient classics, wielding my blade through the scriptures and histories; of their principles, I never needed a second thought, and of their texts, I never needed a second reading. Now, seeing this Buddhist book, it completely transcends my understanding; its principles and subtleties must reach into the profound, possessing a separate, refined essence.' Thereupon, bringing the scroll into a room, he asked a monk to explain it briefly. He then deeply awoke to cause and effect, wonderfully comprehended the three realms of time, and for the first time knew that the Buddhist teaching was vast and expansive, beyond what secular books could reach. He therefore abandoned worldly glory, left home (pravrajyā) in ascetic practice, and recited the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna scriptures and the Vinaya of the various schools. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 1.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059.1.17) - [Next: 1.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059.1.19) - [Up: 1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059.1) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059~en-mt.1.18) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (2) - [貞元新定釋教目錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2157.2.11) — 圓照, Classical Chinese - [開元釋教錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2154.1.20) — 智昇, Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059.1.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059.1.18) · Pramāṇa