高僧傳 3.27

3.27

Later, Emperor Wen again ordered Huiguan and the others to urge and invite him further, whereupon he sailed by boat down to the capital, arriving in Jianye in the first month of the eighth year of Yuanjia (431 CE). Emperor Wen granted him an audience, greeted and questioned him attentively, and then said: 'This disciple has always wished to maintain the fast and refrain from killing, but constrained by sacrificing myself for worldly affairs, I have not been able to fulfill my intention. Since the Dharma Master did not consider ten thousand li too far and has come to transform this country, with what will you instruct me?' Guṇavarman said: 'The Way lies in the mind, not in outer matters; the Dharma comes from oneself, not from others. Moreover, the cultivation of an emperor and king differs from that of a common man. A common man's person is humble and his reputation minor, and his words and commands carry no authority; if he does not overcome himself and exert his body, what can he accomplish? An emperor takes the four seas as his home and the myriad people as his children; when he utters a single good word, men and women all rejoice, and when he issues a single benevolent policy, humans and spirits are harmonized. If punishments do not cut lives short and corvée labor does not exhaust physical strength, then the wind and rain will arrive in due season, cold and warmth will respond to the proper times, the hundred grains will flourish, and mulberry and hemp will grow luxuriant. Maintaining the fast in this way makes the fast great indeed! Refraining from killing in this way makes the virtue abundant indeed! Why must it depend on missing half a day's meal and preserving the life of a single bird before it can be considered vast deliverance?' The Emperor then patted the table and sighed, saying: 'Worldly people are confused by distant principles, while śramaṇas are stuck in near teachings. Those confused by distant principles consider the ultimate Way to be empty talk; those stuck in near teachings cling stubbornly to textual chapters. As for what the Dharma Master has said, it may truly be called enlightening and clear-sighted, worthy of discussing the boundary between heaven and humanity!' He then ordered that he reside at Jetavana Monastery, where provisions were lavishly supplied, and dukes, kings, and outstanding talents all honored and venerated him. Soon after, in the monastery, he began expounding the Lotus [Sūtra] and the Daśabhūmika. On the days of the Dharma assembly, canopied carriages filled the streets, and onlookers coming and going were shoulder to shoulder and heel to toe. Guṇavarman's spiritual capacity was natural, and his subtle eloquence was extraordinarily transcendent; sometimes relying on an interpreter, he nonetheless had profound and spontaneous mutual comprehension.