宋高僧傳 22.32

22.32

The appraisal says: Liu Qianzhi, an inner attendant of the Northern Qi, followed a prince to Mount Wutai to burn his body. As Qianzhi practiced the Way for seven days, he miraculously regained the form of a man and covertly comprehended the meaning of the Avataṃsaka, whereupon he composed a commentary in six hundred fascicles, which has long been lost. When Elder Li's transformation spread in the Jin lands, his divine transformations were limitless, completely stemming from manifesting in this body to preach the Dharma. Some say: 'Li's commentary adds the ten assemblies, which the scripture itself lacks. Does deriving understanding based on Sanskrit letters not mistake mere names? How could this be an Elder preaching the Dharma?' The answer is: 'The ten assemblies exist in principle; we should await scriptures that arrive later. His explanation of namo says that it represents the empty center of the hexagram li—this is matching the Dharma with mind-contemplation. Only when one knows that encountering anything is mind does one comprehend the mind-nature. Therefore the sūtra says: "Knowing that all things are of the self-nature of the mind, one then accomplishes the wisdom-body without relying on the enlightenment of others." This is the suchness of mind and objects; suchness is equal and unobstructed. Looking at Li's comprehensive classification of teachings, could he fail to know the meaning of the Chinese language? I once heard that the Youzhou monk Huiming collected various apocryphal scriptures together with the Avataṃsaka Treatise and burned them together, simply because their Dharma-doors were incompatible. Apocryphal scriptures can be burned, but Li's treatise was hard to incinerate; his is not the realm of lesser sages. This is just like the doctrines of Yang and Mo opposing Confucianism, while those who wander beyond the world in turn resent Confucius and Mencius; water and fire abhor each other, with no end. If you ask a man of thorough understanding, he will say: let each group advance side by side, without displacing the other's order.'