法華傳記 2.5

2.5

Now, when the primordial origin is profound and tranquil, the spiritual root is concentrated and unified; when it engages with movement and departs from simplicity, subtle and coarse are differently arrayed. Thereupon, the reins of the mind compete in urging onward, and defiled thoughts vie in racing ahead. As obscurations vary in depth, the dim and the bright mirror things differently. For this reason, from the first attainment of buddhahood down to this scripture, [the Buddha] initially adapted to beings by opening the ford; hence the three vehicles flowed forth separately. Because they are not the ultimate truth, in the end they must converge; because in converging they necessarily share the same source, the vehicle is only one. Because it is uniquely peerless, it is called the Wonderful Dharma. The verse says: "This vehicle is subtle, pure, supreme, / throughout all worlds having no superior." Now, the wonderful cannot be made clear on its own; it must be likened to an image. Among beautiful images, the lotus is supreme; among the finest of lotuses, the puṇḍarīka is the utmost. Expressing the wonder of the Dharma, it is therefore likened to the puṇḍarīka. This scripture illuminates this clearly. Dispelling delusion cannot be done by speaking of the ultimate directly; thus he explained the origins of provisional responses. Guiding beings to the end cannot be done by keeping the profound concealed; thus he revealed the real to manifest the ultimate principle. Once the provisional response was made manifest, narrow minds were spontaneously aroused; once the ultimate principle was revealed, true awakening spontaneously arose. Thus it can make the ten thousand streams flow together and cause the three vehicles to advance in unison. The three advancing in unison converging to become one is the beginning of the vehicle; the fulfillment of awakening wisdom is the flourishing of the vehicle; the extinguishing of traces and clarifying of the spirit is the culmination of the vehicle. Although the myriad dharmas constitute the vehicle, they are governed by a single master; if one holds up its essential principle, wisdom subsumes its name. Therefore the scripture takes true wisdom as its substance and the wonderful unity as its designation. Thus, when Śākyamuni's profound voice first sounded, he praised the Buddha's wisdom as extremely profound; Prabhūtaratna exclaimed "Excellent!" and lauded the great wisdom of equality. The verse says: "It is to preach the Buddha's wisdom / that the Buddhas appear in the world. / Only this one matter is real; / the other two are not true." If so, then the Buddha's wisdom is the exact reality of the One, the completion of the vehicle's substance, the ultimate fulfillment of the wonderful, and the blossoming splendor of the lotus. Although relying on the lotus to proclaim the subtle, the Dao is profound beyond forms; called wonderful, its essence transcends the fine and the coarse. The verse says: "This Dharma cannot be shown; / the marks of words are extinguished." This is where the two vehicles halt their thoughts, and the bodhisattvas of the stage of one more birth sever defilement. Only a Buddha together with a Buddha can fathom it completely. Therefore the Tathāgatas, numerous as the sands of the Ganges, gathered like clouds in response to the rare voice; the sages already passed away shook their remaining spirits to manifest proof. That this scripture is truly the profound sanctuary of the Buddha's Dharma, the wonderful realm of spiritual exhaustion, does it not refer to this? In my youth I studied the words on returning to the One, and as I grew I savored the essential principle of harmonization and comprehension. Yet the more diligently I contemplated, the more concealed the obscure import became. Never did I fail to look toward Gṛdhrakūṭa with longing, or approach its sentences and phrases with deepening emotion. Truly this was because offshoot expositions diverged from the root, and erroneous texts departed from the correct. There was the foreign Dharma Master Kumārajīva, extraordinarily eminent and heroic, of extraordinary insight endowed by Heaven. His capacity was deep as the ocean; his eloquence flowed like scattering jade. Following in Śākyamuni's footsteps to inherit his model, holding the divine torch to illuminate brightly, he restored the fallen net when it was about to break, and saved those drifting and drowning when already submerged. Blazing forth this lamp of wisdom, he came to illuminate this land. In the summer of the eighth year of Hongshi under the Qin, at the Great Monastery in Chang'an, he assembled more than three thousand doctrinal monks from the four directions to bring forth this scripture anew and investigate it thoroughly with the assembly. Kumārajīva personally held the foreign text and orally translated it into the language of Qin, accommodating the local idioms without diverging from the original intent; the benefit gained from the text itself was already more than half. Even if high clouds disperse their veils and the sunlight shines forth together, it would not suffice as an analogy. Kumārajīva still remarked: "The words are evident while the principle is deep; the events are immediate while the import is far-reaching." He further explained the hidden meaning beyond words to meet the search of those probing the depths. Though the obscure doors have not yet opened, one has indeed already found the gateway. Now, superior goodness moistens equally, and the spiritual liquid is ever impartial. Therefore, looking upward I am moved by the entrustment, and looking downward I lament those who have not yet heard it. Thus I have gathered and stated the essentials, circulating them among those who have not heard, hoping that the wheel of Dharma will roll afar, reaching where it has not reached before, so that beings throughout the ten directions may awaken together and fully express the One Vehicle. Therefore I have composed this preface (from Fascicle 8 of the Chu sanzang ji ji).