景德傳燈錄 13.45.2

13.45.2

Because errors are many, those who study the sūtras and treatises also harbour much doubt and slander. In fundamental truth, when the Buddha spoke of sudden and gradual teachings, Chan opened sudden and gradual gates; the two teachings and the two gates tally with each other. Today, the lecturers exclusively promote the meaning of the gradual, while the followers of Chan exclusively propagate the sudden school. When Chan followers and lecturers meet, they are as alienated as the Hu and the Yue. I, Zongmi, do not know what I did in past lives to have perfumed this mind: not yet liberated myself, I wish to untie the bonds of others; for the Dharma I forget body and life, and pity for people touches my deepest feelings. (Just as the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa says: 'If one is oneself bound, to be able to untie the bonds of others is impossible.' Yet wishing to stop, I cannot, proving that past habitual tendencies are hard to change.) I always lament that people diverge from the Dharma and that the Dharma becomes a sickness for people. Therefore I specially compiled commentaries on the sūtras, vinaya, and treatises, opened wide the gate of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, demonstrated that sudden awakening is aided by gradual cultivation, and proved that the masters' teachings tally with the Buddha's intent. Since the intent is thoroughly explained from root to branch, the texts are vast and difficult to search through. Although superficial students are many, those who carry on the aspiration are few; moreover, when tracks tread among names and characteristics, who can distinguish gold from brass? In vain one wearies oneself without seeing responsive capacity. Although the Buddha said that increased compassion is this practice, I personally worried that the views of self and attachment would be hard to guard against. Thereupon I left the community, entered the mountains, practiced concentration, and balanced wisdom. In succession I quelled thoughts for ten years in total. (What is said of 'in total' means: midway through, by imperial order he was summoned to court and lived in the city for two years, after which he submitted a memorial requesting permission to return to the mountains.) Subtle habitual dispositions arising and ceasing were revealed in quiet wisdom; differentiated dharmas and principles arrayed appeared in the empty mind. In a gap, sunlight shows fine dust swirling restlessly; at the bottom of a clear pool, reflections appear brightly. How could this be compared to that foolish Chan that empties itself to maintain silence, or that mad wisdom that only hunts through texts? Yet, originally because of understanding one's own mind one distinguishes the teachings; therefore I devoted my earnest feelings to the Mind School. Again, because of distinguishing the teachings one understands how to cultivate the mind; therefore I placed my sincere faith in the doctrinal meaning. The teachings are the sūtras and treatises left behind by the Buddhas and bodhisattvas; Chan is the verses and sayings expressed by the kalyāṇamitras. However, the Buddha's sūtras unfold broadly to embrace the assemblies of the great chiliocosm and the eight classes; the Chan verses condense and abridge to suit the capacity of a single group in this land. Embracing the multitudes is vast and difficult to rely upon; suiting the capacity points directly and is easy to apply. The intention of the present compilation lies herein.' Pei Xiu wrote a preface to it, saying: 'Under the gates of the various schools there are all accomplished people. Yet each is content with what they are accustomed to; those who are comprehensive are few, and those who are limited are many. Over several decades, the standards of the masters have further decayed. Taking their lineage transmissions as their own private portals, each opens their own shop. Using the sūtras and treatises as shields and spears, they attack one another. Their feelings shift and change according to [whether they make] armor or arrows (The Rites of Zhou says: 'The armor-maker makes armor.' Mencius says: 'Is the arrow-maker less benevolent than the armor-maker? The armor-maker fears only that people will be hurt, while the arrow-maker fears only that people will not be hurt. This is caused by the art they practice. Today's students simply follow their school's partisans, criticizing each other.') and the Dharma follows [the distinction of] self and other into high and low. Right and wrong are in tangled confusion, with none able to distinguish or analyze them. Thus the teachings and schools of the former World-Honoured One, bodhisattvas, and all regions served merely to stir up disputes, causing later people to multiply the sickness of afflictions—what benefit could there be in this? The Great Master of Mount Guifeng lamented for a long time, saying: "Meeting this era, I cannot remain silent." Thereupon, with the Tathāgata's three kinds of doctrinal meanings, he verified the three kinds of dharma-gates of the Chan school. He melted down bowls, platters, hairpins, and bracelets into a single gold; he stirred curd, cheese, and ghee into a single flavor. He shook the collar of the garment, and all that was lifted fell into order (Xunzi says: 'It is like shaking the collar of a fur robe; bend the five fingers and snap it, and those [hairs] that fall into order cannot be counted'); he based himself on the essentials, and all who came converged toward the same goal (The Zhouyi lüeli says: 'Residing in the essential to observe what comes from all directions, the convergence from the six directions will not be excessive.' The General Preface relies on the complete teaching to certify the various schools; even a hundred houses are all encompassed). Still fearing that students would find it difficult to understand, he directly showed the roots and branches of the source of the school, the harmonious combination of the true and the false, the concealing and revealing of the empty nature, the differences in dharmas and principles, the sameness and difference of sudden and gradual, the mutual interplay of refutation and affirmation, the depth and shallowness of provisional and ultimate, and the rights and wrongs of commonalities and differences. Someone like our master holds aloft the Buddha-sun to shed full illumination, utterly eliminating doubts and obstructions; he accords with the Buddha's mind to stretch vast great compassion, conferring benefit throughout exhaustive kalpas. Thus the World-Honoured One is the master who opened the teachings, and our master is the person who harmonized the teachings. Root and branch tally with each other; their paths are close and reflect each other. It may be called completing the grand task of the teachings of an entire lifetime! (From the World-Honoured One expounding the teachings down to today, when they are harmonized and integrated, only then is the grand task completed.) Someone said: "Since the Tathāgata never integrated them all on such a grand scale, now if you suddenly contravene the tenets of schools without maintaining them, and abolish the barricades without occupying them, does this not run contrary to the path of secret treasuries and esoteric tallies?" He replied: "Although the Tathāgata initially taught the three vehicles separately, in the end he united them into a single path. (In the first thirty years he taught the Lesser Vehicle, or taught the emptiness teaching, or taught the characteristics teaching, or taught the nature teaching; listeners each attained awakening according to their capacities without knowing of each other. After forty years, he sat on Vulture Peak and harmonized the three vehicles, and went to Kuśinagara to reveal the one nature. This is the sequence of beginning and end.) Therefore, in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, Bodhisattva Kāśyapa said: 'The Buddhas have secret words, but no secret treasury.' The World-Honoured One praised him, saying: 'The words of the Tathāgata are open, revealed, pure, and unobscured. Foolish people do not understand and call them a secret treasury; the wise understand them completely, and do not call them a treasury.' This is the proof. Therefore, when the Kingly Way flourishes, outer gates are not shut, and defenses are stationed among the barbarian tribes; when the Buddha Way is complete, all dharmas are held together in dhāraṇī, and defenses are placed against Māra and outsiders. (The complete teaching of Nirvāṇa harmonizes all dharmas, distinguishing only Māra's preachings and the heterodox tenets of outside paths.) One should not again cling to sentiment and roll up one's sleeves to brawl among them." (The master also authored large and small commentaries and sub-commentaries on the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment, the Gate of Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu, the Treatise on the Origin of Humanity, and others, all of which had prefaces by Pei Xiu and circulated widely in the world.) On the sixth day of the first month of the first year of the Huichang era, the master passed away while sitting at the Stūpa Cloister of Xingfu [Monastery]. On the twenty-second day, monastics and laypeople escorted his whole body to Guifeng. On the twelfth day of the second month, cremation was performed, yielding relics that were white, lustrous, and large. Later his disciples wept and searched for more, finding them in the cold ashes, and then enshrined them in a stone chamber. His age was sixty-two; his monastic age was thirty-four. In his testament he instructed that his corpse be carried out and given to birds and beasts, and that his bones be burned and scattered, warning them not to grieve or yearn so as to disturb their Chan contemplation. Every Qingming festival, when ascending the mountain, they had to lecture on the Way for seven days. The remaining standards for monastic administration were to accord with the disciplinary codes. Those who violated this were not his disciples. Several hundreds and thousands of the fourfold assembly wearing mourning garments wept in sorrow, resounding across the wilderness. When Emperor Xuanzong again opened up the true teachings, he posthumously bestowed the title Chan Master Dinghui (Concentration and Wisdom), and named his stūpa Qinglian (Blue Lotus).