[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) › [弘明集](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102) › 5.45 # 弘明集 5.45 弘明集 5.45 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [5.45](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.5.45) 論成後。有退居之賓。步朗月而宵遊。相與共集法堂。因而問曰。敬尋雅論。大歸可見。殆無所間。一日試重研究。蓋所未盡亦少許處耳。意以為沙門德式。是變俗之殊制。道家之名器施於君親。固宜略於形敬。今所疑者。謂甫創難就之業。遠期化表之功。潛澤無現法之効。來報玄而未應。乃令王公獻供信士屈體。得無坐受其德陷乎早計之累。虛沾其惠同夫素飡之譏耶。主人良久乃應曰。請為諸賢近取其類。有人於此奉宣時命遠通殊方九譯之俗。問王當資以糇糧錫以輿服不。答曰然。主人曰。類可尋矣。夫稱沙門者何耶。謂其能發蒙俗之幽昏。啟化表之玄路。方將以兼忘之道與天下同往。使希高者挹其遺風。漱流者味其餘津。若然雖大業未就。觀其超步之跡。所悟固已弘矣。然則運通之功。資存之益。尚未酬其始誓之心。況答三業之勞乎。又斯人者。形雖有待情無近寄。視夫四事之供。若鶴蚊之過乎其前者耳。濡沫之惠復焉足語哉。眾賓於是始悟冥塗以開𨅊為功。息心以淨畢為道。乃欣然怡衿詠言而退。 > After the treatise was completed, there were guests living in retirement who, strolling under the bright moon on a night excursion, gathered together at the Dharma Hall. Thereupon they asked, saying: 'Respectfully investigating your refined treatise, the general purport can be seen, and there is almost no flaw. One day we tried studying it again, and what was left unexhausted was only a few points. In our view, the model of virtue of the śramaṇa is a distinct institution transforming secular custom; the titles and vessels of the Daoist masters when applied to ruler and parents may certainly dispense with bodily reverence. What we doubt now is this: one who has just embarked on an enterprise difficult to achieve and looks far forward to achievements beyond the transformation \[of this world\], whose hidden moisture yields no visible effect in the present Dharma, and whose future recompense is dark and not yet answered—does this not cause princes and dukes to present offerings and faithful gentlemen to bend their bodies, so that he might sit and receive their virtue, falling into the liability of premature reckoning, and idly partake of their kindness, sharing in the reproach of eating without working?' The master of the house responded after a long pause, saying: 'Allow me to draw an analogy close at hand for you worthy gentlemen: suppose there is someone here who receives and proclaims the ruler's mandate, traveling far to reach the customs of distant regions requiring nine interpreters. If I ask whether the king should provide him with provisions and bestow chariots and robes upon him, what would you say?' They answered, 'Yes.' The master said, 'The category can be investigated. Why is one called a śramaṇa? It means that he can open the dark blindness of the unenlightened worldly folk and reveal the profound path beyond transformation; he is about to go forth together with all under Heaven through the Dao of double forgetting, allowing those who aspire to high things to draw from his surviving customs, and those who rinse their mouths in streams to taste his lingering moisture. If so, although the great enterprise is not yet achieved, observing the traces of his transcendent strides, that to which he has awakened is already vast indeed! In that case, the merit of opening passage and the benefit of supporting life have not even repaid the intention of his initial vow, how much less could they repay the toil of the three actions? Moreover, as for such a person, although his body is dependent, his affections have no close attachments; he regards the offerings of the four necessities as crane flies and mosquitoes passing before him. How could the kindness of wetting each other with saliva even be worth speaking of?' The guests thereupon first awakened to the fact that the dark path takes the pioneering of the way as its merit, and that pacifying the mind takes ultimate purity as its Dao; pleased and with relaxed hearts, chanting words, they withdrew. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 5.44](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.5.44) - [Next: 5.46](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.5.46) - [Up: 5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.5) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102~en-mt.5.45) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (1) - [佛祖歷代通載](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.7.78) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.5.45](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2102.5.45) · Pramāṇa