弘明集 1.2

1.2

Now, the ocean of awakening is boundless, and the realm of wisdom shines perfectly. Its subtle transforming influence within the realm [of mortals] was truly moulded and cast by Yao and Shun; its principle, presiding beyond the tether [of words], was shaped and fashioned by the Duke of Zhou and Confucius. Yet the Dao is great and hard to trust; the pitch is high and few can harmonize. When Sumeru is towering, the blue gale arises; when precious treasures accumulate, resentful thieves appear. Formerly, when the Tathāgata was in the world, his transformative teaching shook the great chiliocosm, yet there were still the four Māras harboring anger and the six masters harboring poison—how much more so in the latter days of the Semblance Dharma! Can they ever be overcome? Ever since the Great Dharma flowed eastward, nearly five hundred years have passed. As conditions [varied], each either believed or did not, and its fortunes also prospered and declined. Those with right view expounded and praised it; those who were deluded and perverted slandered and mocked it. As for pedantic, crooked scholars, they rejected it as an alien teaching; while the sweet-tongued followers of heterodox paths cited it as their own doctrine. The rejection led to the delusion of uprooting the foundation; the citation caused the disorder of confusing vermilion with purple. Consequently, deceitful arguments grew increasingly tangled, and erroneous statements blazed furiously. Now, a night-bird crying in the night cannot blot out the light of the bright sun; a Jingwei bird bearing stones in its beak cannot diminish the vastness of the azure sea. Yet by using darkness to confuse brightness, and using the petty to deceive the great, though not a single hair is stirred, the sight and hearing are defiled. This causes those of feeble footing to follow false eloquence and remain long deluded, and causes inverted sorts to pursue deviant discourses and drown forever. This is why the obscure paths are easy to fall into, and the pure realm is difficult to ascend. Sengyou, with my meagre learning, have a profound aspiration to broadly protect [the Dharma]. Reflecting in tranquility upon the ephemeral secular world, indignation stirs in my heart. Thereupon, during brief respites from illness and leisure moments of dwelling in the mountains, I have compiled illuminating writings of past and present and gathered together the refined treatises of both monastics and the laity. Where there are those who set their minds upon cutting down perversion and establishing words to defend the Dharma, regardless of whether their works are large or small, all have been selected without exception. Furthermore, where the letters, records, and literary compositions of pre-eminent figures of previous generations are beneficial, all have been edited and recorded. Arranged into categories and divided into sections, they are set out in fourteen fascicles. Now, the Dao is made broad by human beings, and teachings are made brilliant by culture. Broadening the Dao and making the teachings brilliant—hence it is titled Hongming ji (Collection Spreading the Light [of Buddhism]). In addition, I have brought together my own modest reflections and appended a treatise at the end, hoping to add a speck of dust or a drop of water to Mount Tai and the vast sea. Yet my learning is isolated and my knowledge sparse; I am ashamed of my narrow limitations. May gentlemen of broad mastery kindly augment and expand it!