弘明集 1.40

1.40

The questioner asked: In former days, when I was in the capital, I entered the Dongguan Library and strolled in the Imperial Academy; I observed the standards of eminent scholars and listened to the discourses of the Confucian forest, yet I never heard of cultivating the Buddha's Dao being considered noble, or of disfiguring one's own appearance being deemed superior. Why, Sir, are you obsessed with it? When one's course is lost, one changes paths; when a method is exhausted, one returns to the old. Can you not reflect on this? Mouzi said: One who is versed in changes cannot be taken in by deceit; one who penetrates the Dao cannot be alarmed by anomalies; one who is discerning in words cannot be deluded by talk; one who comprehends righteousness cannot be moved by profit. Laozi said: 'Fame is the detriment of the body; profit is the defilement of conduct.' He also said: 'Devising deceits and setting up expedients, they falsely claim noble rank; cultivating the ritual of the inner chambers, they conform to the occasions of the contemporary vulgar; rushing into crevices, they strive to match the present age. This is what inferior men practice and mediocre men abandon.' How much more is this so for the vastness of the Supreme Dao, which is practiced by superior sages! Distant as the heavens, deep as the sea, it naturally is not suited to scholars who merely peek over walls or men of short measure. They see the gate, while I behold the chamber; they pluck the flowers, while I take the fruit; they seek the particulars, while I preserve the One. You may quickly change your path, but I beg to tread upon this one. As for the sources of misfortune and fortune, it remains to be seen how they turn out.