弘明集 10.69

10.69

Gun bows in reverence. Your disciple ventures to think that the way of mutual intercourse must be accomplished by give and take. As for continuing to be foolish and not offering inquiry, it vainly brings about the flitting view of a rushing moment, which ought almost to be set aside. Thus, to cut oneself off from questioning and receiving instruction, while regarding the profound as too exalted to spy into, is truly a matter of personal shame. Merely having an obscure understanding of cause and effect and a narrow discipline, I truly hope that by treading on frost without retreating, the solid ice might be reached. Yet the Dharma master's vast mind is like mountains and marshes, fortunately able to harbor defects; though I had not yet ascended the hall, you summoned me with the stream of Dharma. Du Yi said: 'Summoning a thirsty horse to the gushing spring, it arrives without waiting for the whip.' You have condescended to show me His Majesty's reply to his subject regarding the treatise on the extinction of the spirit. Morning and night I respectfully read it, forgetting fatigue and sleep. Erecting this pillar of the Dharma, it guides that stream of confusion. Natural familial bonds are articulated, and the three times are distinguished; the conditions of ghosts and spirits may thereby be sought. Yet they say the ocean is truly vast—who can know it? They say Heaven is supremely high—it cannot be measured. The sagacious treatise plumbs the depths; its purport transcends the commentaries of the *Changes*. My ignorant mind is easily sluggish—how could it fathom this? Vainly inscribing this late presentation, I am in the end ashamed before drilling and gazing upward. Your disciple Shen Gun bows in reverence.