弘明集 10.81

10.81

Da bows in reverence. I have received the letter you bestowed and the showing of the reply to a subject regarding the treatise on the extinction of the spirit. I have heard that the spirit is "as if present," yet seeking it among former kings, its abiding was not fathomed; that eternal abiding does not shift, it is only after bending the chest to it that one understands. Drilling and gazing upward into the abyssal secret, it melts away like thawing ice. Therefore we know that the diverse traces of the sage do not proceed from a single path; their uneven movements and responses fundamentally stem from the times. Now the frivolous currents have subsided, and ignorance is about to be dispelled. Since things have their readiness, the teaching was issued just for this: establishing the meaning of governing through filial piety, and clarifying the purport of the Awakened One. Among those who possess spiritual consciousness, who would not rejoice? How could Yan Di or Tai Hao contend with it? Neither Xuanyuan nor Tang Yao could compete in its brilliance. The towering, supreme virtue cannot be named; the luminous Great Dao reaches its pinnacle here. He Da bows in reverence.