弘明集 11.9

11.9

"Li respectfully bows: I have just examined your elegant treatise. Its points and sequences are well distinguished, and its diction and metaphors are refined and beautiful, bringing me immense joy. As you say, responsive transformations occur at different times, and the Semblance and True [Dharma] address distinct customs; you adduce external matters to reflect the internal, and cite texts to verify the real. Respecting and modeling myself upon your intention, I find nothing to disagree with. However, the reason for attaining awakening must rely on direct observation; implicit faith gives rise to doubt, and doubt is not the root of awakening. If wherever written records exist across different eras they are understood identically, then after ten thousand generations one would not need to await a sage to take as master! If voice and traces support each other, and words and images aid one another, yet once the great principles are violated, Ru and Mohist teachings contend; not only will right faith fail to become clear, but slander and error will also multiply faults. Can one fail to seek proof in manifest signs and predictions to secure oneself? The Great Sage, with unimpeded wisdom, extends uninvited compassion; why then should he begrudge clear light and conceal his sixteen-foot vessel, severing the hopes of the masses after Nirvāṇa and giving rise to sins and defilements before the three assemblies? When straw dogs are set out in vain, can they bring awakening? When images are established without reality, can they elicit faith? As for emperors and kings, or Ji and Kong, their instructions stopped at their own age, and matters of future lives were put aside without discussion; hence their concealment or appearance, decline or rise, provisional or real, cannot be distinguished. Now the Tathāgata's track and deeds completely span the three times, and his compassion universally nourishes; it cannot be limited to the present. The deluded masses seek liberation; they must not be brought to an impasse by his complete extinction. For this reason, transforming and delivering is not confined to written texts; the Buddha's deeds are fully enumerated by the myriads. May I ask: where are the so-called 'Buddha's deeds' today? If it is as in your refined analogy, that what is believed is here while what is verified is there, then since sages do not appear every generation and Confucius and the Śākya took different paths, speaking in terms of realities, there is nothing that is not contradictory! Can they verify each other? Unable to dismiss this in silence, I have briefly lodged these words. I hope you will examine them further in detail, as I await your clear explanation."