弘明集 12.10

12.10

Looking up, I reply to your profound purport, which is not an ordinary teaching. Bowing down, I reflect upon my lack of attainment, and with bowed head make this general response. In my humble view, penetrating all things depends upon resonance, and entering awakening relies upon conditions. If one truly lacks good causes, then river and sea will foster confusion. Therefore, awaiting inquiries is likened to striking a bell, and inspiring understanding depends on feelings of eager frustration. The wondrous awakening exhausts principle; it is both sage and divine. Its light illuminates the eight directions, and looking up and down it observes the nine realms. Yet when its fortune encounters a span of a hundred years, seeming as vast as ten thousand kalpas, is this not because auspicious conditions have not yet formed, so that transforming influence cannot take hold? For this reason the sage spirit paused its course and this culture did not record it; unable to manifest subtle principles, they aimed at direct reprimand and fundamental guidance, merely using subtle manifestations and gentle persuasion to guide them toward the profound and distant. Loving life guides the source of the three times; accumulating goodness initiates the steps of karmic retribution. Hunting with nets and sparing the roosting birds illustrates benevolence; seasonal hunting broadens trust. Once beings were gradually soaked and steeped until habit was formed, stinginess and blockage were dispelled day by day; only afterward did the Dao flourish in the court of the august Han, and the instructions spread during the Yongping era. Things were freed from delusion and people yielded like the grass before the wind. We truly know that the radiant blossoms of Fangxun were not yet dawn, and King Wenxuan had not yet risen. It is not that their purports were divergent so as to lead to different understandings, but that principles were equal though both encountered obstacles. In adhering to the profound and distant, who would dare to speak recklessly? Erring in what is right, I have been rash and foolish.