弘明集 12.13

12.13

The teachings of the sages cultivate the root and discard the branch, taking the mind as instruction and adapting to circumstances to effect function. None has ever gone against nature or violated corporeal form while yet solidifying the great transformation. Even though corporeal forms differ from the secular and their endeavors surpass the world, when it comes to the etiquette of bowing and revering, and the manners of yielding and saluting, these arise from what is within, and religious and secular are not different. Therefore, when fasting, lecturing, or practicing one's duties, the ritual garments are worn completely; bowing has its order, and precedence has its sequence. A reverent mind fills within and the corporeal form is solemn without. Bowing one's head to the ground does not permit the posture of tiptoeing and squatting; gathering one's skirts in bowing is not something in which leaning sits can share. Yet to take squatting while eating as a function of the mind and abandoning ritual decorum as restraining coarseness—matters and principles contradict each other, and I do not see how this is coherent. Teachings of conditioned phenomena each have their significance. As for the Pratyutpanna [samādhi], it pains the corporeal form to preserve the Dao: the Dao is drawn close while the corporeal form is treated as distant. Its practice has principle, and its function has a root. But the teaching of squatting while eating has no significance to promote. In advancing, it does not mortify the corporeal form; in retreating, it incurs disrespect and laxity. Those who see the corporeal form without reaching the Dao will lose their feelings of reverence and solemnity and give rise to words of shock and disrespect. Could this be what is meant by the sages establishing teachings according to circumstances, or the principle of not taking the ritual cap to Yue? Tracing where it arose, it perhaps came from the nature of foreign lands, or was intended to straighten what was crooked, aiming at a specific remedy; just as acute illness requires quick medicine, it is not a method for long-term practice. When corporeal form and teaching correspond, matters and principles have their order. Since they prescribe the three robes and conduct bowing, regulated by Dharma drums and arranged in order, how can one tiptoe and squat in their midst, with decorum and laxity opposing each other? If in the past it was appropriate, it was merely an expedient for a single day according to the needs of the situation, and cannot serve as an instruction for all time; this principle is easily understood. Therefore, many asked about benevolence, yet returning to ritual was the root. Now you meditate and transform the mind, but cling to external traces without changing; in principle it is trivial, and in function it is coarse. If there is something I have not understood, dare I not express my thoughts? Zheng Jun bows with head to the ground.