弘明集 3.4

3.4

Someone had doubts about the ultimate Dao, and an illustration was offered to him: The six directions are remote and expansive, and the myriad kinds of beings are abundantly numerous; the thousand changes and ten thousand transformations are blended together without beginning. Thus, those with limited awareness each anticipate only what they can see. Creatures with scales and shells do not comprehend matters of the marshes and lands; flocks of feathers and hair do not understand the surges of running currents. Those who are content within a dilapidated well wonder at the capacity of the deep ocean; those who flutter about at a height of several fathoms doubt the power that soars into the sky. Entangled within secular teachings, they freely observe the traces of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius, asserting that ultimate virtue culminates in Yao and Shun, and that subtle words are exhausted in Laozi and the Changes. How could they ever see the marvelous import beyond the realm of the worldly or the profound illumination within the unseen? How sorrowful that ceremonial caps are discarded among naked tribes, and the music of the Shao and Xia is cast aside by the vulgar and rustic! The ultimate truth is cut off by loose habits; the Great Dao is abandoned by narrow-minded scholars. If one is utterly confused and will not change, words and allegories cannot move them. I shall attempt to clarify its purport, in the hope that someone may gain awakening from it.