弘明集 8.5

8.5

Now the great chiliocosm is vast and distant, and the ten thousand transformations are boundless. Wandering like dust within dreamscapes, beings are stained and deluded by worldly sound and glory. Dependent thoughts add to the haze, so how could they recognize luminous governance? Because the pristine manner has weakened, the host of Māras has arisen in turbulent contention. If one schemes for glory through fraud and deceit, one will inevitably commit the five heinous crimes; if one guides the blind through overbearing force, one will surely inflict the six extremities. Insect-like breath swarms and fills [the world], causing misfortunes that are not singular. Eastern Wu suffered the disaster of the water transcendents; the Western Barbarians bore the name of ghost soldiers; the Min swamps preserved the defilement of the Seed People; the Han generation was moved by the 'Song of Longing for My Son.' Loyal and worthy men sigh in distress, while the governance of the people collapses and ceases. If one took up the sands and grasses of the earth, how could they count their offenses? Followers of the late teachings in the trickling streams do not know the ancestral root. Worldly teachings with erroneous words deceptively obscure the Three Jewels; the old ghosts and people fill the roads with their sighs and laments. All of them are ashes from the flaming mountain, dregs and sediment of the Yellow River and Luo River. Sinking into peril and hardship, I grieve over them deeply. I shall briefly compile past traces, hoping to provide a mirror for the future: illuminating deluded youths in the mysterious homeland, and revealing the wondrous destination beyond the dust. The auspicious wind secretly covers [all], and the feelings of self and other are distinguished—how could words and sounds fully express this?