弘明集 8.87

8.87

The response says: There are ninety-six kinds of paths; the Buddha is the most venerable. The followers of the brāhmaṇas are merely ant-hills. Even if spirits of mountains and rivers can produce clouds and rain, they are also worshipped by those who possess states and families. That their claim to "nurture virtue and establish the state" is not completely devoid of merit may be granted; but as for broadly delivering without limit and permanently pulling beings from the mire and ashes, our Adamantine Sage stands majestically as the sole hero! At the dawn of the Great Ultimate's separation, there was already the Buddha. However, at that time the causes and conditions of sentient beings had not yet stirred; hence it was appropriate that his name and title remained obscured. Why do I say this? Tracing back prior to the Three Sovereigns, how could there have been absolutely no propriety or changes? The Qian and Kun hexagrams, and the Lü and Yu lines, were born together with Heaven and Earth. Although born together, their names did not appear together, genuinely because the latent capacity and resonance had not arisen and their application had not taken shape; their principle is eternally present, yet their traces were not manifested. The two sages of China and abroad share the same measure. Therefore, the *Lifa xing* says: "First dispatch the three worthies to gradually guide through secular teachings; afterwards, use the Buddhist sūtras to transform the heterodox into the orthodox." The school of Laozi is merely an auxiliary vanguard of the Śākya clan! A sūtra says: "Everywhere I proclaim myself by different names: sometimes as the ancestral master of the Confucians, a national preceptor, or a Daoist; sometimes, in quietude and non-action, I perform the Buddha's work." What the golden mouth proclaimed fits together like tally and contract. Why do you jump about from east to west without respecting high or low? Alas! The non-Buddhists rely on our wisdom and draw upon our spiritual power, yet they proceed to confuse our scriptural texts and ravage our teachings. How could the lack of goodness in instructing people go to such an extreme as this?