廣弘明集 13.87

13.87

內喻曰。夫滅身以懼大患。絕智以避長勞。議生靈於懸疣。齊泯性於王樂。蓋老莊之談也。且綿綿常住。古皇則不死不終。澠澠無名。老氏則復歸無物。然常存非永沒之稱。無物豈長生之化耶。抑復明其淺深。至如保弱守雌之文。虛心實腹之論。審浮生之有量。嗟智水之無涯。語大則局在域中。陶鈞則不出性分。蓋其志也。豈與夫大覺開無窮之緣。挺圓極之照。測微則窮乎絕隙。究理則控在無方。美氣與氤氳共和。神軀同太虛比固。語其量也。猶嵩華與培塿殊峻。溟渤將坎井異深。爾道之劣二也。

The Insiders' comparison says: Destroying the body out of dread for great calamity, cutting off knowledge to avoid prolonged toil, regarding living beings as suspended wens, and equating the loss of nature with royal joy—these are the sayings of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Furthermore, as for continuous, eternal abiding, the ancient sovereigns neither died nor ended; as for being endlessly nameless, Master Lao returned again to nothingness. Yet constant preservation is not a term for eternal cessation; how could nothingness be a transformation into long life? Let us further clarify their depth and shallowness. As for the passages on maintaining weakness and keeping to the female, or the discourses on emptying the mind and filling the belly, they recognize that floating life has a limit, and lament that the waters of wisdom have no bound. Speaking of their greatness, they are confined within the realm; their potter's wheel does not exceed one's natural allotment. Such is their aspiration! How could this compare to the Great Awakened One opening inexhaustible conditions and manifesting the radiance of the ultimate roundness? Investigating the subtle, he exhausts the gapless void; probing the principle, he commands the directionless realm. His fine breath harmonizes with the primordial vapor, and his divine body equals the firm endurance of the great void. Speaking of his measure, it is like Mount Song and Mount Hua being completely different in height from an ant-hill, or the vast ocean being different in depth from a puddle in a well. This is the second inferiority of your Dao.