廣弘明集 5.3

5.3

俗之惑者大略有二。初惑佛為幻偽善誘人心。二惑因果沈冥保重身世。且佛名大覺照極機初。審性欲之多方。練病藥之權道。故能俯現金姿。垂丈六之偉質。流光遍燭。通大千而闡化。致使受其道者獲證塵砂。內傾十使之纏。外蕩八魔之弊。故能履水火而無礙。攝龍鬼而怡神。三明六通。暢靈襟之妙術。四辯八解。演被物之康衢。其道顯然羌難備敘。至於李叟稱道纔闡二篇。名位周之史臣。門學周之一吏。生於厲鄉死於槐里。莊生可為實錄。秦佚誠非妄論。而史遷褒之乃云。西遁流砂。漢景信之。方開東夏道學。爾後宗緒漸布。終淪滯於神州。絕智守雌。全未聞於寰海。蒙俗信度飾詐揚真。乃造老子化胡等經。比擬佛法四果十地劫數周循。結土為人觀音侍老。黃書度命赤章厭祝。斯言孟浪無足可稱。方欲陵佛而跨法僧矯俗而為尊極。通鑒遠識者自絕生常。瑣學迷津者或同墜溺。且道德二篇涓子所說。伯陽為尹而傳是則述而不作。至於四果以下。全非道流。斯乃後學門人廣開衢術。言輒引類翻累本宗。故神仙傳云。無識道士妄傳。老子代代為國師者濫也。葛洪可謂生知之士。千載之一遇也諸餘碌碌等駕齊驅。佛經無敘於李聃。道書多涉於釋訓。人流慕上古諺之常言。惡居下徒今俗之行事。所以隨有相狀無不擬儀。道本氣也。無像可圖。今則擬佛金姿。峙列天堂地獄。連寫施行五戒十善曾無異迹。終是才用薄弱不能自立宗科。竊經盜義倚傍稱道。至如楊雄太玄迢然居異。抱樸論道邈爾開權。莊惠之流可為名作。南華近出亦足命家。豈若上皇之元密。取漢徹之號。剖生左腋。用比能仁之儀。斯途眾矣。具如後顯。又俗惑三際之業。時輕四趣之報。人死極於此生。生亦莫知何至。由斯淪滯出竟無緣。若不統敘長迷逾遠。深嫌繁委何得略之。又序曰。夫解惑之生。存乎博見義舉。傳聞闇託信為難辯舟師。故四不壞淨位居入流之始。一正定聚方稱涉正之域。餘則初染輕毛。隨風揚扇不退。漆木雖磨不磷。是以辯惑履正。開於悟達之機。宅形安道。必據稽明之德。自法流震旦。信毀相陵。多由臆斷師心統決。三際必然之事。乃謂寓言。六道昭彰之形。言為虛指。夫以輪迴生死隨業往還。依念念而賦身。逐劫劫而傳識。所以濠上英華。著方生之論。柱下叡哲。稱其鬼不神。可謂長時有盡生涯不窮。禹父既化黃能。漢王變為蒼犬。彭生豕見事顯齊公。元伯纓垂名高漢史。斯途眾矣。難備書紳。無識之倫妄生推託。便言三后在天。勸誘之高軌。陳祭鬼饗。孝道之權猷。斯則乖人倫之典謨。越天常之行事。詭經亂俗不足言之。若夫繫述遊魂之談。經敘故身之務。昭穆有序祖尊重親。追遠慎終。由來之同仰。踐霜興感列代之彝倫。安有捐擲所生。專存諸己。橫陳無鬼之論。自許有身之術。前集已論今重昌顯。固須讎校名理尋討經論。卷部五千咸經目閱。義通八藏妙識宗歸。若斯博詣事絕迴惑。竊以六因四緣。乘善惡而成業。四生六道。紹升沈之果報。茲道坦然非學不達。豈可信凡庸之臆度。排大聖之明略哉。況復列十度之仁舟。濟大心於苦海。分四諦之階級。導小智之邪山。三學以統兩乘。四輪而摧八難。梗概若此。無由惑之。又以寺塔崇華。糜費於財事。僧徒供施。叨濫於福田。過犯滋彰。譏嫌時俗。通污佛法咸被湮埋。故周魏二武生本幽都。赫連兩君胤惟玁狁。鄉非仁義之域。性絕陶甄之心。擅行殲殄誠無足怪。今疏括列代編而次之。庶或迷沒披而取悟。序之云爾。

The delusions of the worldly fall roughly into two kinds. First, they are deluded into taking the Buddha as an illusion and a fabrication designed only to skillfully guide human minds. Second, they are deluded regarding cause and effect, regarding it as obscure and unprovable, and so they cherish and esteem solely their physical bodies and worldly lives. Yet the Buddha is called the Great Awakened One: his illumination reaches to the utmost origins of latent capacities. He scrutinizes the manifold inclinations of nature and desire, and masters the expedient methods of matching medicines to diseases. Thus he could condescend to manifest a golden presence and display a majestic physical form of sixteen feet. His radiant light shone everywhere, penetrating the great trichiliocosm to propagate the transformation, causing those who received his Way to attain the realization as numerous as sands of dust, within overthrowing the entanglements of the ten fetters, and without sweeping away the impairments of the eight māras. Therefore he could tread water and fire without obstruction, and subdue nāgas and ghosts while keeping the spirit at peace. With the three vidyās and the six supernatural knowledges, he gave full play to the marvelous techniques of the spiritual heart; with the four unhindered eloquence-powers and the eight liberations, he opened the broad highway to shelter all beings. His Way is conspicuous and manifest, yet it is utterly hard to recount in full. As for Old Li, who spoke of the "Dao", he merely elaborated two chapters. In name and rank he was a historiographer of the Zhou, and his learning was that of a single Zhou petty clerk. He was born in Lixiang and died in Huaili. Master Zhuang may be taken as a reliable record, and Qin Yi certainly made no baseless discourse. Yet the historian Qian praised him, saying that he fled westward to the drifting sands; Emperor Jing of the Han believed this, and only then was the study of Dao opened in the eastern lands. Thereafter, his lineage gradually spread, but ultimately it remained mired in the Divine Land. Severing wisdom and keeping to the feminine was completely unheard of throughout the seas. Ignorant worldly people, putting their trust in this, embellished falsehood and presented it as truth, and so composed such scriptures as Laozi's Conversion of the Barbarians, mimicking the Buddhist teachings of the four fruits, the ten grounds, and the cyclical revolutions of kalpas. They moulded earth to make humans, had Avalokiteśvara attend upon the Old Master, used Yellow Writings to deliver life, and deployed Red Talismans to ward off calamities by incantations. Such words are reckless and not worth mentioning. Just when they sought to surpass the Buddha, transcend the Dharma and Saṅgha, and distort customs to make themselves the supreme peak, those with penetrating discernment and farsighted knowledge naturally severed themselves from vulgar habits, whereas petty scholars lost in the crossing might together sink and drown. Moreover, the two chapters on Dao and De were spoken by Juanzi, and Boyang transmitted them as Yin; this was transmitting without creating. As for the four fruits and below, they are not of the Daoist stream at all. This was later disciples and students opening broad avenues of arts, citing analogues whenever they spoke, which on the contrary encumbered their original school. Therefore the Biographies of the Immortals states: 'Ignorant Daoists basely transmitted that Laozi was the state preceptor generation after generation—how spurious!' Ge Hong can be said to be a scholar of innate knowledge, an encounter of a thousand years; all the rest are mediocre, claiming equality while running abreast. Buddhist scriptures contain no account of Li Dan, yet Daoist writings draw heavily from the Buddha's teachings. Men of the world admire antiquity—a common saying of ancient proverbs; hating to stay beneath others—the practice of today's vulgar crowd. Thus, whatever forms exist, they mimic them without exception. The Dao is fundamentally qi; it has no image to depict. Now they imitate the Buddha's golden presence, and line up the celestial halls and the hells; continuously copying and practicing the five precepts and the ten good deeds, they have never had any distinct trace of their own. In the end, their talent and capacity are feeble and weak, unable to establish their own doctrinal school, so they steal scriptures and pilfer meanings, leaning on them to speak of the Dao. As for Yang Xiong's Taixuan, it stood distinctly apart; the Baopuzi's discussion of the Dao opened expedients far off. The likes of Zhuang and Hui may be counted as renowned works, and the Nanhuai which emerged recently is also sufficient to name a master. How could these compare to taking the primal secret of the Sovereign of Heaven, adopting the title of Han Che, bursting forth from the left armpit, and using it to emulate the conduct of the Capable and Benevolent One? Paths like these are manifold; all will be shown below. Furthermore, the worldly are deluded about the karma of the three periods of time, and currently make light of retribution in the four destinies. They think human death is the ultimate end of this life, and in living they know not where they go. Due to this they are sunken and mired, with no chance of deliverance. If I do not systematically narrate it, their enduring delusion will wander even farther. Though deeply averse to prolixity, how could I omit it? The preface also states: Now the arising of understanding or delusion resides in broad observation; righteous endeavors rely on transmitted accounts. To put one's trust darkly in uncertain reports makes it difficult to discern the helmsman. Therefore the four kinds of indestructible purity hold the position at the beginning of entering the stream; only the one collection of the properly determined can be called the domain of stepping into rectitude. The rest are like light feathers first dyed: tossed and turned by the wind, they cannot achieve non-retrogression; though black-lacquered wood is polished, it cannot be made white. Therefore, to discern delusion and walk in rectitude opens the capacity for awakening and penetrating; to settle the form and find peace in the Way must rely on the virtue of investigating illumination. Ever since the Dharma flowed into Cīnasthāna, faith and slander have encroached upon one another, mostly stemming from arbitrary judgment and dictatorial decisions born of self-opinion. Matters that are inevitable across the three periods of time they call parables; forms that are manifest in the six realms of rebirth they call empty references. Now, the cycle of birth and death goes and returns according to karma; taking on a physical body according to each thought-moment, consciousness is transmitted through kalpa after kalpa. Therefore the flower of Haoshang wrote the discourse on 'simultaneous birth'; the sage under the pillar declared that 'its ghosts are not spirits'. It can be said that while the long duration has an end, the course of lives is inexhaustible. After Yu's father had transformed into a yellow bear, the King of Han turned into a blue hound. Pengsheng appeared as a boar, an event manifest to the Duke of Qi; Yuanbo's dangling hat-strings made his name exalted in the Han history. Such paths are numerous; it is hard to record them fully upon one's sash. Ignorant folk groundlessly make excuses, straightway saying that 'the three sovereigns in heaven' was merely an elevated rule for exhortation, and that setting out sacrifices for ghosts to feast was an expedient scheme for the way of filial piety. This contravenes the canons and models of human relations, and oversteps the customary actions of the heavenly constancy; deceptive scriptures that disorder vulgar ways are not worth discussing. As for the tales in the line of wandering souls, and the matters of former bodies narrated in the scriptures, the zhaomu order has its proper sequence, revering ancestors and honoring parents; pursuing the distant and being careful at the end has ever been revered in common. Trampling on frost awakens emotion, an enduring ethical norm across the generations. How could one cast aside one's progenitors and exclusively preserve oneself, recklessly propounding the discourse that ghosts do not exist, while boasting of techniques for preserving the physical body? The previous collection already discussed this, and now I clarify and reveal it once more. It is essential to collate terms and principles, and search out the scriptures and treatises: five thousand fascicles have all been scrutinized by my own eyes, with meanings penetrating the eight repositories, marvelously discerning their essential destination. With such wide attainment, one is completely freed from recurring delusions. I submit that the six causes and four conditions, mounting goodness and evil, bring about karma; the four forms of birth and six realms of rebirth continue the retributions of ascent and descent. This path is level and plain, yet without study one cannot reach it. How could one believe the arbitrary surmises of ordinary fools and reject the clear strategies of the Great Sage? What is more, he arrays the benevolent vessel of the ten perfections to ferry those of great mind across the ocean of suffering; he distinguishes the steps of the four truths to guide small wits away from the mountain of heterodoxy; using the three trainings to unify the two vehicles, and the four wheels to crush the eight difficulties. If the outline is like this, there is no ground for delusion. Moreover, because temples and stūpas were lavish and magnificent, wasting wealth and material, and the offerings and alms to the saṅgha were misappropriated and usurped in the fields of merit, offenses became increasingly flagrant, inviting the ridicule and disgust of contemporary customs, so that the Buddha Dharma was collectively defiled and wholly buried. Therefore the two martial emperors of Zhou and Wei were originally born in the dark regions of Youdu; the two rulers of Helian were mere descendants of the Xianyun. Their lands were not realms of benevolence and righteousness, and their natures completely lacked the heart for moral cultivation. That they arbitrarily enacted destruction is truly not to be wondered at. Now I compile and arrange the successive dynasties, editing them in sequence, in the hope that those lost and submerged may open this and attain awakening. This is what the preface says.