廣弘明集 15.56

15.56

Great Compassion broadly saves beings, connecting with them according to resonance. The conditions for connecting with beings have multiple beginnings; they are difficult to examine through form, but easy to fathom through principle. Thus they are already fully recorded in sutras and traditions, and thoroughly detailed in records and treatises. Although the boat and the ravine have long passed away, the Semblance Dharma still remains; as resonance and fortune revere its breeze, day by day it grows ever deeper. The śramaṇa Faxian arrived from Jetavana, fully recounting that the Buddha's shadow is exceptionally wondrous and spiritual: in the secluded crags and rugged cliffs, as if there were an abiding form, its deportment dignified, marks and characteristics complete, none knowing its beginning or end, constantly serene of itself. The Dharma Master of Mount Lu was delighted upon hearing the report. Thereupon, rejoicing in accord in his secluded chamber, he at once surveyed the empty crag, resting against the steep peak to the north and reflecting the Biao Torrent to the south. Modeling the bequeathed measure and entrusting it to green pigments, how could it only be fervent in picturing the form? Truly it also exhausted the transmission of mind! The śramaṇa Daobing proclaimed the intention from afar and commanded me to compose an inscription to fill the carving. When ancient inscriptions began, it was truly because meritorious deeds were widely spread; never was the ancestral Way so exalted and grand. How could such shallow thoughts and superficial learning as mine proclaim and narrate something like this? As the events have passed away, eternal longing is without end; forthwith I exhaust my inferior thinness to fulfill the promise in my heart. Of the glorious principles and secret mysteries, not one in ten thousand is depicted. I hope that by extending sincere intent, it will somewhat move all beings: may the flying screech-owl have an appointed time to reform its voice, and the icchantika obtain a path to extricate itself. We shall seek one another in the Pure Land and beam with joy in the bodhimaṇḍa. The sage does not deceive me; producing the fruit must surely bring retribution. Taking up the brush to give voice to words, my feelings are a hundredfold impassioned.