廣弘明集 2.8

2.8

Those who adhere to its Path shave off their beard and hair, cast aside burdens, and leave the household. They form master-disciple relations, abide by the rules of discipline, and live together in harmony; cultivating their minds, they practice pure conduct and sustain themselves by begging for alms. They are called śramaṇas, or sometimes sangmen, the pronunciations being close to one another. Their faculties and karmic predispositions vary, and are known as the three vehicles: the Śrāvaka, the Pratyekabuddha, and the Great Vehicle (Mahāyāna). The name is taken from the idea that they can serve as vehicles carrying one to the Path. Those of superior faculties cultivate the six perfections and advance through the myriad practices; they deliver countless streams [of beings], passing through vast stretches of time, ascend to the sphere of awakening, and are named Buddhas. [Our Buddha's] original name was Śākyamuni, which is translated here as 'Capable of Humaneness', meaning that his virtue was bountiful, his Path complete, and he was able to rescue the myriad beings. He descended as the son of the king of the realm of Kapilavastu in India. He was born on the night of the eighth day of the fourth month, issuing from his mother's right flank. His extraordinary physical marks were of thirty-two kinds, and thirty-two auspicious omens also descended from the heavens in response. On the fifteenth day of the second month he entered nirvāṇa, translated here as 'extinction-deliverance' or described as permanence, bliss, self, and purity, clarifying that he was free from passing away and all suffering and burdens. It is also said that the Buddhas have two aspects: the first is the real, meaning the supreme ultimate body, which is wonderfully beyond all constraints and burdens. It cannot be localized to any direction or place, nor can it be measured by form or quantity; whenever there is a stimulus it responds, its essence ever tranquil and clear. The second is the expediently responsive, meaning that it softens its glare within the six realms and mingles with the dust alongside the myriad kinds of beings; birth and death conform to the times, and long or short lifespans adapt to beings. Forms arise through stimulus; the body is not ultimately real. Although the expedient form passes away, the true body does not alter; it is merely that when the era lacks a wondrous stimulus, it cannot always be seen. This clarifies that the Buddha's birth was not a real birth, and his passing away was not a real passing away. After the Buddha passed away, his corpse was cremated with fragrant wood, and the numinous bones broke apart into fragments, large and small like grains; striking them would not break them, and fire would not scorch them, while emitting radiant light and miraculous signs. These are called relics (śarīra). His disciples collected and revered them, offering all their incense and flowers, expressing reverence and longing, and built palace-like structures called stūpas (towers), which are like ancestral temples; therefore they were called 'stūpa-temples' in their time. A hundred years later, there was King Aśoka, who with supernatural power divided the Buddha's relics, commanded ghosts and spirits, and built 84,000 stūpas throughout the world, all completed on the same day. Today, Luoyang, Pengcheng, Guzang, and Linzi all possess King Aśoka temples, which presumably inherit these traces. Furthermore, his shadow, traces, claws, and teeth remained in India, and travelers journeying there and back all claimed to have seen them. The doctrines he preached at first were later recorded, gathering together their deep significance without any omission. Thus the three baskets (Tripiṭaka) and twelve divisions of scripture, like the variations of the nine schools [of philosophy], ultimately take the three vehicles as their foundation when unified under their great destination. Later, arhats and bodhisattvas sequentially composed treatises to extol and clarify the meaning of the scriptures so as to defeat non-Buddhists; all relied on the great principles of the various collections and divisions, setting up external questions and resolving them through internal teachings. Transmitted to the Central Land, they gradually spread widely. In the early Han, śramaṇas all wore red cloth; later they changed to mixed colors. As for the subtle words and hidden meanings, they had not yet been thoroughly investigated. There was a śramaṇa, Shi Dao'an of Changshan, who was of an intelligent disposition; daily he would chant more than ten thousand words and investigate the profound purport. Lamenting the lack of a master, he sat alone in a quiet room for twelve years, thinking deeply and gathering his spirit, intuitively realizing the wondrous depths. Because the previously translated scriptures contained many discrepancies and contradictions, he corrected their errors. Thereafter, the śramaṇas' transmission of the Dharma flourished greatly in the Central Plains.