廣弘明集 24.76

24.76

and the customs of Zhou and Liang changed, yet with white eyebrows and blue eyes, the value of tortoise shell and jade is not surpassed; like the perching phoenix and the crouching dragon, our bond like fish and water is no different. Furthermore, your discernment is polished in suffering and emptiness, and your resolve repels worldly dust; though your form is in the court halls, your capacity belongs to rivers and lakes. Therefore, you lament the entwining threads and speak of the worldly net, your phrasing matching Ying and Lu, your tone harmonizing with Zhang and Yan. You sigh at the swift transmission of the red flame, and grieve over the rapid passing of clear waves. You should indeed wash your feet to follow the Way and cleanse your ears to decline worldly honor, filling your emptiness with the nine-times-cycled elixir and expelling disease from the four doors. Thereafter, seek out the Noble Eightfold Path to savor the One Reality, untie the ten entanglements, and dispel the three perils. Could such virtue fail to reach the utmost? This poor monk's mirror of discernment is difficult to clear, and the dust of the mind is easily blocked; in samādhi I am ashamed before the water-bubble, and in precepts I fall short of the grass-bound monk. My talent is like putting out the candle; my learning is inadequate to transmit the lamp. Internally I am ashamed before those endowed with virtue; externally I have no familiarity with the human world. Therefore, I linger on a single hill, lodging my form among brambles and willows, dwelling upright on peaks of a thousand cubits, entrusting my resolve to bamboo and pines. I measure the four seasons by wind and frost, and watch the thirty days by the waxing and waning moon. When night arrives, hearing the mountain birds replaces the Jiucheng music; by day, observing the swimming fish playfully pursues the two masters. A wattle door and a tattered collar are indeed what Yan Yuan considered not to be illness; red gates with four-horse carriages are to me like floating clouds. What I lament is that the vine is easily gnawed by mice, and the monkey in the tree is difficult to quiet; wearied by longing for the Vulture Peak, I am tired with thinking of Mount Kukkuṭapāda. When leaves wither in the autumn woods, I have none of the illumination of a pratyekabuddha; when spring orioles echo in the valleys, I am always pained by the sigh of limited learning. Suddenly I received your incoming inquiry, graciously favoring me with radiant praise; your hidden fragrance is like an orchid, and your pure tones are like jade. Truly, it fills my eyes with delight, yet in truth, clutching my breast, I feel much shame. Although my understanding falls short of the Heavenly Pool, unable to discern the discourse on the Northern Ocean, and my situation is like a muddy well, ashamed to hear the talk of the Eastern Sea, I hope that that fine person will favor me with friendship. Mount Huangshi is not far, let us set an appointment for tomorrow dawn; the white colt can be tethered, to keep our bond forever through the morning. Out of respect for your pure ways, I occasionally rely on white slips; words do not exhaust my feelings, so how can this reply fully express them?