廣弘明集 7.40

7.40

The History of Liang records his words: 'As for the transformation of the Śākya clan, those who hear of its ethos take delight in it. Its doctrines arise beyond heaven and earth, and its words issue forth outside of ears and eyes. This is the grand purpose of its encouraging teaching, a school among the nine currents. When love for it grows deep, its methods become elevated. Yet monasteries and temples are built extremely magnificently, exhausting the wealth of land and sea; those who build them do not begrudge gold and blue-green jade, exhausting the strength of the common people. How could this be the intent of the Great Enlightened One? Now, supreme reverence requires no ornate pattern, and the supreme spirit is unadorned. Unable to exhaust all the sacrificial beasts under heaven, one sacrifices to Heaven with calves whose horns are like cocoon-larvae and chestnuts; unable to exhaust the world's ornate decorations, one presents to the spirits mats of straw and reeds. If sincerity is present, duckweed and water-plants equal a hundred fine offerings; if bright virtue is lacking in fragrance, the slaughter of oxen falls below the yue sacrifice. How much more so with the methods of Vulture Peak and the wonders of the other shore—can they be sought through vanity? There are those who drift about the capitals and countryside, avoiding hardship and fleeing toil; if one examines their sincere mind, hardly one in a hundred possesses it. Once the vermilion and purple are confounded, the foxes and rats of the city walls defile the essence of the Great Dharma and harm the essential duties of agriculture and sericulture. Those holding the tally of authority do not consider it an affliction, and those balancing the scales do not speak of it. Rulers of states should observe this and regulate it.' In this case, Daorang was a pure minister who protected the Dharma. Why should [Fu] Yi censor him? He may be called a man of lofty insight, and it is fitting that he be recorded in the biographies of the lofty-minded.