集沙門不應拜俗等事 2.21

2.21

Answer: What is this spirit? It is the utmost refinement becoming sentient. Being the utmost refinement, it cannot be figured by hexagrams or emblems; thus the sage spoke of it as a 'subtle thing'. Even one of supreme wisdom cannot determine its bodily shape or exhaust its profound purport; yet those who discourse upon it raise doubts based on ordinary consciousness, often colluding in self-confusion. Their slander is already profound! To speak of it is to speak of the unspeakable. Now, in the midst of the unspeakable, let us again vaguely sketch it together. As for the spirit, its rounded response has no master, and its subtle extremity has no name; it moves when stimulated by things, and acts by relying on fated numbers. It is stimulated by things, yet is not a thing; therefore, when things transform, it is not extinguished. It relies on fated numbers, yet is not a number; therefore, when numbers are exhausted, it does not end. Where there is emotion, it can be stimulated by things; where there is consciousness, it can be sought through numbers. Numbers have fine and coarse, so their natures differ; wisdom has bright and dark, so its illumination is not identical. Inferring from this, we know that transformation proceeds through emotion, and the spirit is transmitted through transformation. Emotion is the mother of transformation; the spirit is the root of emotion. Emotion has the way of meeting things; the spirit has the efficacy of unseen transition. It is only that the awakened return to the origin, while those confused about principle chase after things. Those of antiquity who discussed the Way also did not agree entirely; let us cite them to clarify this. Zhuangzi voiced the dark sound in 'The Great Ancestral Teacher', saying: 'The Great Clump burdens me with life, and rests me with death'; and he also considered life to be a manacle, and death to be returning to the true. This is what is meant by knowing life to be a great affliction, and taking birthlessness as returning to the origin. Wenzi cited the words of the Yellow Emperor, saying: 'The form has wear and tear, but the spirit does not transform; riding transformation with the untransforming, its changes are inexhaustible.' Zhuangzi also said: 'Merely taking on the form of man, one still rejoices; yet if a human form transforms ten thousand times without beginning or end, [what joy could compare]?' This is what is meant by knowing that life does not end in a single transformation, whereas those who chase after things do not return. Although the treatises of these two masters did not exhaust the actuality, they nevertheless touched upon the lineage and had heard of it. The interlocutor does not seek the teaching that 'at the moment of life there is death', but is confused by gathering and dispersing within a single transformation; he does not consider that the spiritual path has the sentience of a subtle thing, but claims that fine and coarse are exhausted together. Is this not lamentable? The analogy of fire and wood originally came from the sacred scriptures; but its lineage having been lost, its profound inspiration cannot be sought, and the subtle words have sunk into ordinary teaching, causing interlocutors to use them to formulate doubt. Supposing there had been no master who awakened to the lineage in our time, then none would know the illumination of earlier enlightened ones, and the subtlety of unseen transmission would go unheard through the ages. Why is this? Emotion and numbers stimulate one another, and their transformation has no beginning; causal conditions are secretly woven together, unseen and silently transcribing one another. Unless one possesses penetrating insight, who could perceive its changes? Let me verify it with reality for the interlocutor: the transmission of fire across firewood is like the transmission of the spirit across forms; fire transmitting to different firewood is like the spirit transmitting to different forms. The earlier firewood is not the later firewood, from which we know the marvel of the art of exhausting fingers; the earlier form is not the later form, from which we awaken to the depth of the stimulus of emotion and numbers. The confused see the form rot within a single lifetime, and immediately consider the spirit and emotion to be lost together, just as observing fire exhausted in a single piece of wood, they say that at the final moment all is extinguished. This is merely following the discourses on nourishing life superficially, not seeking far into its categories. Coming to your treatise, supposing that form and spirit transform together, both originating from heaven, and that the foolish and the wise in giving life equally receive their endowment—may I ask, did they receive it from the form, or did they receive it from the spirit? If they received it from the form, then all things that have form would transform into spirit. If they received it from the spirit, that would be transmitting spirit with spirit; then Danzhu would be equal in sagacity to Emperor Yao, and Chonghua would be identical in sentience to Gusou. Could that be so? Could that be so? If it cannot be so, then we firmly know that the weaving of unseen conditions was established in the past, and the division between bright and dark was fixed at the inception of form. Even though the Spiritual Potter is good at revolving, he still cannot change what is natural to one's nature—how much less can those subordinate to this! Tested by principle, the subtle words have evidence; verified by events, there is no doubt about the Great Pervasion.