集沙門不應拜俗等事 4.60

4.60

The purport of the Śākya is rare and subtle, its principle penetrating beyond the corporeal; the profound school is indistinct, its meaning surpassing the realm beyond the nameless. It encompasses the Three Powers, embodying the essentials; it embraces all kinds, exhausting the spiritual. The true pneuma shone at the pass, awaiting the dragon-like one to rise westward; the Dharma cloud colored the wilds, taming the great elephant to return eastward. In the jade grotto, the scriptures of the immortals are subtle and profound, bringing about feathered transformation; with golden countenance and august model, the sage teachings were expounded in the dragon palace. The ultimate Way is hard to name, and its spiritual efficacy cannot be measured. From the Zhou and Han dynasties onward, both were recorded in red and blue; under the Cao Wei and Jin dynasties, they continued without decline. Thus we know that those who turn to the profound gate have numbered a thousand ages, and those who venerate the Buddhist scriptures have been a hundred kings. Shaving the hair and donning black robes, they disdain the beauty of fine steeds and rich furs; altering the cap and wearing yellow garments, they look down upon the glory of hairpins and ribbons. None fail to have their resolve transcend the world and their minds wander beyond the realm. They cast off the etiquette of yielding bows to take up the deportment of the monastic precepts; they relax the rules of rites and music to wander in the chamber of pure emptiness. Therefore, the Tathāgata's secret teaching severed reverence to rulers and parents, and from antiquity down to the present, this teaching has not decayed. If the teaching can be abolished, the Dharma can also be excised; but if the teaching is discarded while the Dharma is kept, where will the Dharma be placed? Moreover, that an armored soldier does not bow is not because a common soldier honors himself; that the heavenly countenance is only a foot away does not mean a single soldier is esteemed. Both rely on bearing majesty and receiving commands; therefore their propriety discards humble reverence. How much more so for those who extend their thoughts to the mist and clouds, freeing themselves from the snare of worldly dust, and awaken their sentiments to the Dharma realm, breaking out of the cage of resentment and meeting! Yet to make them lower their appearance of transcending the world to perform the rites of entering a household—examining antiquity, we fear it violates universal principles; discussing the present, we fear it breaches standard statutes. Deliberating on rustic points, we dare submit our narrow view; looking upon our crude and flawed presentation, fear and trembling intermingle in our hearts. Respectfully deliberated.