集沙門不應拜俗等事 6.26

6.26

Your servant has heard that the secret teaching flowed eastward, expanding its transformation through enlightened rulers; the dark breeze moved westward, establishing its school by relying on supreme wisdom. Therefore we know that the principle of broadly delivering through thousands of gateways is proclaimed along the refined Way; and the reason for leading and guiding the myriad kinds blocks the path of heterodoxy. One can only follow the sacred teaching in exalting or restraining; how could it be raised or lowered according to human affairs? The śramaṇa seeks the superior fruit of the future; the Daoist priest trusts in the naturalness of endowed life. The natural prizes grasping true nature and cutting off traces of recent falsity; the superior fruit aims to nip things in the bud and open from afar the mind directed toward the Way. Although the sources of guidance and salvation are not identical, in following goodness they ultimately converge in a single result. We humbly submit that Your Majesty the Emperor embraces the Origin and establishes the Ultimate, drives the singular vehicle and manifests uprightness, rides the Great Way to diffuse humility, and complies with non-action to descend and deliver. Aligning Your mind to accord with things, Your teaching is accomplished without severity. Now, however, the precedence between Daoism and Buddhism is decided, and the bowing and prostrating of śramaṇas is enforced. Bowing and prostrating is identical to common ritual and is not the cause for transcending the world. Precedence is the sentiment of self and other; how could it be called the subtlety of non-action? Your Majesty has propagated the breeze of the Way and presented the Buddhist teachings anew; on every day of the fast You order that blessings be prayed for. Praying for blessings relies entirely on scriptural teachings; why should these two be in contradiction? Your Majesty is the divine source of creation; parents are the affectionate appellation of human children. Your Majesty, with the supreme weight [of Your station], has still halted the ritual of bowing and reverence; since those who gave birth are said to be subjects of the ruler, how can they bend the rules to extend personal sentiment and courtesy, abandoning the honored to turn to affection, and discarding the weight [of office] to transgress the scriptures? Even following sentiment it still does not hold; relying on the teaching, how can it be implemented? Your Majesty unites Heaven and illuminates the Way, complying with things and manifesting form. If things of form are still not allowed to be transgressed, how should the pure teaching be altered? We hope Your Majesty will follow the will of heaven and humans, accord with the hearts of the myriad things, halt the new ritual of bowing and prostrating, and abide by the old convention of precedence. May the golden light shine in the east without being mixed with the sorrow of the secular; may the purple vapor illuminate the west without being startled by the nobility of self and other. Thus the Great Way will not be obscured and will receive assistance in an enlightened age; and the karmic deeds of merit will forever be upright, repeatedly shining in the sacred day. Respectfully stated. Presented on the tenth day of the seventh month.