北山錄 2.2.3

2.2.3

[just as people in the Western lands string together flower garlands as an adornment].) The supreme words have a standard, conform to the compass and square, and when the people take them as a model, all attain [benefit]; hence they are called 'teachings of the Dharma' (just as when a king's words go forth, the whole realm conforms to them; the compass is round, the square is rectangular, both square and round accord with their standards and serve as the norm for mankind, hence called 'dharma'; dharma means a standard). Their words are like thoroughwort, their trustworthiness ever-constant, and when all under heaven draw upon them without knowing exhaustion, all attain [benefit]; hence they are called 'teachings of constancy' (thoroughwort is a fragrant herb; 'constant' means eternal; like a gushing spring that never dries up, hence called 'constant'). Treatises are composed by disciples together; because they are able to combine and separate the ultimate and conventional, unfolding and gathering nominal principles, their inner profundities are fully mastered, their flavour is deep and vast, and they are the source from which Dharma principles arise, all [such texts] may be called mātṛkā (treatise has the sense of cyclic scrutiny and exhaustive clarification of the true school; originally they were only spoken by the Buddha and scattered among the various sūtras; later both Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna noble disciples composed them in common; being able to separate and combine the ultimate and conventional, distinguish form and mind, determine the purport of being and non-being, and exhaust the inner profundities of terms and meanings—is that not uniquely the Treatise Piṭaka? In Sanskrit it is called mātṛkā, here translated as 'matrix'; it generates wisdom just as a mother gives birth to a child). Subduing and feigning compliance, capturing and releasing, opening and closing the strategic passes (to feign is deception; to comply is submission; capture is seizure; release is letting go; the method of doctrinal debate sometimes feigns compliance or releases, only to seize the meaning later; opening is unlocking; closing is shutting; pass is a gate's bolt; barrier is a bypath; the doctrinal schools have openings and closures, prohibitions and blockades at their critical passes), their speech aims precisely at the mark, yet they still retain reserve strength upon release (the way of setting forth speech must have precise accuracy; like an arrow shot from a bowstring, it must strike the target; release means letting loose; setting forth one's thesis must leave courage to spare; in the Four Schools of the Nyāyamukha, one does not look back to doctrinal treatises, etc.), so that none of the rival factions of non-Buddhists dare to insult them (treatises crush the heterodox and manifest the orthodox, so followers of non-Buddhist paths dare not treat them with contempt); hence they are all called upadeśa (in Sanskrit upadeśa, here translated as doctrinal exposition). Dharma refers to what is confronted (belonging to the objective sphere illuminated). Wisdom is the directed contemplation (referring to the mind capable of illumination). Direction brings overcome destruction (meaning that when the cognitive wisdom arises, all afflictions are destroyed). Contemplation achieves sagehood (meaning that when wisdom illuminates the principle, like a lamp illuminating things, it reveals the holy path). Hence they are all called abhidharma (in Sanskrit abhidharma, here translated as 'incomparable Dharma'). Formerly, on one occasion, the Buddha said, 'This side, that side, and the middle,' and entered samādhi (one day the Buddha spoke of three items—this side, that side, and the middle—without specifying them, and entered samādhi). The great disciples each according to their own understanding competed to proclaim the Sage's meaning: some took saṃsāra as 'this side', nirvāṇa as 'that side', and the Path as 'the middle' (saṃsāra refers to the two kinds of saṃsāra, discontinuous and transformative, as 'this side'; nirvāṇa refers to the principle realized in the four kinds of nirvāṇa as 'that side'; the Path is the realizing wisdom as 'the middle'); some took the eye sense-organ as 'this side', visible form as 'that side', and consciousness as 'the middle' (the sense-organ is capable of illuminating, the objective sphere is what is illuminated, and consciousness in the middle is capable of discerning). In this way there were five hundred explanations, none agreeing with another, yet their intentions did not contradict (though each was different, each spoke his own understanding). When the Great Sage arose from samādhi, Śāriputra and the others presented their views and inquired about their doubts. The Buddha said: 'I spoke of contact as this side, origination as that side, and feeling as the middle (contact is confronting the object, origination is capable of defiling, and the mind's feeling in the middle receives and experiences it). Though your understandings were not my intention, nevertheless they are all causes for extinguishing suffering, and all should be retained and practised, not forgotten' (caobei means their group; though what the disciples said was not the Buddha's original intention, it still did not violate the principle). Therefore, while the Buddha-sun had not yet set, Śāriputra composed the Saṅgītiparyāya-pāda-śāstra (twenty fascicles, one hundred eighty-nine sheets, translated by Xuanzang), Maudgalyāyana composed the Dharmaskandha-pāda-śāstra (twenty fascicles, one hundred seventy-eight sheets, translated by Xuanzang), and Kātyāyana composed the Prajñapti-pāda-śāstra (eighteen thousand verses; this has not yet been seen in circulation; the above three treatises were all composed by disciples during the Tathāgata's lifetime). After the jade urn-hair grew dark, Devaśarman composed the Vijñānakāya-pāda-śāstra (sixteen fascicles, composed one hundred years after the Buddha's passing, translated by Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang), Vasumitra composed the Prakaraṇapāda-śāstra (eighteen fascicles, two hundred ninety sheets, composed three hundred years after the Buddha's passing) and the Dhātukāya-pāda-śāstra (three fascicles, forty-nine sheets, composed by Vasumitra; the above are called the Six Pādas). Kātyāyanī[putra] composed the Jñānaprasthāna-śāstra (sixteen fascicles, three hundred sixty-five sheets; because the great doctrines are complete, this treatise is designated the 'body', and the six pādas are designated the 'feet'; composed after the Buddha's passing). In all, these seven treatises gave free rein to talent and refinement, surpassing ordinary models; they sought the Sage's intention from all angles, assisting the divine transformation. In their vastness they exhausted heaven and earth; in their minuteness they examined the subtlest atoms (the seven treatises are all Hīnayāna texts; their rhetoric is vast and magnificent, their style exceptional; from nature and marks to mind and form, there is nothing they do not fully discuss; the subtlest atom is the dust mote bordering on void). Compared to the Ruist school, it is as if the Three Commentaries and the Four Odes each made their sounds of gold and jade (the Three Commentaries are: first, the Zuo Qiuming Commentary; second, the Gongyang Gao Commentary; third, the Guliang Chi Commentary. The Four Odes are: the Lu Odes, transmitted by Master Shen Pei of Lu, whom Emperor Wu of Han summoned with rush-cushioned wheels when he was over eighty, using the Book of Odes as instruction, transmitted orally without written commentary; second, the Qi Odes, transmitted by Master Yuan Gu of Qi; third, the Han Odes, studied by Han Ying of Yan; fourth, the Mao Odes, transmitted to Zixia by Master Mao of Hejian, courtesy name Wencao). For this reason, at the beginning of the four-hundredth year, in the country of Kaśmīra, five hundred [arhats with] the six supernatural knowledges compiled the Mahāvibhāṣā based on the Jñānaprasthāna (at the beginning of the four-hundredth year after the Buddha's passing, there was an arhat named Kātyāyanīputra who struck the gaṇḍī and universally announced to all devas, worthy ones, and sages of the ten directions that those who had heard even one verse or one phrase from the Buddha must not enter nirvāṇa, and should all gather in Kaśmīra; once the holy ones arrived, they gathered what they had heard, accepting what was correct and discarding what was false, thereby completing the Mahāvibhāṣā, translated here as 'Great Commentary'; it was forbidden to let it leave the country, but it is said that the Venerable Vasubhadra secretly entered that country, recited it, left the country and returned, transmitting it to Jibin, after which it spread to the various countries), fully explaining the Tripiṭaka (meaning sūtra, vinaya, and śāstra). Because it has eight chapters, translators called it the 'Eight Skandhas', and also called it the 'Eight Piṭakas' (skandha and piṭaka both mean a collection; namely the eight skandhakas). By the five-hundredth year, Nāgārjuna's learning had exhausted everything within the realm.