北山錄 9.2.1

9.2.1

Those of vast capacity regard receptive openness as an excellence; those of far-reaching minds regard extensive learning as superior (The *Liji* says: "If jade is not cut, it cannot become a vessel; if a person does not study, they will not know the Way." The Master said: "Daily to know what one lacks, and monthly not to forget what one can do." "To review the old and know the new—one may thereby become a teacher." "Superior" means preeminent). Therefore our Great Sage and the wise kings of antiquity praised broad capabilities and highly lauded superior wisdom, so that those with round heads and square feet could thereby distinguish the worthy from the foolish (If a person does not study, it is like standing facing straight against a wall. The tanned hide of a tiger or leopard is like the tanned hide of a dog or sheep). The masters of the Sarvāstivāda (This is a Hīnayāna school of the Western Heavens. Here it is translated as "Masters of Extensive Explanation." Those who are broadly versed, sharp-witted, and guide and benefit teaching and transformation) allow one out of the twelve hours to study external works. Thus within their tradition they are fully able to distinguish between inner and outer scriptures and skillfully resolve doctrinal debates. In the Dharmaguptaka school (Here translated as the "Dharma Mirror School," which branched out from the school of converting others), secular arts and incantations, studied to prevent harm to oneself as well as to keep out depravity, are permitted without offense (That tradition establishes five pitakas: first, the Vinaya; second, the Sūtra; third, the Abhidharma; fourth, the Dhāraṇī; and fifth, the Bodhisattva-piṭaka). A verse in the *Avataṃsaka-sūtra* praising the bodhisattva says: "With elegant thought and profound talent, a king among men of letters, / singing, dancing, and eloquent speech, they are delight to all" (Fascicle 14). The *Mahāprajñāpāramitōpadeśa*, revealing the virtues of the arhats who assembled the canon, says: "They recited the three baskets and understood inner and outer scriptures; the eighteen great books of the non-Buddhists were also entirely read and known by them" (Namely the *Vyākaraṇa*, *Veda* treatises, and so forth). Remotely observing the customs of the ancients, the sages never limited what they knew; they did not dismiss small goods, but in the immediate present elevated literary virtue, and for the distant future achieved the wisdom of all species (Perfuming the mind through practice to accomplish their seed nature). In antiquity, there was an arhat who did not understand the meaning of red salt, and the non-Buddhists and worldly people ridiculed him deeply (In the city of Śrāvastī, the brahmin Dharmarūci always invited monks for meals. He would ask about doctrinal meanings: to those who could answer, he personally gave fine food; to those who could not, he ordered servants to give coarse, bad food. Because of this, the bhikṣus all stopped going to his house. Eventually he went to the Buddha's place. Not far from the Buddha there was an arhat bhikṣu; Dharmarūci asked him: "What is meant by red salt? How many kinds of salt are there?" The bhikṣu said: "I know you are Dharmarūci, who disparages and disdains bhikṣus; now you trouble me again. Salt is merely salt." Having heard the bhikṣu's words, his mind was perplexed, and he came before the Buddha. The Buddha said: "This bhikṣu has not studied under a master; therefore he cannot clearly explain and answer about salt." There was a bhikṣu named Vatsīputra; the Buddha had him go and ask the meaning of salt. The bhikṣu said: "Salt has two aspects. The first is its single flavor, like the great ocean water having the same salty taste. The second is the variety of its natures and tastes: there are black salt, red salt, saindhava salt, viḍa salt, romaka salt, kāca salt, sitā salt, and bika salt. To speak briefly of two kinds, there are the raw and the boiled. This is called the meaning of salt." Dharmarūci heard this, rejoiced, and withdrew). When it comes to leaving the burning house, how could ordinary beings in birth-and-death ever compare to them? (Far distant indeed. The sages have escaped the dilapidated burning house; those ordinary beings in birth-and-death cannot compare to them.) Yet when speaking of external affairs, the sagely wisdom of liberation may sometimes be inferior to ordinary beings (Merely through a single practice and a single wisdom they sever delusions and realize sageliness, but their knowledge is not yet all-encompassing, and may be inferior to ordinary beings). Therefore, gathering ridgepoles and rafters from the catalpa and cedar, securing plumes and down from wild swans, and hunting for colorful pelts among tigers and leopards—in these things one seeks what is near to their nature (Near means close. Ridgepoles and rafters are close to catalpa and cedar; plumes and down are close to wild swans; colorful pelts are close to tigers and leopards. It is permissible to seek them according to their category. To "secure" means shooting arrows with cords). But to seek omniscience in an arhat is not so (In the four stages of application, it is still like shooting arrows in the dark, sometimes hitting and sometimes missing; how much more so for the lesser sages!). In the past, a rustic in the Royal City did not believe that the Great Sage's wisdom encompassed all things, and questioned him on the base and lowly matters of herding cattle. The Great Sage condescended to explain these matters in detail; the herding clan marvelled at what they heard, leaped for joy with faith, and consequently all attained the Way (Nanda the cowherd thought that since the Buddha was born in a royal palace and left home to attain the Way, he certainly would not understand cattle herding, so how could he be called all-knowing? He then went to question the Buddha. The Buddha preached for him the one-fascicle *Cowherd Sūtra*, covering all matters of pasturing and nurturing through the four seasons. His clan rejoiced and left home, and all attained the fruit of the Way). Therefore, the disciples of the Śākya clan examine themselves internally: within the gate of advancing in cultivation, what can be studied yet is not studied, and what can be known yet is not known, constitutes the offense of unstudied ignorance. What is studied in the Western Heavens consists generally of the five sciences (First, grammar and linguistics, which elucidate characters and words. Second, medicine, which treats medical arts and divination. Third, the arts and crafts, which cover all skills and crafts. Fourth, logic and epistemology, which decisively settle the heterodox and orthodox through the proposition, reason, and example. Fifth, inner science, which recognizes and penetrates cause and effect, and thoroughly understands the true tradition). *Śabda-vidyā*, rendered here as the science of sound and linguistics, is one of the five sciences, because it broadly records the teachings of sounds and words of all phenomena. Their secular classics are collectively called *Vyākaraṇa*, formerly termed the *Vigara Treatise*. Generally there are five great divisions, like the Five Classics of this land. The first is called the *Siddhaṃ* chapter, taking the meaning of accomplishing auspiciousness, bestowed upon beginning students. It was originally transmitted through forty-nine characters, forming eighteen chapters, totaling over ten thousand characters and combining over three hundred verses. Each verse has four lines, and each line has eight characters, combining to thirty-two characters. It is transmitted as having been spoken by Maheśvara (This text is transmitted in the Western Heavens; today it cannot be fully known). The second is the *Sūtra* (which is *sūtra*, here called a canonical scripture, meaning the scripture that explains linguistic teachings), which is the fundamental authentic scripture of all linguistics. Summarizing essential principles, it contains one thousand verses, composed by the ancient great scholar Pāṇini. That man was protected by Maheśvara and had three eyes on his face. The third is the *Dhātu*, with one thousand verses, dedicated to clarifying the functions of verbal roots, just like the aforementioned scripture (It is also a fundamental text of linguistics, just like the aforementioned scripture). The fourth is *Saṃkīrṇa*, meaning uncultivated wasteland, compared in sense to a farmer of the fields first clearing furrows and ridges. It has three chapters, each with one thousand verses (Having three sections), broadly elucidating sounds and rhymes to compose character forms (Like the level, oblique, and four tones of this land, which are the beginning of study). The fifth is the *Vṛtti-sūtra*, which is the commentary on the *Sūtra* (The above four items are the authentic scriptures.