鐔津文集 8.15.2

8.15.2

They merely see that his followers do not engage in worldly affairs, leave their families and flee, cast off their physical bodies, and do not personally produce their clothing and food; regarding this as bizarre and far removed from common custom, they criticize it deeply and sharply. They merely hate freckles and dark spots as an affliction, but do not see that the sickness of the pulse is profound. Dark spots do nothing more than alter the skin; when the sickness of the pulse is extremely profound, it cuts off a person's life. Now, the Sage leads them to sever affection and love, and to entrust their bodies beyond the mundane world, wishing that they preserve the ultimate root of nature and life in order to cure the great disease of birth and death; this is what is called treating that which transcends the world. It is as Laozi said: 'The reason I have great calamity is that I have a body; when I have no body, what calamity do I have?' Nowadays, people do not express the slightest gratitude for its ability to cure this great affliction for the realm; instead, they invariably compare it to worldly teachings and criticize it. This is also because their insight has not penetrated. Moreover, I have heard that in all things, that which takes form is easy to see, while that which lies in principle is difficult to perceive. For what takes form is conspicuous, while what pertains to principle is subtle and obscure. Although the present teachings of the Buddha bring vast benefits to worldly affairs in great abundance, because their principles are profound and mysterious, few scholars are able to see them. Although I am unworthy of understanding them, let me now venture to deduce their broad outlines, presenting them straightforwardly to Your Majesty, in the hope that Your Majesty will deign to impart them to instruct the scholars of the world; that would be the greatest good fortune for life and death. I have heard that the essence of the Buddha's Dharma lies in people rectifying their minds. If one's mind is truly rectified, then its Way is supreme and its virtue is abundant. For in what it expounds, passions and nature are distinguished, and the true and the false are examined. Today, if Your Majesty nurtures sincerity through Great Harmony and embraces the realm with benevolence, grace, ritual, and righteousness, then although Your glorious excellence has already proven efficacious, if You rectify Your mind through the Buddha's Dharma, Your Way and virtue will become ever more full and flourishing. The sutra says: 'The wondrous, pure, and luminous mind natures all minds.' This is what it means. In the past, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang initially enlisted the followers of the Buddha and Laozi to perceive the nature through non-action, and thereupon became pure of himself, engaging in cultivation and perfume; thus, during the Kaiyuan era, the realm was well ordered for thirty years, richly possessed of the style of the Zhenguan reign, and the Son of Heaven lived to the age of seventy-eight, enjoying the state for forty-five years. How could one know that this was not due to the Buddha's Dharma assisting his Way and virtue in this way? Emperor Wu of the Liang kept the fasts and maintained purity surpassing that of eminent monks, and he also enjoyed the throne for nearly fifty years; the Jiangbiao region enjoyed modest prosperity, and his lifespan was exceptionally long. This is also proof of the Buddha's Dharma assisting government. If the Tang emperor had not indulged his passions and the Liang emperor had not become excessively humble, if both had known men and employed them, and had been cautious in their virtue from beginning to end, would they not have been completely good and completely beautiful? Yet these are matters upon which Your Majesty has long set Your mind; that which secretly assists Your Majesty's sagacious wisdom is what Your Majesty knows and attains of Yourself. How could it rely on the words of a mere wood-gatherer? Nevertheless, the reason I must set this forth at length is in the hope that Your Majesty will issue an edict to show it to scholars, so that they may know that the Buddha's Dharma benefits the Way and virtue of sovereigns in this manner. Furthermore, I have heard that the Buddha's Dharma takes the promotion of good and the cessation of evil as its primary principle. This is also what benefits Your Majesty's transformative teachings the most. Please allow me to test and compare them. Today, in our realm and state, prefectures establish schools and districts set up academies in order to arouse transformative teachings. The discourses of the Odes, Documents, ritual, and righteousness are practiced among the people, wishing that their good deeds will increase day by day and hoping that villainy and evil will not sprout in their hearts. Officials and teachers are further relied upon to proclaim government and transformation, and the flourishing of literary scholars cannot be surpassed even by the Three Dynasties or the Two Han Dynasties. Yet in the homes of the village lanes and rural hamlets, there are still people with ears who have never heard the sounds of the Odes and Documents, and with mouths that do not speak the words of ritual and righteousness; how could there be a limit to such people? Furthermore, they are accustomed to hearing what the Buddha taught—that doing good brings about fortune, and doing evil brings about guilt; guilt extends to the ghosts and spirits, while fortune extends through birth and death. From the foolishness of men and women, husbands and wives below, up to the ranks of the worthy and wise above, there are few who are not transformed by this. Restraining themselves, observing the fasts, releasing life, and stopping killing, whether for days, months, or years, or cultivating their bodies, chanting Buddhist sutras—within the four seas of the realm, it pervades almost all the neighborhoods and garrisons. Meanwhile, there are not a few whose hearts have repented and whose conduct has changed, who practice benevolence, compassion, filial piety, incorruptibility, deference, obedience, truthfulness, and sincerity. These are matters that the ears and eyes of both past and present constantly encounter. If one were to visit house to house and door to door and observe them in this way, I fear they would constitute no less than half the realm. Although the starting point of their practice differs from that of the Ruists, as for entering goodness and achieving good order, how does it differ from what is brought about by the Odes, Documents, ritual, and righteousness? What is meant by 'benefiting Your Majesty's transformative teachings the most' is precisely this. The Book of Tang says: 'Although it is a teaching from a foreign land, it does not harm the source of principle.' This is what it means. Moreover, I have heard that the Dharma of the Buddha uses the five precepts and ten good deeds to teach and guide the worldly, meaning that the cultivation of the five precepts is that by which one becomes a human, and the cultivation of the ten good deeds is that by which one is born in heaven. If one does not regulate either of these two and gives free rein to one's mind in the ten evils, not only will one fail to reach the realms of devas and humans, but one's spirit will subsequently sink into fallen places. Today, the people of the realm who cultivate themselves through the five precepts and ten good deeds are already numerous. In general, following good leaves no room for evil; when there is no evil, punishments need not be troubled. Today, because people follow the precepts and virtues so that Your Majesty's penal laws need not be troubled, how could the realm claim there is no benefit? This is realized of itself without investigation. And in the commanderies and districts throughout the realm, punishments are sometimes curtailed and prisons are sometimes emptied; how could one know that this is not due to hidden assistance? He Shangzhi of the Song said to his ruler: 'If one can practice one good deed, then one evil is eliminated; when one evil is eliminated, one punishment is halted. When one punishment is halted in a family, ten thousand punishments are halted in the state. Thus Your Majesty's words about sitting back and bringing about Great Peace are true.' Indeed, that the Buddha's Dharma can reduce punishments and prisons for Your Majesty is also like this. Furthermore, I have heard that the Buddha is a person of spiritual, divine, and sagacious wisdom, whom the ancients called a 'great and fathomless person.' Birth, death, and transformations left him unperturbed, and birth and death could not transform him. This is because the Way he attained was supremely wondrous; it was more wondrous than heaven, earth, ghosts, and spirits, and heaven, earth, ghosts, and spirits praised it. As a sage, he was also different from what the world calls a sage. Fan Ye's Treatise on the Western Regions states: 'The place where the divine and sagacious descend and gather, the place where the worthy and noble are born.' Pei Xiu also said: 'We know that the Buddha is a great sage, and his teaching has inconceivable matters.'