寺沙門玄奘上表記 1.76

1.76

The śramaṇa Xuanzang says: Xuanzang has heard that the path to bodhi is far, and those who hasten along it must rely on provisions; the river of birth-and-death is deep, and those who cross it must depend on a raft. 'Provisions' refers to the sublime practices of the three disciplines and the three wisdoms, not to overnight grain; a 'raft' refers to the pure karma of the eight patiences and eight contemplations, not to an ordinary paired boat. Thus the Buddhas, possessing them, ascend to the other shore, while ordinary worldlings, lacking them, sink into birth-and-death. Consequently, across the vast trailokya, all drift upon the river of the seven outflows; across the boundless four forms of birth, all drown in the waves of the ten entanglements. None fails to have their mind bewildered and their thought intoxicated amid spinning billows and swirling mists, wearing out rocks across kalpas without respite, exhausting mustard-seed realms yet growing ever more entrenched. Never do they know how to drive the three carts out of the burning house, or mount the Noble Eightfold Path to reach the jewel land. Truly it is lamentable! How could it merely be that the autumn air brings a sigh, or only the sentiment of Confucius? This is why I have never sat down to a meal without setting down my chopsticks, or lain down to sleep without starting awake. / Xuanzang constantly reflects that this body is a temporary combination of numerous conditions, impermanent from thought-moment to thought-moment. Even a tree overhanging a cliff or a vine dangling down a well cannot adequately match its fragility; a gandharva city or water froth cannot illustrate its lack of solidity. Therefore, taking morning and evening as its limit, I have no hope for longevity; yet months and years flow like water, and the age of sixty has swiftly arrived. Pondering this swift passing, one may know one's lifespan. Moreover, from youth onward, in quest of the Dharma and searching for masters and companions, there is nowhere I have not traveled, whether in our own realm or foreign lands. The path was distant and long, and my physical strength has become exhausted. In recent years, my frailty has increased even more. Gazing at the shadows and looking at the daylight, how much more time can remain? With provisions not yet replete and the forward road gradually shrinking, not a day passes without my grieving over this; brush and ink cannot fully express it. / Yet this humble life has been most fortunate in repeatedly meeting with an enlightened sage, receiving extraordinary bounty from the glorious court and bearing unmerited imperial favor from Your Majesty. I have been bathed in Your grand compassion for many months and years. As for the increase of my reputation, the raising of my esteem, the spreading of my renown, and the soaring of my fame, they have taken flight without wings, sitting aloft beyond the celestial vault; I have received the offerings of the four necessities and surpassed the glory of my peers. To seek such things among the men of antiquity, none was ever like this. What virtue or merit does Xuanzang possess to reach such heights? All this has been due to the celestial waves spreading their broad moisture, and the sun and moon deigning to cast their light, thereby causing a stone of Yan to be prized as a gem and an old jade to be held in honor. Looking into myself and reflecting within, I feel only profound shame and embarrassment. / Furthermore, that loss follows upon surfeit and harm upon repletion is the refined teaching of former sages; to have few desires and know contentment is also the sincere admonition of all Buddhas. Xuanzang measures himself: my learning and accomplishments are empty, and I have achieved nothing in name or substance. It is not fitting that I should long presume upon celestial compassion and imperial bounty. I beg to be allowed to retire and end my life in the mountain forests, offering worship, chanting sūtras, and practicing walking meditation to repay the imperial patronage. / Furthermore, Your Majesty, with the majesty of a wheel-turning king, has propagated the conversion of the Dharma King, ordering all the scriptural texts obtained from the Western Regions to be translated. Xuanzang, unworthily filling a vacancy, assumed this office without proper qualifications. Having received the imperial command, I have had no rest day or night. By now, more than six hundred fascicles have been translated, all of which are the essentials of the Three Piṭakas and the Four Āgamas, the axles of the Great and Small Vehicles, the thicket of the stages and practices of ordinary beings and sages, and the ocean-deep reservoir of the eighty thousand Dharma-gates. In the Western Regions they are praised and extolled as canons that secure the state and protect the realm; whatever words and meanings are sought can be found without fail. It is like choosing timber in Deng Forest, taking what is large or small as one wishes, or gathering pearls at the seashore, collecting round or square as one pleases. For students of the Dharma, this may be considered an approximation of its source. In using this to repay the state's benevolence, it can never truly be exhausted; nevertheless, I hope it represents one part in ten thousand. / However, to sever and subdue the afflictions, meditation and wisdom must assist each other. Like the two wheels of a chariot, if one is lacking, the goal cannot be reached. Savoring and investigating the sūtras and treatises is the discipline of wisdom; relying on the forest to sit in serene quietude is the discipline of meditation. Since my youth, Xuanzang has been able to dedicate himself to the doctrine; only in the four dhyānas and the nine meditative attainments have I had no leisure to settle my mind. I now wish to entrust my thoughts to the gate of meditation, clear my mind in the waters of absorption, check the wild restlessness of the monkey-mind, and tether the frantic charge of the elephant-thought. If I do not retire to the mountains, this cannot be accomplished. / Now I have learned that Mount Chonggao and Mount Shaoshi in this prefecture have overlapping ranges and peaks, with many marvelous streams. They cradle the wind and clouds, and store up benevolence and wisdom; fruit and medicinal herbs flourish abundantly, and creeping vines are pure and ethereal. Truly they are famed mountains within the seas, divine peaks within the realm. Within them are also the Shaolin Monastery, the Xianju Temple, and others, all straddling and resting upon crags and ravines, encircling and banded by woods and springs, where Buddhist observances are reverent and dwellings are secluded and profound. This is the very site where Bodhiruci, the Tripiṭaka master of the Later Wei, translated the scriptures; it is truly a place where one may take refuge to practice meditation and contemplation. / Furthermore, even the two Shu, court officials, knew to retire to the sea and decline worldly glory; Chao and Xu, ordinary recluses, still knew to nest in the Ji mountains and maintain their simplicity. How much more so for Xuanzang, who left household life for the Dharma, to linger mistakenly within the municipal market! When the clear wind blows upon me, reflecting on this only adds to my shame. / Prostrating, I reflect that Your Majesty's brilliance surpasses the seven luminaries and shines to the depths of the nine nether regions. I humbly beg You to understand this foolish sincerity and specially grant Your permission, allowing me to sever the clamor and dust of the mundane world and withdraw my footsteps from among humankind, keeping company with herds of deer and following the flock of wild ducks and cranes, resting my body upon a single rock and sheltering my shadow beneath the shade of a single tree, guarding and observing the mind-monkey, contemplating the true nature of dharmas, so that the thieves of the four māras and the nine fetters find nowhere to break in, while the minds of the five patiences and ten practices are brought forth one after another, serving as a gradual path to bodhi and a wholesome cause for the other shore. Outwardly, this will not encumber the imperial influence; inwardly, it will enhance religious practice. In this way, I shall spend the remainder of my life repaying the imperial benevolence. / If I am granted this kind indulgence, I might aspire to follow the refined integrity of Huiyuan of Mount Lu, and hope to continue the pure subtlety of Daolin of the Shan peaks. Furthermore, I hope to translate scriptures occasionally during intervals of meditation and contemplation. Unable to contain my boundless joy and desire, I reverently present this memorial to the throne, reporting it for Your consideration. Intruding upon the imperial majesty, I am exceedingly terrified. Respectfully stated.