法苑珠林 11.57

11.57

We have heard that the Great Sage's adaptation to capacities and his traces are without fixed direction; wherever he manifests, there is none that is not benefited. Therefore, the truths are divided into the ultimate and the conventional, and matters are determined by form and mind. Relying on the provisional and the real, one ascends; availing oneself of the vehicle and the expedient, one compares below. Truly, because through birth, old age, sickness, and death there is never a time of emerging on one's own, in bodhi and nirvāṇa there can be the realization of cultivation and entry. However, the inner scriptures are limitless, spoken in response to capacities. Thus, the wheel of the Dharma was first turned in the Deer Park, and the saṃgha was first delivered with Kauṇḍinya. As for the Kāśyapa brothers, the friends [Śāriputra and] Maudgalyāyana, the great influence in the Western Regions, and the universal proclamation in the eastern quarters; the lords of the twenty-eight heavens and the kings of the sixteen states—none did not submit to the Way and incline their hearts, admiring his virtue and joining their palms. Thereupon, in the Palace of Paranirmitavaśavartin, he unfolded the ten stages; atop Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa, he brought together the three vehicles. Subhūti expounded the doctrine of non-attainment, and Vimalakīrti revealed the import of non-speaking. He subdued the non-Buddhists of the ten ṛṣis and restrained the bhikṣus of the group of six. In his chest he swallowed and poured forth rivers; in his palm he shook and swayed mountain valleys. In discussing kalpas, the square stone was repeatedly exhausted; in analyzing counts, even fine motes of dust could be fathomed. Truly, he is the Great Master of the tridhātu, walking alone across ten thousand ages. With my mediocre talent, how could I describe him fully? Even if the Duke of Zhou instituted rituals and created music, Confucius commented on the Changes and edited the Odes, Zigong and Ziyou possessed eloquence, and Zixia and Ziyou possessed literary scholarship; down to Zuo Yuanfang, Ge Xianzi, Laozi, the Master of the Riverbank, Zhuang Zhou, and their kind—they were all confined within the mundane realm; how could they be worth mentioning? As for our Master's Great Dharma, it is the model for humans and gods, the standard for the three-thousandfold world. When it flowed into the Central Xia, its benefits were deep and vast. Widely curing the three poisons, transmitting illumination like a hundred lamps, continuing unbroken—how could it be fully described?