法苑珠林 55.4

55.4

It is heard that when the three vehicles opened their tracks, the children escaped the disaster of the burning house; when the eightfold noble path initiated its origin, the multitude of living beings awakened to the fruit of non-action. Therefore, the clouds of compassion rain moisture down without discriminating between wormwood and orchids; the sun of wisdom pours forth brilliance, how could it distinguish between riverbanks and valleys? Furthermore, establishing the teachings and handing down models exhausted the wondrous and probed the subtle; generating ultimate feelings of compassion, it is hard to measure and fathom. Though there are the Confucian arts of Zhou and Kong, and the mysterious ethos of Zhuang and Lao, if one seeks to compare them with this, they are entirely beyond comparison. As for the worthy gentlemen of imperial eras and the enlightened rulers of past and present, all together have revered it, without diverging in veneration. It aims to make jade and gravel differ in price, and the Jing and Wei rivers divide their flows; to subdue the six teachers and rectify the eight heterodoxies; to reverse the four inversions and return to the single flavour; to break the spontaneous nature posited by mundane defilements, and raise up the correct path of cause and effect; to break the empty horns of heterodox wisdom, and shut the false speech of deviant views; so that the precious heart seeking the pearl may open, and the false consciousness regarding the elephant may be rectified. Unless one's virtue equals the true limit and one's substance unites with the unborn, how could one tally with this mysterious gate and tread this single reality?