釋氏要覽 1.3

1.3

Formerly, our Buddha wondrously corrected the trikāya and fully perfected the four wisdoms; without entering nirvāṇa, he personally realized [awakening], and employed upāya to deliver people. Expounding and revealing the myriad dharmas, he pointed to the reality limit; guiding and instructing the multitudes, he comprehended original emptiness. He established the gate of samādhi, adorned the complete marks, extinguished attachments to the conditioned, and returned to the forbearance of the non-arising [of dharmas]. When they converged in the ocean of awakening, pure followers truly flourished. Coming to his display of departure into extinction, the councils were held to bequeath his words; scriptures and treatises were transmitted, and the teaching and Dharma were held aloft and clarified. As for their greatness, they encompass the ultimate and cannot be measured; as for their smallness, they are so minute that nothing is omitted, yet when gazed upon they cannot be seen. Exhausting unending kalpas, they cannot be destroyed; running the course of consciousness within existence, they cannot be weighed. Their intertwined threads and clues, though contemplated, cannot be fully grasped; their vast and expansive understanding, without transcendence, cannot be attained. If one does not follow a path, upon what can one rely? Then this present Yaolan can be followed to attain it. Without traveling the western currents, one knows the origins and ends of the five Tianzhus; without roaming the Dharma treasury, one illuminates the regulations of the myriad practices. In motion and rest, according with application, it establishes standards; in cultivation and practice, knowing the destination, one does not go astray. Encompassing the subtle and the manifest, it explains the vehicles and truths to verify them; clearly organizing categories and rules, it balances them across the upper and lower volumes. For one who peruses it, it is just like the sun ascending, whereupon the myriad realms become completely unobstructed. It may be said: Tathatā does not reside in words and phrases. Furthermore, among all dharmas in their unimpeded characteristics, there is neither study nor knowledge, yet one should study and should know. We are increasingly distant from the sage, with differences as fine as hairs and horns. Although studying and although knowing, one still feels inadequate; how could one whose practice and orientation have not yet reached [the goal] distance oneself from study? The cause ground and fruition stage depend upon effort. Now Master Cheng is extensively rich in what he has heard; dedicating himself to the Dharma gift, he maintained his resolve. Inheriting the Buddha's awesome power, he compiled this essential [record]. As for wisdom and sagacity, who would say he is not discerning? Written in the fourth year of the Tianxi era of the Great Song, in the month of the plum autumn, just after the full moon, as a preface and introduction.