出三藏記集 8.29

8.29

夫本際冥湛則神根凝一。涉動離淳則精麁異陳。於是心轡競策塵想諍馳。翳有淺深則昏明殊鏡。是以從初得佛暨于此經。始應物開津。故三乘別流。別流非真則終期有會。會必同源。故其乘唯一。唯一無上。故謂之妙法。頌曰。是乘微妙。清淨第一。於諸世間。最無有上。夫妙不可明。必擬之有像。像之美者蓮華為上。蓮華之秀分陀利為最。妙萬法而為言。故喻之分陀利。其為經也。明發矇不可以語極。釋權應之所由。御終不可以祕深則開實以顯宗。權應既彰則扃心自廢。宗致既顯則真悟自生。故能令萬流合注。三乘同往。同往之三會而為一乘之始也。覺慧成滿乘之盛也。滅景澄神乘之終也。雖以萬法為乘。然統之有主。舉其宗要則慧收其名。故經以真慧為體。妙一為稱。是以釋迦玄音始發讚佛智甚深。多寶稱善歎平等大慧。頌曰。為說佛慧故。諸佛出世間。唯此一事實。餘二則非真。然則佛慧乃一之正實。乘之體成。妙之至足。華之開秀者也。雖寄華宣微而道玄像表。稱之曰妙。而體絕精麁。頌曰。是法不可示。言辭相寂滅。二乘所以息慮。補處所以絕塵。唯佛與佛乃能究焉。故恒沙如來。感希聲以靈萃。已逝之聖。振餘靈而現證。信佛法之奧區。窮神之妙境。其此經之謂乎。此經之謂乎。觀少習歸一之言。長味會通之要。然緬思愈勤而幽旨彌潛。未嘗不面靈鷲以遐想。臨辭句而增懷。諒由枝說差其本。謬文乖其正也。有外國法師鳩摩羅什。超爽俊邁奇悟天拔。量與海深辯流玉散。繼釋蹤以嗣軌。秉神火以霜燭。紐頹綱於將絕。拯漂溺於已淪。耀此慧燈來光斯境。秦弘始八年夏。於長安大寺集四方義學沙門二千餘人。更出斯經。與眾詳究。什自手執胡經口譯秦語。曲從方言而趣不乖本。即文之益亦已過半。雖復霄雲披翳陽景俱暉。未足喻也。什猶謂語現而理沈。事近而旨遠。又釋言表之隱。以應探賾之求。雖冥扉未開。固已得其門矣。夫上善等潤靈液尚均。是以仰感囑累俯慨未同。故採述旨要流布未聞。庶法輪遐軫往所未往。十方同悟究暢一乘。故序之云爾。

When the original boundary is obscure and profound, the spiritual source congeals in oneness; once it enters motion and departs from simplicity, the subtle and the coarse are arrayed differently. Thereupon the reins of the mind vie in their urging, and defiled thoughts contend in their gallop. Where delusions have depths and shallows, darkness and brightness reflect differently. For this reason, from when he first attained Buddhahood up until this scripture, he initially opened the ford in response to beings, so that the three vehicles flowed apart. Since flowing apart is not ultimate, in the end they must converge; when they converge, they necessarily share a single source, and therefore the vehicle is only one. Because it is singular and unsurpassed, it is called the Wondrous Dharma (Saddharma). The verse says: 'This vehicle is subtle and wondrous, / Pure and foremost, / Among all worlds, / It is the most unsurpassed.' Now the wondrous cannot be made plain [directly]; it must be figured by an image. Among the finest of images, the lotus flower is supreme; among the excellences of the lotus flower, the puṇḍarīka is foremost. Wondrous above the myriad phenomena it is declared, and thus it is analogized as the puṇḍarīka. As for this scripture, it makes clear that the ignorant cannot be addressed with the ultimate, explaining the reason for expedient responses; at the culmination of guidance the profound cannot be concealed, and so it discloses the real to reveal the fundamental purport. Once the expedient responses are manifested, closed minds naturally open; once the fundamental purport is revealed, true awakening naturally arises. Thus it can cause myriad streams to merge their course, and the three vehicles to advance together. The three advancing together converge to form the inception of the One Vehicle. The full realization of awakening and wisdom is the flourishing of the vehicle. Extinguishing shadows and clarifying the spirit is the culmination of the vehicle. Although the myriad phenomena are taken as the vehicle, its integration has a master; when its essential purport is raised, wisdom claims the title. Therefore the scripture takes true wisdom as its essence, and wondrous oneness as its designation. For this reason, when Śākyamuni's profound voice first rang out, he praised the profound depth of the Buddha's wisdom; Prabhūtaratna commended it as good, extolling the great wisdom of equality. The verse says: 'For the sake of preaching the Buddha's wisdom, / The Buddhas appear in the world; / Only this one matter is real, / The other two are not true.' If so, then the Buddha's wisdom is the upright reality of the One, the embodiment and completion of the vehicle, the supreme sufficiency of the wondrous, and the blossoming excellence of the flower. Although relying on the flower to convey the subtle, the Way is profound beyond images; though termed 'wondrous', its essence transcends both refined and coarse. The verse says: 'This dharma cannot be demonstrated, / The characteristics of speech are extinguished in quiescence.' It is that whereby the two vehicles cease their reflections, and those in the stage of succession leave all defilement behind; only a Buddha together with a Buddha can fathom it to the utmost. Therefore, Tathāgatas numerous as the sands of the Ganges, stirred by the rare sound, assembled their spirits; sages who had already passed away shook their remaining spirits to appear as witness. Truly it is the inner sanctuary of the Buddha's Dharma, the wondrous realm that exhausts the spirit—is it not this scripture of which we speak? Is it not this scripture of which we speak? From youth, I, Huiguan, practiced the teachings of returning to the One, and in maturity relished the essentials of synthetic comprehension. Yet the more diligently I reflected from afar, the more submerged the hidden purport became; never did I look toward Vulture Peak with distant longing or approach the phrased sentences without deepened sentiment. Truly this was because diverging explanations deviated from the root, and erroneous texts ran contrary to the correct! There was the foreign Dharma master Kumārajīva, extraordinarily eminent and heroic, of extraordinary awakening naturally gifted, whose capacity was deep as the ocean and whose eloquence flowed like scattered jade. He followed the footsteps of Śākyamuni to inherit his path; holding the divine torch, he illuminated like frost. He re-tied the collapsing net as it was about to break; he rescued those drifting and drowning who had already sunk. Radiating this lamp of wisdom, he came to illuminate this land. In the summer of the eighth year of the Hongshi era of the Qin [406 CE], in the Great Monastery of Chang'an, he assembled more than two thousand śramaṇas of doctrinal learning from the four quarters to bring forth this scripture anew and investigate it thoroughly with the assembly. Kumārajīva personally held the Hu manuscript in hand and translated it orally into the Qin language; accommodating the local speech without deviating from the essential purport. The benefit of the text itself already exceeded half [of previous versions]. Even clearing the clouds of the night sky so that the sunlight shines forth together would not suffice as a metaphor. Yet Kumārajīva still considered the words to be apparent while the principle remained sunken, the events near while the purport was far; he further explained the concealed beyond the words to meet the demands of those seeking the profound. Although the dark portal was not fully thrown open, one had certainly obtained its gate. Now, supreme goodness moistens equally, and the spiritual fluid is ever balanced; therefore, looking up, I am moved by the entrusted transmission, and looking down, I lament that not all are unified. Hence I have extracted and set forth the essential purport to circulate among those who have not heard it, hoping that the wheel of Dharma will turn far to reach where it has never reached, and that all in the ten directions will together awaken and fully fathom the One Vehicle. Therefore I have prefaced it thus.