出三藏記集 11.14

11.14

The Dvādaśanikāya-śāstra is indeed the arbiter of the true mark, the essential track to the bodhimaṇḍa. The "twelve gates" are the great number that gathers the multitude of branches. "Gate" is the designation for opening through without obstruction. To "treatise" it is to desire to plumb its source and exhaust its principle. If one principle is not exhausted, then the multitude of differences will be in turmoil, resulting in the deviation of straying inclinations; if one source is not plumbed, then the multitude of paths will spread out, leaving traces of disparate directions. That disparate directions are not leveled and diverging inclinations are not abolished is the sorrow of the great being. Therefore, the Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna opened the path of origin for those who emerge, composing the twelve gates to rectify them. Rectifying them by means of the twelve, existence and non-existence are both made clear, and affairs are thoroughly exhausted. When affairs are exhausted in existence and non-existence, one forgets merit in the creation and transformation; when principle culminates in the empty position, one loses the self in the two limits. This being so, losing the self lies in shedding the trap, and forgetting the trap consists in relinquishing reliance. When trap and self are both forgotten, one may then approach the real. Approaching the real, emptiness and reality are both obscured, and gain and loss are boundless. Obscured and boundless, one can forget the haste in the two profundities, and eliminate stumbling into a single accord, directing the returning carriage toward the bodhimaṇḍa, and fulfilling the aspiring mind in the Buddha-stage. Boundless indeed! He may truly be said to wield the empty blade in that which has no crevices, to play the inaudible sound within the realm, to rescue the drowned and lost at the profound ford, and to carry existence and non-existence beyond the worldly bounds. How fortunate are later students! The level path is already smooth, and the dark track already opened; truly they may sound the carriage bells in the Northern Darkness, and drive the white ox back toward the South, awakening to the Great Awakening in the dream realm, and resting in peace by immediate recourse to the hundred transformations. Such being the case, how could one further know the sun when it is in its zenith, or the dark earth when it has not yet ceased? Rui, with the shallow understanding of a base and vulgar person, still ventures in bright sincerity and empty receptivity to harbor aspiration for the ancestral ultimate, hoping for what is fitting in daily practice and trusting that yearly reckoning may yield fruit. How much more so for those of exquisite talent! Unable to overcome the utmost reverent admiration, I venture with blunt phrasing and short thought to preface and set it forth, additionally listing the chapter headings at the beginning. How could this be beneficial? I merely hope by this mind to open a path for my own advancement. (Master Kumārajīva produced it at the Great Monastery in the eleventh year of the Hongshi era of the Qin).