出三藏記集 5.21

5.21

Now, responding without quiescence comes when those who stimulate reach out. Stimuli have the fine and the coarse, and responses likewise are not one: this is the principle of shadow and echo. If one uses this to square off against that, not only will one diverge from its roundness, one will also lose its squareness. Therefore, drawing upon the awakening of full learning, I illustrate that which is doubted. Where doubt is not deep in the vitals, the coarse must surely be treated. If treatment does not reach it, how then could an illustration avail? One may examine previous illustrations in full. In the past, during the restoration of the Han dynasty in the reign of Xiaoming, the light of endless illumination first began to shine upon this land. In terms of the illumination of two [periods of] five [hundred years], that must have been the beginning of the semblance Dharma. From then on, renowned persons of the Western Regions, the like of Marquis An, arrived in succession. The written words of the Great Transformation gradually attained profound illumination, and the frontier vulgarity had its coarseness and perversity refined away. At the end of the Han and the beginning of the Wei, the two chancellors of Guangling and Pengcheng left household life, and both were able to uphold the great illumination. Sages who sought its flavour began to arrange lectures, broadening them with generous interpretations and expanding them with matching expositions. Down to the likes of Fazu, Mengxiang, Faxing, and Kang Senghui, they compiled various sūtras to promulgate the profound purports, roughly managing to satisfy earlier listeners up to the present. Adhering to the texts to seek the purport, their meanings did not stray far from the ancestral source, and their words did not contradict reality—this began with my late master. And when it came to Fu [Jian] annexing Kucha and the three kings coming to court, the masters who upheld the Dharma also assembled together with the sūtras. Dharma Master Kumārajīva arrived from Kucha; tripiṭaka masters who upheld the vinaya gathered from Kapiśa; and dhyāna masters and their followings soon also assembled together. For more than ten years, the Guanzhong region was flourishing; this must have been the height of the Great Dharma's latter revival. I, Sengrui, have ordinary and base talents, yet was fortunate to take part. Facing the master craftsmen, refining and translating the esoteric scriptures, not a day passed without hearing the words of the Dharma; of what I heard, there was no essential point I failed to record. Therefore, I dare to rely upon what I heard and commit it to paper and ink to proclaim what I cherish. Master Kumārajīva said: 'The Great Teaching has flourished in the world for more than fifty years; no word of it is untrue, and in truth nothing fails to benefit. Uttered for benefit, nothing is not teaching; declared as truth, nothing is not a jewel. The jewel is illustrated by the wish-fulfilling [gem]; the teaching takes rectifying faults as its substance. If one can embody its purport of adapting to what is appropriate, then no word is not profound; but if one clings to one single illumination, then no delusion will fail to arise. Now this world is named "turbid" (saṃkirṇa), so one knows that it was originally detached and thin. Being originally detached and thin, it easily produces winds and waves. Winds and waves are easily stirred; what is unrefined is easily dissipated. Being easily stirred and easily dissipated, the Great Sage therefore advanced by adapting to what was appropriate. He did not advance by a single path, and the diversified transformation of the three vehicles arose from this. The Tripiṭaka dispels its defilements and stagnations; the Prajñā removes its illusions and falsehoods; the Lotus opens the single ultimate; and the Nirvāṇa expounds its real transformation. These three fords open illumination, and illumination leaves nothing out.' Yet excellence and inferiority lie in the person; depth and shallowness reside in one's awakening. One practices according to one's measure, without praise or blame. In the first five hundred years, during those five hundred years, many attained the Way and few did not; speaking in terms of the majority, it was called the true Dharma. In the latter five hundred years, there was only mutual censure and disputation filling the paths; few attained the Way and many did not; likewise, characterizing it by the majority, it is named the semblance Dharma. It resembles it yet is not true; the failure arises from human beings. Arising from human failure, there were even those who overturned true words, brandished axes and halberds against the real transformation, with indiscriminate [judgments] arising in their chests and irremediable [words] coming from their lips—these were the Hīnayāna people of the thirty-six kingdoms. This trouble spread to the land of Qin, and the followers of Huiduo then further disbelieved the Larger Chapter [of the Prajñāpāramitā]. After receiving Master Kumārajīva's entry through the pass to open and entrust the true illumination, the light of prajñā was able to shine once again. When the latter-day vulgarity was enlightened by this real transformation, the Lotus was subsequently produced to open the gate of expedient means, expanding its fords and paths so that the single reality became ultimate. Families who rejoiced looked up to it and bathed in it, truly unaware that old age was about to arrive. Yet the monk Tanle, clinging to a biased view, saw it and condemned it, cutting himself off in dark paths, forever unteachable. Now as for the Great Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the monk Faxian sought the authentic text afar and obtained it in India; bringing it to the capital at Yangdu, he held a great gathering of more than a hundred monks learned in doctrine from the capital. The master held the text, collated and translated it, and produced it in full detail. This sūtra says: 'Nirvāṇa is imperishable, the Buddha has a true self, all sentient beings have Buddha-nature, and having Buddha-nature, through learning they can become Buddhas. Because the Buddha has a true self, the mirror of the sage is particularly revered and he is the king among all sages. Nirvāṇa endures forever, serving as the basis of responsive illumination. The Great Transformation does not perish, and the authentic foundation is preserved therein.' Yet people again give rise to doubts, content with gradual illumination while rejecting true instruction, indulging their biased attachments and abandoning themselves to darkness beyond rescue. How can this be right? This is precisely the Lotus opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision. The opening of the Buddha's knowledge and vision can now for the first time be understood; like gold polished to brightness, its manifest appearance can be recognized. Yet they condemn it again! To have such a mind from the source of the Great Transformation—the sūtra's words about the icchantika are truly not in vain! These three gates of the Great Dharma all have confirmed proofs. Formerly, Zhu Shixing inherited the true models and took the Great Dharma as his own task. When lecturing on the Middle and Smaller Chapters [of the Prajñāpāramitā] in Luoyang, there were often places he could not comprehend; he therefore went out beyond the shifting sands to seek the Larger Chapter. Arriving in Khotan, he indeed obtained the authentic text, and immediately dispatched ten disciples to deliver it to Luoyang to be translated into the language of Jin. Before they departed, the Hīnayāna scholars of that land reported it to the king, saying: 'The śramaṇa of the land of Han intends to confuse and disrupt the true words with Brahmanical books. As ruler of the land, if Your Majesty does not stop him, you will cut off the Great Dharma and blind and deafen the land of Han—this will be Your Majesty's fault!' The king therefore would not permit it. Thereupon Zhu Shixing requested that the scripture be burned as proof. The king also complied with his request, stacking ten cartloads of firewood below the palace steps and setting it ablaze. Standing before the steps, Shixing made a sincere vow: 'If the Great Transformation is meant to spread in the land of Han, the scripture must not burn. If it is not meant to be, what can be done about fate?' Having spoken, he threw it in; the fire was immediately extinguished, without damaging a single character. Thus they were able to have this authentic text of the Lotus! In the great country of Khotan, its glory shone upon the double soil and leapt into the air, and thus it was able to circulate here. After this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was produced, there were those who disliked its phrasing as awkward and altered it to make it more convenient, following the petty delusions of human sentiments. There was a monk named Huiyou who privately hired someone to copy the authentic text. At the copyist's home, a fire suddenly broke out, and more than thirty houses were wiped out at once. Searching for bronze and iron utensils amid the ashes and flames, the copyist suddenly saw that the copied text remained in the fire unburned; while the outer margins of the paper he had written on were burned, the characters were not harmed at all, whereas all the other cloths, papers, and bamboo tubes for copying scriptures had been turned to ash. As Master Kumārajīva said, these three scriptures are the three gates of the Great Transformation and the limitless true body; all have spiritual confirmations, leaving no room for doubt. Although in Master Kumārajīva's time the text of the Mahāparinirvāṇa had not yet arrived, there was already the Dharmakāya Sūtra explaining that the Buddha's dharmakāya is precisely nirvāṇa, matching the present translation as if fitting two halves of a tally. If this master had been able to hear that the Buddha has a true self and that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature, it would surely have been like the bright sun clearing his breast and sweet dew moistening his four limbs, without any doubt. How is this known? Whenever he was earnestly asked whether the true lord of the Buddha is also false and unreal, and who is the foundation of freedom from delusion after accumulating merits and virtues, he would sometimes say: 'If the Buddha is false and unreal, who is real? If it is false and unreal, after accumulating merits and virtues, who is their master?' According to what he explored, now to say that the Buddha has true karma and sentient beings have a true nature—even though he had not seen this scripture, when verifying and evaluating the intent, it does not diverge. Moreover, he was once asked: 'In this land there were previously sūtras saying that all sentient beings shall become Buddhas. What about this?' He replied: 'The Lotus opens the Buddha's knowledge and vision; this may also mean that all possess the nature to become Buddhas. If they have the Buddha-nature, why should they not all become Buddhas? However, what this Lotus explains is to explain that there is only the Buddha-vehicle, without a second or a third; it does not explain that all sentient beings shall become Buddhas. As for "all shall become Buddhas," I have not seen it, nor do I insistently deny it.' If he had been able to hear these true words, they would truly have accorded with his innermost mind. Therefore we know that if he heard them, he would have deeply believed and accepted them. Those who study the true Dharma in our company might lightly open their robes and listen again to past illustrations. Just like those attached to the Hīnayāna in the thirty-six kingdoms, who also thought of themselves as having the brilliance of the sun and the moon, with none surpassing them—yet those whose great minds were vast and bright were able to disesteem their madness and biased attachment, which brought upon themselves heavy guilt. Huidao's rejecting the Larger Chapter while revering the Tripiṭaka was likewise not done because he considered his illumination incomplete. Tanle's rejecting the Lotus, relying on his overbearing spirit, considering himself right and the rest of the world drifting in folly, thinking only he alone was correct, in his mind also conceded nothing to anyone. Now those who doubt the Mahāparinirvāṇa, seeking it from afar, must surely take 'all sentient beings have Buddha-nature' as failing to penetrate true illumination. True illumination can naturally illuminate what is false and unreal; why would the real again require it to illuminate all sentient beings? Since there is falsehood, there is separately a true nature as the unchangeable foundation; therefore, only when cultivation and refinement are thorough does the true nature manifest. One constantly uses the light of great wisdom to eliminate falsehood; when falsehood is exhausted, the dharmakāya alone remains, serving as the basis of responsive transformation. Responding to the conditions that can be brought to completion in those to be transformed, 'if one person is not delivered, I will never abandon them.' Since this doctrine has such confirmation, why should there be any doubt? If one further harbors doubts regarding the true nature and dharmakāya, I fear that this perverse mind will be deluded in every respect. If one even gives rise to doubt concerning the Buddha's true self, one might as well disbelieve that the Buddha has the illumination of correct awakening and possesses the knowledge of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā). The brilliance of prajñā is naturally a divine vessel for illuminating what is false and unreal; what does it have to do with [denying] the Buddha's true self, the eternal existence of the dharmakāya, and all beings possessing the true Buddha-nature? With the true nature present, does not learning avoid overstepping its bounds, and does not completion avoid departing from the foundation? Yet some wish to claim that true illumination has no unreal words, that words are also non-existent, that the Buddha's self is also non-existent, and that nirvāṇa is a heterodox view! They only know how to cling to this light that illuminates delusion, not knowing that the nature free from delusion is not that illumination. They wish to use this to deceive the world, but how can the people of the world be deceived? The reason I have broken silence and repeatedly elucidated this illumination is out of regret that in a single marketplace there should be talk that melts metal, or that in a single market three men should report a tiger: easily deluded followers will then be tainted by it, and all become beings who do not refrain from killing. It was only because I could not bear it that I spoke out; how could I take pleasure in pointing out other people's faults? It is truly like a viper biting the hand: one cannot but cut it off. Fortunately, those of deep discernment will embody the intent behind my not keeping silent; those who have not entered deeply may pursue it and awaken, thereby seeking the path to self-purification. If they are already beyond illustration, what more can I do?