出三藏記集 8.29

8.29

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.