出三藏記集 9.54

9.54

The arising of the three actions takes dhyāna and wisdom as its cardinal principle. Although subtle and coarse are distinguished, steps and gradations have their method. Therefore, when setting forth along the diverging thoroughfares, the road is free of confused footsteps; transforming the mundane and fulfilling duties, achievement requires no accumulation [of obstacles]. When resting quietly and returning to one's source, the profound thread reveals its subtlety. Vast and deep, it is difficult to fathom, yet the principle is not obscured; in the hope that the general purport may be traced, I will attempt to speak of it in brief. Without wisdom, dhyāna has no way to fathom its stillness; without dhyāna, wisdom has no way to deepen its illumination. Thus the essentials of dhyāna and wisdom are called illumination and stillness. In their mutual assistance, illumination does not depart from stillness, and stillness does not depart from illumination. When stimulated, they traverse together; when responding, they necessarily incline toward the same end. Their efficacy is subtle in their application; they nourish each other among the myriad dharmas. In their wondrous handling of things, they move all activities to achieve unity without abiding in existence; they broaden the great image prior to form without falling into non-existence. Free of thought and action, yet there is nothing they do not do. For this reason, those who cleanse their minds and quiet confusion use them to deliberate; those who awaken to the subtle and enter the subtle use them to plumb the spiritual depths. Now, when about to enter their gate, the crucial faculty lies in restrained concentration. The principle is profound and the categories are vast; the Way is hidden in the texts. Thus, when Ānanda deferentially received the oral pronouncement, if he encountered someone who was not the right person, he would surely conceal it within his spiritual storehouse. Why is this? The mind has no constant rule, and its transformations have many directions; categories have no fixed shapes, but respond as they are stimulated. For this reason, when the teaching spread through Tianzhu, it was sealed away by master craftsmen; the mysterious gateway remained unopened, and rare was he who set foot in its courtyard. Viewed from this perspective, the principle has its withdrawal and action, and the Way is not conferred in vain; this is truly with good reason. Not long after the Tathāgata's nirvāṇa, Ānanda transmitted it to his fellow disciple Madhyāntika; Madhyāntika transmitted it to Śāṇavāsa. These three arhats all rode upon their supreme vows, tacitly harmonizing in former times; their achievements lay beyond words and could not be distinguished by the scriptures. They necessarily followed the primary craftsmen in secret, matching them flawlessly without discrepancy. Thereafter came Upagupta, who was young yet possessed transcendent realization. His wisdom ended beyond the worldly realm, his talent was elevated, and his responses resonated with the profound. Encountering principles, he followed concision; among the eighty-thousand Dharma treasuries, he selected only the essentials wherever he went. The division into the five schools began with this. Deducing from this, we surely know that material operations naturally presage decline and rise, whereas spiritual function traces unseen steps without footprint; wondrous motions are difficult to trace, while involvement in the coarse generates divergence. Can one not be cautious? Can one not be discerning? From that time on, among those who were moved by shifting affairs and cherished the ancient standards, each of the five schools had its masters. All feared that the Great Dharma would crumble, and their laments were profound; thereupon each composed and praised meditation scriptures in order to exalt the flourishing enterprise. As a teaching, it employs countless expedient means to seek serenity. Serene, solely serene! Their standard is one. Yet those who trace the branches to seek the root are many, while those who integrate the root to govern the branches are few. Some are about to arrive yet do not reach it; some preserve a specific direction and fail to adapt. For this reason, the scriptures praise the virtue of Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra and elevate the custom of Samantabhadra. Tracing the sage's intention: it is not only to preserve their strengths, but also to remedy their shortcomings. Thus the distinct enterprises of the five schools depend on their masters. If men do not succeed through the generations, the Way may flourish or decline, fall or rise; as the times vary, they mutually rise and fall. How could the designations of lesser and greater be fixed? Furthermore, those who master principles and excel at adaptation have no boundaries in action or retirement; they obscure their names and lodge their traces, neither heard nor displayed. People like this cannot be differentiated by sectarian titles. Since they are not differentiated by sectarian titles, neither do they fall outside them; clearly, they have a distinct lineage. I have often lamented that as the Great Teaching flowed eastward, meditation manuals were especially scarce. The three actions had no unifying principle, and this Way was almost abandoned. Recently, Kumārajīva propagated what Aśvaghoṣa had transmitted, and only then was this practice established. Although its path is not yet fully integrated, it is like raising a mountain with a single basket of earth. Delighting in the timely encounter, we lodged our aspirations in such a person, setting aside contentious treatises and according with wordless eloquence. Thereupon he vowed to don the armor of perseverance, taking supreme stillness as his personal responsibility. Cherishing his virtue and not forgetting it, his bequeathed instructions are preserved herein. As for its essentials: it diagrams the great culmination in subtle forms, and reveals subtle words to honor the essence. Realizing that confusion regarding form offends virtue, he closed the six gates to extinguish affliction. Understanding that anger and rivalry injure one's nature, he equalized self and other to settle the mind. Thereupon different lineages shared the same breath, and the illusory body was seen as foreign; entering deep conditioned arising, one sees the boundary of birth and death. Then one flings open the nine gates at the Dragon Ford, surpasses the three forbearances, and ascends the stages. Defiling habits settle into the unborn; bodily encumbrances are concluded in spiritual transformation. Therefore it is said: 'It arises from nowhere, yet there is nowhere it does not arise; among all that arises, there is nothing that does not arise.' The present translation derives from Dharmatrāta and Buddhasena. These men were the preeminent figures of the Western Regions, the masters of dhyāna instruction. They gathered the essentials of the scriptures to encourage the Mahāyāna. Because their propagation of the teaching differed, their texts display differences of detail and brevity. Dharmatrāta united the multitude of sections under the same path, and unfolded a single form into [particles like] the sands of the Ganges. As for his contemplation: he clarified that arising is not due to production, and ceasing is not due to exhaustion; though going and returning are boundless, it never departs from thusness (tathatā). Therefore it is said: 'Form does not depart from thusness; thusness does not depart from form; form is precisely thusness; thusness is precisely form.' Buddhasena considered that in clarifying the source and guiding the stream, there should certainly be a gradual progression. Therefore, beginning with the two paths, he opened the gate of nectar; explaining the four meanings to reverse confusion, he revealed the path of return to achieve comprehension. Distinguishing the aggregates and realms, he guided them with correct contemplation; expounding and analyzing conditioned arising, he allowed superior and inferior to be self-evident. Thereafter he caused them to examine the beginning and return to the end, wonderfully seeking the ultimate. That ultimate is neither exhausted nor something to be exhausted. Thus it is said: 'Exhaustionlessness enters into the inexhaustible Dharma gate of the Tathāgata.' Were it not for one whose Way crowns the three vehicles and whose wisdom penetrates the ten stages, who could penetrate the profound root in the Dharmakāya, unify the lineage in the signless, illuminate completely while in stillness, and never depart from stillness while in motion?