梁朝傅大士頌金剛經 1.2

1.2

The Songs of the Diamond Sūtra were composed by Fu Dashi during the Liang dynasty. At first, Emperor Wu invited Baozhi to lecture on the sūtra. Baozhi replied: "There is Fu Dashi, who understands well how to lecture on it." The Emperor asked: "Where is this man now?" Baozhi replied: "He is currently in the fish market." Thereupon [the Emperor] summoned the Mahāsattva into the palace. The Emperor asked: "Mahāsattva, I wish to invite you to lecture on the Diamond Sūtra. What high seat will you require?" The Mahāsattva replied: "I have no need for a high seat; I require only a pair of cypress clappers." Having received the clappers, the Mahāsattva immediately chanted forty-nine verses of sūtra songs to the end and then departed. Baozhi asked Emperor Wu: "Do you know this man?" The Emperor said: "I do not know him." Baozhi told the Emperor: "This is an emanation body of Maitreya Bodhisattva, who has descended to aid Your Majesty in propagating transformation." Upon suddenly hearing this, Emperor Wu was greatly astonished and treated him with profound veneration. In consequence, he inscribed these verses upon the four-story pavilion of the temple in Jingzhou, where they remain to this day. Now, as for the Diamond Sūtra, it is the mysterious gateway of the holy teaching, profound, abstruse, and difficult to fathom. There are no Buddhas who are not born from it. Although deep investigation of commentaries and treatises is vast and hard to exhaust, how could it compare with these compassionate verses, so distinct before one's eyes? Thus they cause practitioners to ascend the jewel mountain of the vajra without moving a foot, and cause those of resolute faith to quiet and extinguish consciousness, transcending to the other shore of nirvāṇa; hence this writing. Its text is boundless and infinite, arranged in forty-nine sections below. What is called: the sun of wisdom sweeps through the sky, illuminating the Pure Land of the Tathāgata; the sword of dhyāna comes into hand, breaking the demon armies of saṃsāra. With both person and phenomena dispelled and cleared away, how delightful! What could be added to this meaning? There was a wise person who did not reveal his name, who provided five poems to assist and promote it. Since that storied pavilion was burned down, fearing the text might be lost, I have ventured to ask worthy individuals who have seen the original in that pavilion to kindly establish it as the standard.