梵網經述記卷第一 1.8

1.8

Second, the essence of the teaching that can express: its essence consists in words and meanings. As fascicle eighty-one of the Yogācārabhūmi states: "What is its essence? It means that the sūtra is its essence. In brief, there are two kinds: first, words; second, meanings. Words are that upon which [meanings] rely, and meanings are that which relies upon [words]. These two kinds comprehensively encompass all knowable realms of objects." It is extensively gathered and explained as in the Abhidharmasamuccaya-bhāṣya. Third, the scope of the teaching subsumed: again, there are two aspects: first, the scope of the teaching subsumed; second, the period of translation. Regarding the first, the teaching subsumed: among the twelve divisions [of scriptures], it is subsumed under the extensive (vaipulya) and causal conditions (nidāna) divisions. Within the three piṭakas, it is the sūtra and the vinaya: the explanation of the mind ground and so forth is subsumed under the Sūtrapiṭaka; the direct explanation of the rules of the precepts is subsumed under the Vinayapiṭaka. Between the two piṭakas, it is subsumed under the Bodhisattvapiṭaka. Among the teachings of the three periods, it is subsumed under the third period, because it is an explicit (nītārtha) teaching. Regarding the second, the period of translation: masters hand down the tradition saying that Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha intended to transmit the Bodhisattva Vinayapiṭaka to China (Donghua). He boarded a ship on the Southern Sea, and the ship was about to sink. Though other goods were discarded, it still could not float. Only when he cast off the Vinaya text was the ship then able to proceed. The Tripiṭaka Master sighed, saying: "The Bodhisattva Vinaya has no affinity with the land of the Han. How deeply lamentable!" Moreover, when Dharma Master Dharmakṣema was in Xiliangzhou, at that time there were the śramaṇa Fajin and others who sought the bodhisattva precepts and requested him to translate the prātimokṣa text. The Dharma Master said: "The people of this country are mostly deceitful in character and lack steadfast integrity. How could they be vessels fit for the bodhisattva path?" Thus he did not bestow them. Fajin and the others pleaded earnestly without success, whereupon they made vows and set a time limit before an image of the Buddha, seeking the precepts with austere self-restraint. When seven days had just been completed, [Fajin] saw Maitreya in a dream personally bestowing the precepts upon him together with the prātimokṣa text, all of which he was able to recite from memory. Later, having awakened from the dream, he went to visit the Dharma Master. The Dharma Master saw his extraordinary appearance and sighed deeply, saying: "There are indeed men in the land of the Han!" He then translated the prātimokṣa text for him; this is the separately circulating Bodhisattvabhūmi text that begins with the verse of taking refuge. This coincided in words and meaning with what Fajin had recited in his dream. From this it may be known that when ancient masters had sincere resonance, the holy traces responded; their spiritual efficacy is unfathomable and their wondrous functioning is beyond calculation. As for the present sūtra: in the third year of the Hongshi era of Yao Xing of the Later Qin, there was a Western Tripiṭaka Master named Kumārajīva, which means "Youth of Longevity" (Tongshou). He recited this chapter on the Bodhisattva Mind Ground. At that time there were more than eight hundred people, including the śramaṇa Daoxiang, who requested Master Kumārajīva to seek the bodhisattva precepts. Thereupon, in the Xiaoyao Garden—another account says: in the Caotang [Monastery]—together with scholars he translated more than fifty works of sūtras and treatises. As for the present sūtra, it was at the very end that Master Kumārajīva personally recited it from memory, and they translated it together. Huirong and others took it down in writing, and also recited and maintained it together. Furthermore, they separately extracted the characteristics of the precepts explained after the verses in the second fascicle of this [work] to form a separate fascicle entitled Brahmajāla Sūtra: Fascicle of the Bodhisattva Ten Major and Forty-Eight Minor Precepts Spoken by Rocana Buddha. At the head was marked the karman for receiving the bodhisattva precepts, which states: "This karman is extracted from the 'Vinayapiṭaka Chapter' of the Brahmajāla Sūtra, being the method for Rocana's bestowing the bodhisattva precepts upon King Myriad Oceans and the prince."