大乘百法明門論開宗義決 1.2

1.2

Now, broadly expounding the grand doctrine relies upon uninhibited eloquence; setting forth the manifold tenets in detail necessarily depends upon accumulated treatises. Therefore, the Perfectly Awakened One spoke the sūtras, and the bodhisattvas composed the treatises. The gateways of the teaching were broadly expounded, and commentaries and sub-commentaries flourished in profusion. They blocked those heterodox teachers, opened wide this noble path, spread abroad the ocean of wisdom, raised aloft the high mountain of principles, cast far the clouds of compassion, and universally showered the rain of the Dharma. Being dim and ignorant, I presumptuously received their transmission and study. Initially, in my native region, I applied myself to vijñapti-mātra and the Kośa; later, traveling to the capital Jinghao, I focused on the Awakening of Faith and the Diamond Sūtra. Although I did not plumb the deep subtleties, I roughly knew the basic contours. When I returned to Hexi, I was just about to engage in propagation. It was a time of moral decline and an age of distress and peril. Those who turned toward the Way were pressed for food and clothing; students toiled ceaselessly in attending their masters. At small treatises and small sūtras they already felt as if facing a sheer precipice; before grand commentaries and extensive sub-commentaries, their minds gave up in despair. Blind to the Three Jewels throughout their whole lives, foolish regarding the Four Noble Truths to the end of their days. Deeply moved by this wasted life, I lamented their enduring delusion. In some cases, I supplied the omissions of former practitioners to complete extensive explanations; in others, I pruned the diffuse clutter of ancient virtues to fashion concise treatises. First, in Shuofang, I composed the Jin gang zhi zan (Praise on the Purport of the Diamond Sūtra); next, in Liangcheng, I composed the Qi xin xiao wen (Elucidation of the Awakening of Faith); later, in Shazhou, I composed the Ru dao ci di kai jue (Decisions on the Stages of Entering the Way) and composed the Bai fa lun kai zong yi ji (Record of the Doctrinal Essentials Revealing the Doctrine of the Treatise on the Hundred Dharmas). Fearing that the purport of this commentary was too remote and its text too obscure for students to investigate, I further drew broadly upon manifold tenets to decide and resolve the text of the commentary, so that those disciples who had gone astray might succeed in their practice. The time was the Great Tang, the ninth year of Dali, the year of [jiazi, the first day of the sixth month].