Notes Beside the Bamboo Window — Second Collection, Part 17

In analyzing doctrine, one cannot avoid making careful, rigorous distinctions; in entering the Way, one cannot avoid devoting oneself to a single specialized approach. And yet to insist that one's own view alone is correct, dismissing everyone else's as wrong, is equally unacceptable. This has always been true, but it is worse now than ever. Those devoted exclusively to the Tiantai school hold that no one outside Tiantai has ever truly grasped the Buddha's own intent; while those devoted to simpler, more direct methods in turn condemn Tiantai as needlessly convoluted and forced, not the Buddha's real intention at all. Those devoted to the principle of emptiness rebuke Buddha-recitation as clinging to outward form; while those devoted to Pure Land practice, the moment they see someone who does not recite the Buddha's name, immediately brand him a heretic. Those who revere Fangshan Li Tongxuan criticize Qingliang Chengguan for fragmenting the unity of the whole sutra; those devoted to mantra recitation suspect that the exoteric scriptures were composed by later hands rather than genuinely spoken by the Buddha. Examples of this kind are too numerous to list exhaustively — like spear against shield, water against fire, standing opposed to one another, each side entrenched behind its own fortified wall, utterly unmovable. I feel real sorrow over this!

I urge every one of you: would it not be better for each to set aside his own fixed attachment, empty his own mind, and first devote himself to genuinely investigating the ultimate truth on his own terms, taking awakening itself as the standard? Only after great awakening would it not still be soon enough to discuss these matters with one another calmly?

Before the Buddha appeared in this world, people took Heaven itself as their teacher; only once the Buddha had appeared did people come to know how to honor the Buddha instead — and so the Buddha is called "Teacher of Gods and Humans," the sole sovereign of the three realms, without equal. Junior Preceptor Yao wrote his Treatise on Why the Buddha-Dharma Cannot Be Destroyed, arguing that Confucianism and Daoism both take their laws from Heaven, and dare not violate Heaven's own principles; while the Buddha's own teaching is upheld even by the heavenly gods themselves, who dare not violate the Buddha. Though these are originally Kan Ze's own words, only the Junior Preceptor could truly bring out their full meaning.

And besides, the Junior Preceptor rose to the very highest of the Three Ducal ranks, and yet wore only a single monk's robe, never once abandoning his monastic appearance for his entire life — how could this possibly be judged by ordinary standards? He simply did not display supernatural powers the way Fotudeng once did. But Fotudeng lived through an age of chaos, and so relied on displaying such powers to guide people toward transformation; the Junior Preceptor, by contrast, lived under a genuinely enlightened ruler, and had no need to rely on such powers at all — how do we know he was not, in fact, someone entirely capable of such powers, who simply chose not to use them? His own poem on quiet retirement reads: "The spring swallow's fledglings have grown and left their old nest; the noon rooster, having crowed, pecks at the shaded steps." He may truly be called the Marquis of Liu of his own age! The world has never truly recognized how deep his own attainment was, and so I set this down here to bring it to light.

Someone might say: the Junior Preceptor assisted in founding an empire, and the killing this involved was extensive — what is there to admire in him? And yet there are three things I admire in the Junior Preceptor: first, that he rose to the very heights of ministerial rank and yet never abandoned his monastic appearance; second, that once his work was accomplished, he withdrew from public life, wisely preserving himself; third, that he praised the Buddhist teaching and held genuinely correct views. The killing involved in his service is a separate matter, not under discussion here. And yet, during the very Jingnan campaign itself, the Junior Preceptor personally petitioned the emperor, urging him on no account to harm the worthy scholar Fang Xiaoru — this single plea alone may be enough to offset his faults against his merits! This is why I still find him worthy of admiration.