I humbly submit that true reality is without marks and not something known through discrimination. The nature of reality is beyond words. How can it be adequately grasped through conceptualization? Nevertheless the Great Hero [the Buddha] transmitted the truth by relying on forms and images in accordance with [the capabilities of] sentient beings. The noble Buddha was spiritually proficient and assumed subtle language in order to foster the Path. At the beginning in the Deer Park, his first words were the teaching of the Four Noble Truths, and so on until the perfect culmination in the teaching of the three points [of the Dharma Body, the prajña-wisdom, and liberation before entering Nirvāṇa] at Kuśināgara. During this period his words flowed forth unceasingly, so that an elephant or horse could not carry [all the texts]. His various sermons were so abundant that the Dragon Palace could be filled without exhausting them. Surely a trap is used to catch rabbits, but after the rabbits are caught one forgets the trap. By means of a pointing finger one can find the moon; after one finds the moon the finger is ignored. The Dharma Body is established at sixteen feet tall for those who are attached to formal existence. The highest Path finds its ultimate expression in written texts for those who are caught up in verbal teachings. The one-sided emotional understanding of ordinary people is not the profound erudition of the Enlightened One.

Furthermore, when the sun is wrapped up in shadows, the moon succeeds it in giving forth light. Thus Śākyamuni Buddha “unleashed [the horse from] the carriage” [i.e., passed away into Nirvāṇa] and the Bodhisattvas propagated the Path. Thereafter Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna revived the declining Law [of the Buddha in India], and then Mo-t’eng and Fa-lang passed on the secret key [in China]. Thenceforth pure men of wisdom appeared one after the other, and men of eminent spiritual talents followed, so that they could not all be counted.