四明尊者教行錄 7.193

7.193

師諱羲寂，字常照，姓胡氏，溫州永嘉人也。母初懷娠，不喜葷血，生乃以紫帽蒙其首焉。幼啟二親，堅求去俗。旋入開元蘭若投師，授《法華經》，期月而徹，寺之耆老莫不稱嘆希有。既而祝髮受具已，往會稽學南山宗。既通律藏，乃造天台山研覈止觀。其所易解，猶河南一遍照也。先是天台智者教迹，遠則安祿兵殘，近則會昌焚毀，殘編斷簡本折枝摧，傳者何憑以正其學。師於是每思鳩集，因適金華，古藏中得《淨名疏》而已。後時忠懿王以教相咨問德韶國師，師指授尊者，因是奏王，請出金門建講，欽若敬奉，為之造寺，今螺溪定慧院是也。王又遣十人往日本國，取天台教藏迴，賜師以淨光大師之號，追諡九祖名銜，皆師之力焉。由是一家教乘以師為重興之人矣。而韶公適與智者同姓，能毘贊吾宗，又居佛隴之側，疑其後身也。微師，此宗學者幾握半珠為家寶歟。太平興國五年，從山入州治寺，寺東樓安置。樓近大山，夜夢剎柱陷沒于地，意頗惡之。自徙於西偏僧房，其夜春雨驟甚，山崩樓圮。人咸謂師先見，乃證報得天眼焉。續受黃巖人請，乘舟泛江放生，講金光流水。至海門靈石寺，是智者所居道場，因勸人修葺造像，入緣者繁多。時今上遣高品衛紹欽，入山建壽昌寺，眾官同命受戒。又雍熙初，永安縣敦請於光明寺受戒，忽古殿佛像墮，腹中獲發願文。即唐咸通六年，僧希皎為七鄉人施戒勸造此像，願捨報為男子，童真出家，常布衲傳法利生。觀者皆意寂之前身也。至四年十月寢疾，仲冬四日囑誡門人，不許哭泣祭奠等事，言已瞑目而終。壽六十九，法臘五十。傳法弟子百餘人，外國十僧。其義通實高者也，如澄或寶翔皆亞焉。是時台之民官曾預傳戒者，共迎師真相於開元寺，盡誠祭供，皆縞素哀泣，天為之變慘。太守鄭元龜作詩悲悼歸空，方丈樹塔志之。厥後徒屬遷葬他所，開塔顏貌如生，髮長餘寸。平素講《法華經》并《玄義》二十遍。《止觀》、《維摩》、《光明》、《梵網》、《金剛錍》、《法界觀》、《禪源詮》、《永嘉集》各數遍，述《義例》、《不二門》等科節數卷。然自智者六代傳法，荊溪之後二百餘年，寂受遺寄，克深負荷。況於炎月講說，曾無流汗沾洽。其不久聽而勝解佛乘，每一宣揚則捉金應玉、召羽和商，較乎九旬談妙，相去何若。又甞寓四明育王寺，夢登國清，上方有寶莊嚴幢座，題曰文殊臺。設柢梐欄隔，求入無由。俄睹觀音菩薩從堂徐出，以手攘却行馬，低𮞍相接。斯須覺已，與觀音身泯合不分，因而驚寤。自爾之來，樂說無盡矣。或謂入普門智乘，上合佛覺，證無上故；下合眾生，凡同體故。開則群靈混成一法矣。得是心者，非觀音而誰歟？大哉師之解行若是，可不為世之楷謨乎。

The Master's taboo name was Xiji, his courtesy name was Changzhao, and his secular surname was Hu; he was a native of Yongjia in Wenzhou. When his mother first conceived him, she disliked meat and blood; upon giving birth, a purple cap covered his head. In his youth, he petitioned both parents, firmly seeking to leave secular life. Soon after, he entered the Kaiyuan Aranya to take refuge with a master, who imparted to him the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra; within a month he had mastered it completely, and none of the senior elders of the monastery failed to praise it as exceedingly rare. After shaving his head and receiving full ordination, he went to Kuaiji to study the Nanshan school. Having mastered the Vinaya Piṭaka, he then went to Mount Tiantai to examine and investigate śamatha-vipaśyanā (stopping and contemplation). His facility of comprehension was like Henan's single illumination. Before this, regarding the traces of the teachings of Tiantai Zhizhe, distantly they had been ravaged by the warfare of An Lushan, and recently incinerated in the Huichang persecution; with mutilated volumes and severed slips, the trunk broken and the branches snapped, on what could transmitters rely to rectify their learning? The Master thereupon constantly thought of assembling them. Consequently, when he went to Jinhua, he obtained only the Commentary on the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra from an ancient collection. Later, when King Zhongyi inquired of State Preceptor Deshao about the doctrinal characteristics, the State Preceptor directed him to the Venerable [Xiji]. Because of this, [Deshao] memorialized the King, requesting that [Xiji] come out to the Jinmen to establish lectures, respectfully revered him, and built a monastery for him, which is today's Dinghui Cloister at Luoxi. The King also dispatched ten men to the land of Japan to bring back the Tiantai doctrinal collection, bestowed upon the Master the title Great Master Jingguang, and posthumously bestowed honorific titles upon the Nine Patriarchs—all through the Master's efforts. From this, the single vehicle of this school considered the Master as the person who revived it. Moreover, Master Shao happened to have the same surname as Zhizhe, was able to assist and support our school, and furthermore resided beside Folong; people suspected he was [Zhizhe's] later rebirth. Were it not for the Master, scholars of this school would nearly have held a half-pearl as their family treasure! In the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo, he went from the mountain to the prefectural seat to stay at a temple, being accommodated in the eastern tower of the temple. The tower was near a great mountain. At night he dreamed that the mast of the stūpa sank into the earth, which he found quite ominous. He moved himself to a monk's chamber on the western side. That night the spring rain was torrential; the mountain collapsed and the tower fell. Everyone said that the Master had prescience, having realized and attained the divine eye as a karmic reward. Subsequently, he accepted an invitation from the people of Huangyan to board a boat and float down the river to release living beings, lecturing on "The Flowing Water" chapter of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra. Arriving at Lingshi Monastery in Haimen, which was a bodhimaṇḍa where Zhizhe had resided, he accordingly encouraged people to repair it and make statues, and those who joined the karmic connection were numerous. At that time, the present Emperor dispatched the high-ranking official Wei Shaoqin into the mountain to construct Shouchang Monastery, and the various officials jointly requested to receive the precepts. Furthermore, in the beginning of Yongxi, Yong'an County earnestly invited him to Guangming Monastery to confer the precepts. Suddenly, a Buddha statue in an ancient hall fell, and a vow text was obtained from its belly. It was from the sixth year of the Xiantong era of the Tang, when the monk Xijiao conferred the precepts upon people of seven townships and exhorted them to make this statue, making the vow to abandon his retribution body and become a male, leave the household life in youthful purity, and constantly wear a patchwork robe to transmit the Dharma and benefit sentient beings. All who saw it believed this was Xiji's previous rebirth. In the tenth month of the fourth year, he fell ill. On the fourth day of the mid-winter month, he gave his final instructions to his disciples, disallowing crying, weeping, sacrificial offerings, and the like; having finished speaking, he closed his eyes and passed away. His age was sixty-nine, his Dharma age fifty. He had over a hundred Dharma-transmitting disciples, and ten foreign monks. Among them, Yitong was truly the foremost, while the likes of Rucheng or Baoxiang were all second to him. At that time, the local officials and people of Taizhou who had previously participated in receiving the precepts jointly welcomed the Master's true image at Kaiyuan Monastery, offering sacrifices and making provisions with utmost sincerity, all clad in plain white mourning robes and weeping in grief; heaven transformed in gloom for his sake. The Prefect Zheng Yuangui composed a poem lamenting his return to emptiness, and erected a stūpa in the abbot's quarters to record it. Afterwards, his disciples relocated his burial to another place; when they opened the stūpa, his countenance appeared as if alive, and his hair had grown more than an inch. In his daily life, he lectured on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra and its Profound Meaning twenty times. He lectured on the Great Śamatha-Vipaśyanā, the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, the Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra, the Brahmajāla Sūtra, the Diamond Blade, the Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu, the Preface to the Source of Chan, and the Yongjia Collection several times each, and composed several scrolls of outlines for the Doctrinal Guidelines and the Gate of Non-Duality. Now, since the transmission of the Dharma through six generations from Zhizhe, over two hundred years after Jingxi, Xiji received the bequest and was fully capable of bearing the heavy responsibility. Moreover, when lecturing during the sweltering months, he never had sweat flow to soak him. Without having listened for long, he possessed superior understanding of the buddhayāna; each time he propagated it, it was like striking gold to respond to jade, or summoning the yu note to harmonize with shang; compared to the "ninety days expounding the subtle," how little was the difference! Furthermore, he once lodged at King Aśoka Monastery in Siming, where he dreamed of ascending Mount Guoqing; high above was a jewel-adorned banner seat inscribed with the words "Mañjuśrī's Terrace." Barriers and railings were set up, and there was no way to seek entry. Suddenly he saw Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva slowly emerge from the hall, push aside the movable barricade with his hand, and bow low to receive him. A moment later, after waking, he merged into Avalokiteśvara's body without distinction, and thereupon woke with a start. From that time forth, his joy in speech was boundless. Some say that having entered the wisdom-vehicle of the Universal Gate, above he accorded with the Buddha's awakening because of realizing the unsurpassed; below he accorded with sentient beings because of having the same substance as ordinary mortals. When opened, the myriad spirits merge into a single dharma. If one attains this mind, who could it be if not Avalokiteśvara? How great! The Master's understanding and practice being like this, how could he not serve as an exemplar for the world?