樂邦文類 3.98

3.98

余甞聞道於正覺禪師，覺請（余）讀《起信論》。時方多事，奔走戎馬間未遑省察。及謫官天台，始得《起信論》於隣僧。翻閱再三，竊有疑焉。是書為大乘人作破有蕩空一法不留之書也，而末章以繫念彌陀求生淨土為言，其旨何也？晚過雪峯，問清了禪師。了曰：「實際理地不受一塵，萬行門中不捨一法。子欲壞世間相棄有著空，然後證菩提耶？」（余）曰：「寧有是？」了曰：「如是則淨土之修，於道何損？」（余）始豁然有慰於其心。比經行福清，聽遠近知識談馮夫人事，益契了老之說可信不誣。夫人名法信，政和門司贈少師諱珣之女。生十六年，嫁為鎮洮軍承宣使，今妙明居士陳（思恭）之妻。夫人少多病，體力尫孱，若不勝衣。及歸陳氏，病日以劇，數呼醫謀藥，殆無生意。醫辭曰：「夫人病非吾藥能力。」於時慈受深禪師，為王城法施主。夫人徑造其室，求己疾之方。慈受憐之，教以持齋誦佛，默求初心。夫人耳其語，諦信不疑。齋居未踰月，忽語所親曰：「晨素善矣。雜以晚葷，徒亂人意，盍盡徹之。」自此屏葷血、却鉛華膏沐之奉，依掃塔服，專以西方淨觀為佛事。行亦西方也、坐亦西方也、起居食息亦西方也、語默動靜亦西方也、酌水獻華亦西方也、翻經行道亦西方也，剎那之念、秋毫之善，一以為西方之津梁。自壬寅迄壬子十年之間，亡墮容、亡矜色，心安體胖、神氣昌王，人皆尊高之。一日忽提筆，書數語異甚，若厭世仙去者：隨緣認業許多年，枉作老牛為耕田，打疊身心早脫去，免將鼻孔被人牽。族黨怪之，夫人曰：「清淨界中，失念至此。支那緣盡，行即西歸。適我願兮，何怪之有。」壬子九月，示疾久之，氣息纔屬。十二月壬寅夕，矍然而寤，語侍旁者曰：「吾已神遊淨土、面禮慈尊，觀音左顧、勢至右盻，百千萬億清淨佛子稽首慶我來生其國。若夫宮殿林沼、光明神麗，與華嚴佛化及十六觀經中所說，無二無別。唯證方知，非所以語汝曹也。」侍疾者亟呼妙明，語其故，乃相與合掌策勵，俾繫念勿忘。又明日甲辰，安臥右脇，吉祥而逝。三日而後歛，家人輩往往聞妙香芬馥，不類人間。及茶毘，舉尸如生，凝然不壞。夫人享年三十六，以妙明顯仕，恩封廣平郡夫人。妙明為（余）言：「（思恭）初未知道，夫人實勸發之。又懶不怡生，夫人實經紀其有亡。平居接內外親姻，及拊馴其子姪僮媵，一一有恩意。死之日，哭者失聲，至於煉頂灼臂以薦冥福，非有以得其心能若是乎？以（思恭）貧甚，又甞筍輿獨走二千里，乞糴於其兄昭宣君德裕。時閩偷縱橫，使令者能道其往來應變方略，如世健男子。蓋夫人志力剛果不可搖奪，故其辦道勇決，所成就亦如是，是可嘉也已。」以寧老且病，於無量壽國方且問途，聞夫人事，樂為之記，非徒信覺了二禪師之語，亦以為將來熏修者不勸云。紹興三年二月二十一日，阿彌陀佛弟子正信菴王（以寧）待制記。

I once listened to instruction in the Way from Chan Master Zhengjue, who requested that I read the Awakening of Faith. At that time, events were pressing; scurrying amid military horses, I had no leisure to reflect and investigate. Only when I was demoted and exiled to Tiantai did I first obtain the Awakening of Faith from a neighboring monk. Turning its pages again and again, I inwardly had doubts: this book was composed for practitioners of the Great Vehicle to demolish existence and disperse emptiness, leaving not a single dharma behind; yet its final chapter speaks of binding one's thoughts on Amitābha to seek rebirth in the Pure Land—what could be its purport? Later, passing by Xuefeng, I asked Chan Master Qingliao. Qingliao said: "The ground of ultimate principle does not admit a single dust mote, yet within the gate of myriad practices, not a single dharma is abandoned. Do you wish to destroy worldly characteristics, discarding existence to attach to emptiness, before realizing bodhi?" I said: "How could that be?" Qingliao said: "If so, how does the practice of the Pure Land detract from the Way?" For the first time, my mind was cleared and comforted. Recently, while traveling through Fuqing, I heard spiritual friends from near and far speak of Lady Feng's deeds, which confirmed even more that the elder Liao's words were trustworthy and not false. The Lady's name was Faxin, the daughter of Xun, posthumously granted the title of Junior Preceptor by the Palace Gate Office during the Zhenghe era. At sixteen years of age, she married Chen [Sigong], Military Commissioner of Zhentao Commandery and presently Layman Miaoming. In her youth the Lady suffered from many illnesses; her physical strength was frail and weak, as if she could hardly bear the weight of her clothes. After she married into the Chen family, her illness grew daily more acute; she repeatedly summoned physicians to prescribe medicine, yet she seemed almost devoid of vitality. The physician declined, saying: "The Lady's illness is not within the power of my medicine." At that time, Chan Master Cishou Shen was the patron of Dharma in the royal city. The Lady went directly to his chambers to seek a prescription for her illness. Cishou took pity on her and taught her to observe the vegetarian precepts, recite the Buddha's name, and silently seek her original mind. The Lady heard his words and believed them with absolute sincerity, without any doubt. Before she had observed the fast for a month, she suddenly said to her kin: "A morning vegetarian meal is good. But mixing it with evening meat merely confounds one's intention; why not eliminate it entirely?" From then on, she abstained from meat and blood, rejected the luxuries of powder, rouge, and fragrant ointments, wore garments fit for sweeping stupas, and dedicated herself exclusively to the pure contemplation of the Western Direction as her Buddhist practice. Her walking was the Western Direction, her sitting was the Western Direction; her daily routine, eating, and resting were the Western Direction; her speech, silence, movement, and stillness were the Western Direction; ladling water and offering flowers were the Western Direction; turning scriptures and circumambulating were the Western Direction. A moment's thought, a hair's breadth of good—all was made a bridge to the Western Direction. During the ten years from the renyin year to the renzi year, she never showed a lax demeanor or an arrogant countenance; her mind was at ease and her body flourished, her vitality vigorous, and everyone held her in high esteem. One day, she suddenly took up a brush and wrote several very strange lines, as though weary of the world and departing as a transcendent:
"Following conditions, acknowledging karma for many years, / In vain I acted as an old ox plowing the fields. / Packing up body and mind to cast off early, / I avoid having my nostrils pulled by others."
Her clan members were bewildered by this. The Lady said: "In the pure realm, I lost mindfulness to end up here. My affinity with China has ended, and I am about to return west. It accords with my wish; what is there to find strange?" In the ninth month of the renzi year, she manifested illness for a long time, her breath barely continuing. On the evening of the renyin day in the twelfth month, she suddenly awoke with alertness and said to those attending beside her: "My spirit has already traveled to the Pure Land and paid homage in person to the Merciful Honored One. Avalokiteśvara looks to the left, Mahāsthāmaprāpta gazes to the right, and hundreds of thousands of koṭis of pure disciples of the Buddha bow their heads, rejoicing that I am to be born in their land. As for the palaces, groves, ponds, radiance, and wondrous splendour, they are identical and no different from what is spoken of in the Avataṃsaka's transformations of the Buddha and the Contemplation Sūtra in Sixteen Contemplations. Only through realization is it known; it is not something to be explained to the likes of you." The attendants quickly called Miaoming and told him what had happened; they then joined their palms together to encourage each other, bidding her to keep her thoughts bound without forgetting. On the next day, a jiachen day, she lay peacefully on her right side and passed away auspiciously. Three days later she was encoffined; the family members frequently smelled a wondrous fragrance, unlike anything in the human world. When the cremation came, her corpse was lifted as if alive, serene and intact. The Lady lived thirty-six years; because Miaoming held prominent office, she was granted the title Lady of Guangping Commandery by imperial favor. Miaoming told me: "At first, I did not know the Way; it was truly the Lady who exhorted and inspired me. Moreover, I was indolent and took no delight in livelihood; the Lady truly managed its presence and absence. In ordinary life, when dealing with relatives on both sides, or nurturing and caring for children, nephews, servants, and concubines, she showed kindness in every matter. On the day of her death, those who wept lost their voices, even to the point of branding their crowns and burning their arms to dedicate posthumous merit; without having won their hearts, could she have achieved this? Because I was extremely poor, she once traveled alone in a bamboo palanquin for two thousand li to beg grain from her elder brother, Military Commissioner Deyu. At that time, bandits were rampant in Min, yet the attendants could recount her strategies for dealing with contingencies as she came and went, just like a sturdy man of the world. Because the Lady's resolve and strength were unyielding and decisive, incapable of being shaken or stripped away, her striving for the Way was valiant and resolute, and her accomplishment was like this; she is truly worthy of praise!" I, Yining, am old and sick, just now inquiring about the path to the Land of Immeasurable Life; hearing of the Lady's deeds, I gladly record them, not merely out of faith in the words of the two Chan Masters Zhengjue and Qingliao, but also so that future practitioners will not need further exhortation. Recorded on the twenty-first day of the second month of the third year of Shaoxing by Amitābha Buddha's disciple Wang [Yining], Waiting Attendant of Zhengxin Hermitage.