[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [廬山蓮宗寶鑑](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973) › 4.4 # 廬山蓮宗寶鑑 4.4 廬山蓮宗寶鑑 4.4 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973.4.4) 師諱慧遠，雁門樓煩人，今河東代州。姓賈氏，生於石趙延熙甲午歲，為晉成帝咸和九年。師十二歲，從舅氏令孤遊學許洛，博通六經，尤通周易莊老之書。二十一歲欲渡江與范宣子俱隱，值中原兵戈塞路。聞道安法師居太行山，遂與弟慧持俱投之。聽講《般若經》豁然大悟，嘆曰：「儒道九流皆糠粃耳。」與弟投簪落髮。常以大法為己任，安嘆曰：「使道流中國，其在遠乎！」孝武帝太元九年，至廬山，以杖卓地曰：「有泉當住。」忽泉迸出，乃誅茅為庵。講《涅槃經》，感得山神獻靈，資助材木，雷雨闢地。江州太守驚其神異，奏立東林寺名，其殿曰神運。太元十一年寺成，師以東南經律未備、禪法無聞，乃於寺內別置禪室，請一禪師率眾習禪。令弟子逾越沙漠求禪經，庶江表四輩咸皆得以修習，願使大乘之化自北而南。每謂禪法深微非才莫授，入道要門功高易進者念佛為先。師徒眾往來三千，真信之士一百二十三人，乃與劉遺民等十八賢為上首，於無量壽佛像前建齋立誓同修西方淨土，結白蓮社。遺民著發願文，師自製念佛三昧敘。謝靈運恃才傲物，一見師肅然心服，鑿池種蓮求入社，師以心雜止之。山多蛇，有行者不知何許人，嘗侍於師，善驅蛇，至今號辟蛇聖者。師所居，流泉匝寺下入虎溪，每送客以溪為界。時陶淵明、陸修靜，師嘗送之，語道契合，不覺過溪，相與大笑。後世因傳三笑圖焉。時羅什法師通書，稱師為東方護法菩薩。外國眾僧咸稱漢地有大乘道士，每燒香禮拜東向稽首獻心廬嶽。姚主欽承道德信向連接。晉安帝隆安元年，桓玄勸帝沙汰僧尼，謂廬山為道德所居，不在搜簡；師以書抵玄，得並免。元興元年，玄又申庾氷之議，欲沙門盡敬王者；復以書辯論，其事遂免。安帝自江陵旋京，輔國何無忌勸師候迎，稱疾不起。帝遣使勞問師，表以聞帝，優詔答之。義熙乙卯十一月初一日，師入定，至十七日出定，見阿彌陀佛紫磨黃金身遍滿空界。龍舒淨土文載，遠公三覩聖相沈厚不言。師三十年影不出山、跡不入俗。丙辰八月初一日示疾，至六日困篤，大德耆舊請飲豉酒，不許。又請以蜜水，乃命律師檢藏，未見。而集諸徒遺戒曰：「吾自知命之年托業此山，自審有畢盡之期，乃絕跡外緣以求其志。不覺形與運頹，已八十三矣。時至，欲厝骨于松林之下，即嶺為墳，與土木同狀。此古人之禮，汝等勿違。苟使神理不昧、庶達其誠，大哀世尊亦當祐之以道。」言訖而逝。門人與潯陽太守及官屬，奉全軀葬于西嶺，壘石而塔焉。安帝諡廬山尊者鴻臚大卿白蓮社主。凝寂之塔，謝靈運立碑以銘其德，張野序之。有《匡山集》十卷行于世。 > The Master's taboo name was Huiyuan. He was a native of Loufan in Yanmen, modern Daizhou in Hedong, and his secular surname was Jia. He was born in the jiawu year of the Yanxi era of the Shi-Zhao dynasty, which was the ninth year of the Xianhe era of Emperor Cheng of Jin. When the Master was twelve years old, he accompanied his maternal uncle of the Linghu clan to study in Xu and Luo, becoming widely versed in the Six Classics and especially conversant in the Zhouyi, the Zhuangzi, and the Laozi. At the age of twenty-one, wishing to cross the Yangtze River to live in reclusion together with Fan Xuanzi, he found the roads blocked by warfare in the Central Plains. Hearing that Dharma Master Dao'an was residing at Mount Taihang, he went together with his younger brother Huichi to join him. Upon hearing him expound the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtras, he was thoroughly and greatly awakened, and lamented, saying: 'Confucianism, Daoism, and the nine schools are mere chaff and husks.' He and his brother cast off their hairpins and had their heads shaved. He constantly took the Great Dharma as his own duty. Dao'an praised him, saying: 'If the Way is to flow into the Central Realm, will it not rest upon Yuan?' In the ninth year of the Taiyuan era of Emperor Xiaowu, he arrived at Mount Lu, planted his staff upon the ground, and said: 'If there is a spring, I shall reside here.' Suddenly a spring gushed forth, whereupon he cut the reeds to make a hut. When he expounded the Nirvāṇa-sūtra, he moved the mountain deity to display spirit efficacy, providing timber, while thunder and rain cleared the ground. The prefect of Jiangzhou, amazed by this miraculous omen, memorialized the throne to bestow the monastery name Donglin, and its hall was named Shenyun ('Spiritedly Moved'). In the eleventh year of the Taiyuan era, the monastery was completed. Because the scriptures and vinaya were not yet complete in the southeast and the methods of dhyāna were unheard of, the Master separately established a dhyāna chamber within the monastery and invited a dhyāna master to lead the assembly in the practice of dhyāna. He dispatched disciples across the desert to seek dhyāna scriptures, so that the four assemblies of the Jiangbiao region might all cultivate and practice them, wishing to cause the transformative influence of the Mahāyāna to spread from the north to the south. He often said that the method of dhyāna is profound and subtle, not to be transmitted to those without talent, whereas the essential gateway for entering the Way that is of supreme merit and easy to progress in is none other than buddhānusmṛti. The disciples and followers who came and went numbered three thousand, among whom were one hundred and twenty-three persons of true faith. Thereupon, with Liu Yimin and other eighteen worthies as leaders, before an image of Amitāyus Buddha, they established a fast and made vows to jointly cultivate the Western Pure Land, forming the White Lotus Society. Yimin composed the vow text, and the Master himself composed the preface to the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi. Relying on his talent, Xie Lingyun was haughty toward others, yet upon once seeing the Master he reverently submitted in his heart; he excavated ponds, planted lotuses, and sought admission into the society, but the Master barred him on account of his distracted mind. The mountain had many snakes. There was a practitioner whose origins were unknown who once attended upon the Master and was skilled at expelling snakes; to this day he is called the Snake-Expelling Holy One. Where the Master resided, flowing springs encircled the monastery and descended into Tiger Brook; whenever he saw off guests, he took the brook as the boundary. Once, when the Master was seeing off Tao Yuanming and Lu Xiujing, their discussion of the Way was so harmonious that they crossed the brook without realizing it, and laughed heartily together. Later generations thus transmitted the painting of the 'Three Laughs'. At that time, Dharma Master Kumārajīva exchanged letters with him, calling the Master the Bodhisattva Protector of the Dharma in the East. The foreign monks all stated that in the land of Han there was a Mahāyāna Daoist; whenever they burned incense and paid homage, they turned to face the east, bowed their heads, and dedicated their hearts to Mount Lu. The Yao ruler admired and received his virtues of the Way, his faith and direction continuing uninterrupted. In the first year of the Long'an era of Emperor An of Jin, Huan Xuan advised the emperor to weed out monks and nuns, stating that Mount Lu was the dwelling of moral virtue and not subject to search and purge; the Master sent a letter to Xuan, and they were entirely exempted. In the first year of the Yuanxing era, Xuan renewed the proposal of Yu Bing, wishing to make śramaṇas pay full homage to the sovereign; the Master again debated and argued in writing, and the matter was thereupon dropped. When Emperor An returned to the capital from Jiangling, the Auxiliary State General He Wuji advised the Master to await and welcome him, but he pleaded illness and did not rise. The emperor dispatched an envoy to console and inquire after the Master, who submitted a memorial reporting his state to the emperor, and the emperor answered him with a generous edict. On the first day of the eleventh month in the yimao year of the Yixi era, the Master entered samādhi; on the seventeenth day he emerged from samādhi and saw the purple-gold body of Amitābha Buddha filling the realm of space. The Longshu Jingtu Wen records that Master Yuan beheld the holy signs three times, but remained profound and spoke not of it. For thirty years, the Master's shadow did not leave the mountain, nor his footsteps enter the secular world. On the first day of the eighth month in the bingchen year, he manifested illness; by the sixth day he was gravely ill. Elders and venerable monks requested that he drink fermented black-bean wine, but he did not permit it. They also requested that he drink honey water, whereupon he ordered a vinaya master to inspect the canon, but it was not found \[permitted\]. He then gathered his disciples and left his final instructions, saying: 'From the year I knew my destiny, I entrusted my work to this mountain. Knowing that the time of my end must come, I severed my ties with external conditions to seek my aspiration. Unawares, my body has declined along with my fortune, and I am already eighty-three. Now that the time has arrived, I wish to lay my bones beneath the pine grove, using the ridge itself as my tomb, blending into the appearance of earth and trees. This is the ritual of the ancients; do not go against it. If only the spiritual principle remains undarkened and my sincerity is conveyed, the World-Honoured One of Great Compassion will surely protect me through the Way.' Having finished speaking, he passed away. His disciples, together with the prefect and officials of Xunyang, conveyed his whole body and buried it on the Western Ridge, piling stones to make a stūpa. Emperor An posthumously bestowed on him the titles 'Venerable of Mount Lu', 'Grand Minister of Honglu', and 'Master of the White Lotus Society'. For the Stūpa of Congealed Tranquility, Xie Lingyun erected a stele to commemorate his virtue, with a preface by Zhang Ye. His Kuangshan ji in ten fascicles circulates in the world. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973.4.3) - [Next: 4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973.4.5) - [Up: 4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973.4) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973~en-mt.4.4) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1973.4.4) · Pramāṇa