廬山蓮宗寶鑑 4.49

4.49

The master was named Zongze, with the sobriquet Cijue, and was a native of Xiangyang. His father died early, and his mother, Lady Chen, raised him at his maternal uncle's house. In his youth he studied Confucian learning, with lofty integrity and vast erudition. At twenty-nine, he went to Chan Master Xiu of Changlu in Zhenzhou to leave home, penetrated the profound principle, and clearly awakened to the Tathāgata's treasury of the true Dharma eye. During the Yuanyou era, he resided at Changlu Temple, welcomed his mother into the eastern chamber of the abbot's quarters, urged her to cut her hair, and besides providing delicacies, encouraged and exhorted her to maintain the recitation of Amitābha Buddha. She applied diligent determination daily, from beginning to end for seven years. When his mother was on the verge of death, she indeed recited the Buddha's name and passed away auspiciously without illness. The master considered his duty of filial piety to his parent fulfilled, and thereupon composed the "Exhortation to Filial Piety," arranged in one hundred and twenty headings, and authored the Weijiang ji and Zuochan zhen. Still following the rules of Mount Lu, he established the Sublime Lotus Assembly, widely encouraging monastics and laity alike to cultivate buddhānusmṛti and guiding them with contemplation. Next, he established regulations: those joining the assembly were to recite Amitābha Buddha daily, from one hundred recitations to one thousand, and from one thousand to ten thousand recitations, dedicating the merit and making vows to aspire for rebirth in the Pure Land. Each day they marked a tally of cross-strokes to complete the practice session. One night, the master dreamed of a man wearing a black cap and white robe, of refined and handsome countenance, about thirty years old, who bowed and said to the master, "I wish to enter the Lotus Assembly; please record my name." The master took the register of the assembly and asked, "What is your surname and given name?" He answered, "Puhui." After writing it down, the white-robed man said further, "My elder brother also requests that his name be submitted." The master asked, "What is your brother's name?" He answered, "Puxian." Having spoken, he vanished. When the master awoke, he told the senior elders, "In the Avataṃsaka-sūtra's 'Chapter on Leaving the World,' there are the two bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Puhui who assist in propagating the Buddha's teaching. Now that I have established this assembly to aspire together for the Western Direction, I have moved these two Great Beings to offer their covert support; thus I shall designate the two Great Beings as the heads of the assembly." Thereupon, both near and far turned toward his conversion.