廬山蓮宗寶鑑 4.57

4.57

The master's secular surname was Shen; he was originally a native of Licheng in Lu prefecture. From childhood he went forth from household life at Yanxiang Cloister in his home prefecture, taking the monk Daogong as his teacher. At the age of sixteen, his head was shaved and he was conferred the full precepts. In his youth he penetrated doctrinal study and was praised by his contemporaries. Upon reaching adulthood, he visited famous teachers far and wide to broadly propagate knowledge and insight, and from that time on his virtuous reputation in the lecture groves lasted for nearly fifty years. Taking the great canon as his place of leisure and the perfect and sudden as his gate, he first lectured on sūtras such as the *Perfect Enlightenment Sūtra*, and later compiled commentaries on texts such as the *Perfect Enlightenment Sūtra* and the *Sixteen Contemplations Sūtra*. In his later years, he often lectured on the Pure Land *Guan jing* between the regions of Tang, Deng, Ru, and Ying, simultaneously exhorting people to practice buddhānusmṛti and seek rebirth in Sukhāvatī. At that time, listeners gathered like clouds, all receiving the pure karma. Later, at the town of Qingtai in Tang prefecture, he vowed to seek Sukhāvatī, making buddhānusmṛti and contemplation his constant abiding, never for a moment forgetting them across the three modes of karma and four postures. On the twenty-seventh day of the fourth month in the fourth year of the Zhenghe reign of the Great Song dynasty, he suddenly saw a transformed Buddha Amitābha in a dream, who told him: "You have only six days of preaching the Dharma remaining; after that, you shall be reborn in the Pure Land." Upon awakening, the master announced to the assembly: "My cultivation in seeking Sukhāvatī seems to have attained corresponding conditions. Just now the transformed Buddha told me that I would attain rebirth in the Pure Land; how could I dare not believe it?" The next day, although he felt unwell, he did not cease his lecturing and chanting. On the fourth day of the fifth month of that year, at the hour of chou [1:00–3:00 a.m.], knowing his time had arrived, he struck the bell, assembled the community, and announced: "The gathering and dispersing of conditions certainly have their times; the supreme conditions for the Pure Land depend solely on this moment. I rely on the assembly's buddhānusmṛti to assist my departure." He further announced: "Enjoying a life of seventy-six years, / at the parting of the four great elements, / I pay homage to Amitābha in the Pure Land, / forever transcending the suffering of the three realms." Having finished speaking, he passed away while sitting. The entire sky resounded with thunder, and white clouds covered the earth, arriving from the west and dispersing only after three days. The master previously possessed a rosary of agate beads, which wound about his fingers at his final hour; the assembly could not remove it at all. The marvels of resonance and response were manifold, as recounted in other records.