廬山蓮宗寶鑑 4.65

4.65

Vice Minister Wang's taboo name was Gu, and his courtesy name was Minzhong; he was a man of the Eastern Capital. He once served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites in the Department of State Affairs, and because he served as Fiscal Commissioner, he subsequently resided in Yizhen. By nature he was supremely benevolent, magnanimous and compassionate in cherishing all creatures, greatly propagated the Buddhist teaching, and unfolded the origins of transformation. Formerly, when he was in the capital, it was a gathering place of venerable masters of the monasteries, and he once discussed the Way with them. When he traveled to Huanglong and Cuiyan in Jiangxi, he became a companion in dhyāna with the likes of Huitang and Yangqi, deeply chiming with the essential purport. Furthermore, he awakened to the supreme excellence of the Amitābha Pure Land teaching. Extensively consulting the various scriptures, he deeply investigated rebirth, collated the scriptural texts to elucidate the Buddha's intent, and thereupon composed the three-fascicle Collection Resolving Doubts That Directly Points to the Pure Land; Judicial Commissioner Yang Cigong wrote the preface, which is recorded in his biographical account. The Vice Minister compiled the forty-eight vows of the Large Amitābha-sūtra, the nine grades of rebirth from the Sixteen Contemplations Sūtra, the Treatise on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna by Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa, National Preceptor Zhong's response to Emperor Suzong on the Treatise on the Precious King of the Buddhānusmṛti-samādhi on Rebirth at Will, and various other scriptures and treatises, fully setting forth the essential gateway of rebirth in the Pure Land, comprehensively encompassing and thoroughly recording them. Recitations such as 'Namo thirty-six trillion, one hundred and nineteen thousand, five hundred Amitābha Buddhas of the same name and title' were also excerpted from the canon. As for the treatises by the various bodhisattvas on the essentials of the Pure Land teaching, all were fully compiled. In his daily practice, the Vice Minister's mind of contemplation and mindfulness never ceased; with counting beads in hand, he recited continuously without letting them leave his hand. Walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, he took the pure contemplation of the Western [quarter] as his Buddhist practice. There was a monk whose spirit traveled to the Pure Land and saw the Vice Minister together with Grand Master Ge Fan in the Pure Land performing Buddhist practices; this was a verified proof of rebirth in Sukhāvatī. Propagating the Pure Land and revealing the essential ford, he assisted Amitābha in universally transforming all. Since the eighteen worthy ones of Mount Lu, among those who succeeded to this Way to assist the Buddha in spreading transformation, only Cigong and Minzhong were renowned in their day and handed down for hundreds of generations thereafter. In propagating the great teaching of Amitābha, the flourishing of his broad deliverance and gathering transformation was without end; thus, the lofty attainment of the court officials of the Jin dynasty was attained by these two gentlemen alone, enabling them to bring glorious renown to the former worthies and succeed to their bequeathed style.