佛祖統紀 14.37

14.37

法師思照。錢唐陽氏。十四歲從淨住從雅。聽法華方等於南屏。復往東掖參神悟。大有契入。既而刺血書法華七軸。專修念佛三昧。築小菴曰德雲。後連小門。為觀落日之所。刻三聖像。每夜過午即起念佛。月二十三日。率道俗繫念終其身。三十年。一旦語其徒曰。夜夢佛金身丈六。此往生之兆也。請僧七日以助念佛。屈指作印奄從坐化。時宣和元年春也。闍維之際。頂骨牙齒。皆瑩明如玉石。師於淨土七經一字一禮。華嚴。首楞嚴。金光明。無量壽。普賢行法。遺教。梵網。無量義。略教誠。四分戒本。皆然。唯法華十過。總得二百七十卷。誦法華千部。無量壽佛經五藏。阿彌陀經十藏云。

Dharma Master Sizhao was of the Yang clan from Qiantang. At the age of fourteen, he followed Congya of Jingzhu, listening to the Lotus and the Vaipulya teachings at Nanping. He then went to Dongye to study under Shenwu, attaining great insight. Thereafter, he pricked his blood to write out the Lotus Sūtra in seven scrolls, and devoted himself exclusively to the mindfulness-of-the-Buddha samādhi. He built a small hermitage named Deyun, connected behind to a small gate, as a place to contemplate the setting sun. He carved statues of the Three Sages. Every night past midnight, he would rise to recite the Buddha’s name. On the twenty-third day of each month, he led clerics and laity in continuous mindfulness throughout his entire life for thirty years. One morning he said to his disciples, “Last night I dreamed of the Buddha’s sixteen-foot golden body; this is an omen of rebirth.” He invited monks for seven days to aid in the recitation of the Buddha’s name. Bending his fingers to form a mudrā, he suddenly passed away while sitting. This was in the spring of the first year of the Xuanhe period. At the time of cremation, his skull bone and teeth were all lustrous and clear like jade and stone. Toward the seven Pure Land sūtras, the Master made one prostration per character. This was also true for the *Avataṃsaka*, *Śūraṅgama*, *Suvarṇaprabhāsa*, *Amitāyus*, *Samantabhadra-caryā*, *Bequeathed Teachings*, *Brahmajāla*, *Anantanirdeśa*, *Brief Precepts of Admonition*, and the *Caturvargika Vinaya Precept Text*; for the Lotus Sūtra alone he did so ten times, totaling two hundred and seventy rolls. He chanted one thousand recitations of the Lotus Sūtra, five whole canons of the *Amitāyus Sūtra*, and ten whole canons of the *Amitābha Sūtra*.