佛祖統紀 5.20

5.20

十三祖龍樹尊者。南天竺國梵志之裔。始生之日在於樹下。由入龍宮始得成道。故號龍樹（西域記。梵云那迦閼樹。此翻龍猛）佛去世後七百年出。天姿聰悟。在乳哺中聞諸梵志誦四韋陀典。有四萬偈。偈各三十二字。皆達句義。弱冠馳名獨步諸國。天文地理星緯圖讖。及餘道術無不綜練。嘗與契友三人議曰。世間義理可以開神明發幽旨者。吾輩悉達之矣。更以何方而自娛樂。復云。人生唯有追求慾色為至樂耳。乃俱往術家學隱身法。師念曰。此四梵志才智高遠。今以術故屈辱就我。若授其方則永見棄。乃各與青藥一丸水磨塗眼形自當隱。龍樹聞香。便識此藥有七十種。名字兩數皆如其方。師聞大驚。即以其法具授四人。既得其藥翳身遊行。相與入王後宮數月。美人懷妊者眾。王問智臣。臣曰。若非鬼魅則是方術。可以細土置諸門中。若是方術其跡當見。設是鬼魅入必無迹。人可兵除鬼當呪滅。王用其計。果四人足迹。乃令勇士揮劍空中。斬三人首。近王七尺刀所不至。龍樹斂身依王不能加害。始悟慾為苦本。即自誓曰。若免斯難當詣沙門受出家法。既得出宮便入山至一佛塔。摩羅來訪。龍樹迎之曰。深山孤寂。大德至尊何枉神足。摩羅曰。我非至尊來訪賢者耳。龍樹默念。此師得決定性否。明道眼否。是大聖繼真乘否。摩羅曰。汝雖心語我已意知。但辦出家何慮吾之不聖。龍樹悔謝即求出家。於九十日誦通三藏。閻浮所有皆悉通達。辯才無礙。自謂一切智人。欲從瞿曇門入。門神告曰。今汝智慧。何異螢火齊於日月。以須彌山等亭歷子。我觀仁者非一切智。云何欲從此門而入。龍樹情屈心自念言。世界佛經雖妙句義未盡。我當更敷演之開悟後學。復欲立師教戒。更造衣服令少不同。欲除眾情選擇良日。便欲成造。獨處靜室水精房中。大龍菩薩愍其心念。即以神力。接入大海宮殿。開七寶凾與諸方等經典。九十日中通解甚多。龍曰。汝今閱經為遍未耶。師曰。汝經無量不可得盡。我今所讀。足過閻浮十倍。龍曰。忉利天上諸經。復過此中百千萬倍。師於宮中修行豁然通達。善解一相深入無生法忍。龍知悟道送師出宮（輔行云。龍接入宮。一夏但誦七佛經目）南天竺國王深染邪見師欲化之。躬持赤幡在王前行經歷七載。王問何人。答曰。我是一切智人。王曰。諸天今者何所作為。答曰。天今正與阿修羅戰。須臾空中刀劍相繼而墜。修羅耳鼻從空而下。王始驚悟稽首作禮。是時殿上萬婆羅門。歎其神德除髮出家。諸外道眾來共議論。一言便屈降伏出家。有婆羅門善知呪術。白王求與捔力。婆羅門化大池蓮華自坐其上。龍樹化白象入池。鼻絞蓮華高舉擲地。婆羅門傷背。白師悔過。因求出家。龍樹造大悲方便論五千偈。大莊嚴論五千偈。大無畏論十萬偈（輔行云。大悲論明天文地理。作寶作藥。大莊嚴論。明修一切功德法門。大無畏論。明第一義。中觀論者。是其一品○即大智度論也）優波提舍論十萬偈。有小乘法師。見師高明常懷忿嫉。師所作已辦問小乘言。汝今樂我久住世否。答曰。仁者實不願也。忽一日入月輪三昧。唯聞法音不見形相。唯弟子提婆識之曰。師示佛性非聲色也。龍樹乃付法提婆。復入閒室經日不出。弟子破戶視之。見入三昧蟬蛻而去。天竺諸國並為立廟敬事如佛（付法藏經。摩訶摩耶經○智者云。樹生生身。龍生法身。故名龍樹。孤山慈雲皆稱龍樹為十三代。凡即西土正統。不收末田地也）。

The thirteenth patriarch, the Venerable Nāgārjuna, was a descendant of brāhmaṇas in South India. On the day he was born he was beneath an arjuna tree; and because he achieved the Way only after entering the dragon palace, he was titled 'Nāgārjuna' (The *Xiyu ji* states that in Sanskrit he is called Nāgārjuna, which is translated here as Longmeng [Dragon-Valiant]). He appeared seven hundred years after the Buddha's decease. Endowed with natural intelligence and insight, while still being nursed he heard brāhmaṇas reciting the four Vedas consisting of forty thousand verses, each verse with thirty-two syllables, and fully grasped their phrasing and meaning. Coming of age, his renown spread, and he walked unmatched through all the kingdoms. In astronomy, geography, astrology, apocrypha, and all other occult arts, there was nothing he did not master. He once conferred with three close friends, saying: 'Of worldly principles that can enlighten the spiritual intelligence and reveal profound purports, we have mastered them all. By what further means shall we amuse ourselves?' They further said: 'In human life, only the pursuit of sensual desires and women is the ultimate pleasure.' Thereupon, they went together to an adept of esoteric arts to learn the art of invisibility. The master reflected: 'These four brāhmaṇas possess exalted talents and wisdom. Now, solely on account of this art, they humble themselves to approach me. If I teach them the formula, they will abandon me forever.' So he gave each of them a pellet of green medicine to grind with water and smear on their eyes, whereupon their forms would naturally become concealed. Nāgārjuna smelled its fragrance and immediately recognized that this medicine contained seventy ingredients, their names, ounces, and quantities all matching the formula. The master was astounded and straightway transmitted the complete method to the four men. Having obtained the medicine, they concealed their bodies and roamed about, entering the king's inner palace together for several months, until many of the beauties became pregnant. The king questioned his wise ministers, and a minister said: 'If it is not ghosts or demons, it must be the magical arts. Fine earth may be spread inside all the gates. If it is magical arts, their footprints will surely appear; if it is ghosts or demons, they will enter without leaving tracks. Humans may be slain with weapons; ghosts must be destroyed with incantations.' The king employed his plan, and indeed there were the footprints of four men. He then ordered brave warriors to brandish swords in the empty air, severing the heads of three men. Within seven feet of the king, the blades could not reach; Nāgārjuna drew in his body and clung close to the king, so that they could not harm him. For the first time he realized that desire is the root of suffering, and straightway vowed to himself: 'If I escape this peril, I will go to a śramaṇa and receive the rites of leaving household life.' Having escaped the palace, he immediately entered the mountains and reached a stupa of the Buddha. Kāpimara came to visit him. Nāgārjuna welcomed him, saying: 'The deep mountains are lonely and solitary; why has the Greatly Virtuous and Supreme One condescended his divine steps?' Kāpimara said: 'I am not the supreme one; I have merely come to visit a worthy.' Nāgārjuna thought silently: 'Has this master attained the determined nature? Is his eye of the Way clear? Is he a great sage succeeding to the True Vehicle?' Kāpimara said: 'Though you spoke within your mind, I already knew your thought. Just attend to leaving household life; why worry whether I am a sage or not?' Nāgārjuna repented with thanks and forthwith sought to leave household life. Within ninety days he recited and mastered the Tripiṭaka; he fully comprehended all that existed in Jambudvīpa, with unimpeded eloquence, and considered himself an omniscient man. Wishing to enter through Gautama's gate, the gate deity told him: 'Now, how is your wisdom any different from a firefly compared to the sun and moon, or Mount Sumeru matched against a mustard seed? As I see it, benevolent one, you are not omniscient; why do you wish to enter through this gate?' Nāgārjuna felt abashed and reflected in his mind: 'Although the Buddhist sutras in the world are wondrous, their phrasing and meaning are not exhaustive; I shall further expound them to enlighten later students.' He also wished to establish a master's precepts, and design different garments to make them slightly distinct. Wishing to dispel the feelings of the multitude, he chose an auspicious day and was about to institute them. While he was sitting alone in a quiet room, in a crystal chamber, the Great Dragon Bodhisattva took pity on his thoughts, and immediately with divine power brought him into the ocean palace. Opening the seven-jeweled chests, he gave him the Vaipulya sutras. Within ninety days, he thoroughly comprehended very many of them. The dragon asked: 'Have you now read the scriptures completely?' The master said: 'Your scriptures are immeasurable and cannot be exhausted; what I have read now already exceeds ten times all that is in Jambudvīpa.' The dragon said: 'The scriptures in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven exceed those here by hundreds of thousands of millions of times.' In the palace, the master practiced and became suddenly enlightened and thoroughly penetrated; he skillfully comprehended the single mark and deeply entered the patience of the non-arising of dharmas. The dragon, knowing that he had realized the Way, escorted the master out of the palace. (The *Fuxing* says: 'The dragon brought him into the palace; in one summer he only recited the catalog of the sutras of the seven Buddhas.') The king of South India was deeply tainted by heterodox views, and the master wished to convert him. Bearing a red banner in his own hands, he walked before the king for seven years. The king asked, 'Who are you?' He replied, 'I am an omniscient man.' The king said, 'What are the devas doing right now?' He replied, 'The devas are right now fighting with the asuras.' A moment later, swords and blades fell from the air one after another, and the ears and noses of the asuras dropped down from the sky. Only then was the king startled into awakening, prostrating in reverence. At that time, ten thousand brāhmaṇas in the palace praised his divine virtue, shaved their hair, and left household life. When hosts of non-Buddhists came to debate, they were subdued at a single word, yielded, and left household life. There was a brāhmaṇa well-versed in spells who petitioned the king to contest his powers. The brāhmaṇa conjured a large pond with a lotus flower and sat atop it. Nāgārjuna conjured a white elephant to enter the pond, wind its trunk around the lotus flower, lift it high, and hurl it to the ground. The brāhmaṇa injured his back, confessed his fault to the master, and thereupon sought to leave household life. Nāgārjuna composed the *Mahākāruṇikopāyasaṃgraha-śāstra* in five thousand verses, the *Mahālaṅkāra-śāstra* in five thousand verses, and the *Mahābhayadāna-śāstra* in one hundred thousand verses (The *Fuxing* says: 'The *Great Compassion Treatise* clarifies astronomy, geography, and making treasures and medicines. The *Great Adornment Treatise* clarifies the cultivation of all gates to merit. The *Great Fearlessness Treatise* clarifies the primary truth; the *Mūlamadhyamakakārikā* is one chapter thereof; that is, the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa*'), and the *Upadeśa-śāstra* in one hundred thousand verses. There was a Hīnayāna Dharma master who, seeing the master's brilliance, always harbored resentment and jealousy. His task accomplished, the master asked the Hīnayāna master: 'Do you now wish that I remain long in the world?' He replied: 'Benevolent one, truly I do not.' Suddenly one day he entered the moon-disc samādhi, where only the sound of the Dharma was heard and no physical form was seen. Only his disciple Deva recognized it, saying: 'The master is showing the Buddha-nature, which is neither sound nor form.' Nāgārjuna then transmitted the Dharma to Deva, reentered the quiet chamber, and did not come out for days. The disciples broke open the door to look, and saw that he had entered samādhi and cast off his mortal coil like a cicada shedding its shell. The kingdoms of India all erected shrines for him, revering and serving him like a Buddha. (The *Fu fazang jing* and the *Mahāmāyā Sūtra*. Master Zhiyi said: 'The tree gave birth to his physical body; the dragon gave birth to his Dharma-body; hence he was named Nāgārjuna.' Gushan and Ciyun both call Nāgārjuna the thirteenth generation, for they follow the orthodox lineage of the Western lands without including Madhyāntika.)