佛祖統紀 12.15

12.15

Dharma Master Huicai came from the Wang family of Leqing in Yongjia. He studied under Yifang of Mount Baihe. In the Xiangfu era, through imperial favor he was ordained. (When Zhenzong performed the Feng sacrifice on Mount Tai, an edict ordered every temple and monastery to ordain one person.) At the age of thirteen, he advanced to receive the full precepts. He went to study at Siming. His faculties were dull and slow, so he constantly recited the Great Compassion Dhāraṇī, vowing to master the ancestral path. Suddenly in a dream, he saw a foreign monk several tens of feet tall, who took off his kāṣāya, draped it over him, and called out: 'Huicai, remember me for the rest of your life!' The next day, when attending the lecture, he was thoroughly enlightened; all that he had heard before and after was understood in a single instant. Before long, he became the head of the assembly, and the four seats respected and submitted to him. He then visited Ciyun, serving him reverently with diligent morning-and-night devotion without cease. In the beginning of the Zhiping era, Shen Gou, the prefect of Hangzhou, invited him to dwell at the Treasure Pavilion of Fahui. For twenty years, his integrity remained unbroken from beginning to end. Grand Commandant Duke Lu memorialized to grant him the title Guangci ('Broad Compassion'). Fushi came to request him [to teach], and he yielded to the community's wishes. Not long after, he retired to the foot of Leifeng Pagoda. Standing on one foot, he recited the Great Compassion Dhāraṇī one hundred and eight times as his daily practice. Also, standing on one foot for a day and a night, he recited the name of Amitābha. One evening, he dreamed of reaching a jeweled palace and towers, and someone told him: 'The middle grade of the Pure Land is where you shall be born.' In the spring of the first year of Yuanfeng, ten thousand monastics and laypeople sought to receive the great precepts. At the time of the *karmavācanā*, the crown of the Avalokiteśvara statue emitted a radiant light illuminating the lecture hall. Chan Master Shouyi of Jingci composed the 'Record of the Precept Light' for the occasion. On the twenty-first day of the fifth month of the sixth year, he changed his clothes, took his seat, wrote a verse praising the Buddha, and said: 'My rebirth in the Pure Land is certain.' Calmly he passed away. A stupa was erected to the right of the hermitage. He lived to eighty-six, with seventy-three years as a monk. Ten disciples succeeded to his lineage, including Fazong and Jiezhu. The Master had an ancient appearance and a tranquil nature, speaking little and having few desires. At that time, divergent doctrinal debates agitated Jiangnan and Zhejiang, yet the Master alone taught patiently and methodically, never passing judgment. Duke Zhao Qingxian had the closest spiritual friendship with him. When stationed in Yue, he sent him a poem: 'Having obtained leave to return to the homeland, how joyful! / By Leifeng hermitage in quietude you wander to and fro. / Do not say the Zhejiang river separates our letters; / In a single day, the sound of the tide comes twice.'