佛祖統紀 12.8

12.8

Dharma Master Benru was a native of Gouzhang in Siming. He received his training at Guoning in his native commandery. At first he relied on Fazhi, and among a thousand fellows he enjoyed a reputation for youthful excellence. He had a model discipline for historical classics and literary calligraphy, and was beloved by the world. Once, he requested further clarification of the correct meaning of the scriptures. Fazhi said, 'Serve as my rector (zhishi) for three years, and then I will explain it to you.' When his term of duty was completed and he made the request again, Fazhi gave a loud shout and called out, 'Benru!' The Master was suddenly awakened and composed a verse: 'Everywhere I encounter the way back; / In each thing I return to my native village. / It was an already-accomplished matter from the start; / Why must it depend on deliberation?' Fazhi approved him, saying, 'If I had explained it to you before, how could there be today?' In the fourth year of Dazhong Xiangfu, Ciyun relocated to Lingshan and went in person to Fazhi's assembly to seek someone who could succeed him. Fazhi said, 'You should choose for yourself from among the assembly.' Ciyun surveyed them, and when he came to the Master, he said, 'This man will do.' The Master arrived at Chengtian (the old name of Dongshan Nengren) and greatly invigorated the path of the Dharma. Over thirty years, his followers consistently numbered five or six hundred. He expounded six or seven times on texts such as the Lotus, the Mahāparinirvāṇa, the Suvarṇaprabhāsa, the Guan Wuliangshou, the Guanyin biexing xuan, the Zhiguan, the Jinbi, and the Guanxin lun. He once gathered a hundred monks to practice the year-long extended repentance of the Lotus, and auspicious omens appeared repeatedly. In the seventh month of the second year of Baoli, the Imperial Son-in-law Li Zunxu petitioned the court on his behalf, and he was bestowed the purple robe with the title Dharma Master Shenzhao, as well as four thousand five hundred rolls of Master Zhiyi's doctrinal writings to aid his lectures. Once, at the southwest corner of the monastery, he saw a sleeping tiger and struck it with his staff, saying, 'This is no place for you to sleep!' The tiger bowed its head and left (now the Huxi Pavilion of Bailian Monastery). Later, on the spot where the tiger had lain, he built a hut as a hermitage to retire in leisure. Formerly, there were five spirit-deities with supernatural powers residing here; whenever the Master sat in meditation, they would carry his seat through the air, but the Master never questioned them. One day the five spirits requested, 'Since you have occupied our abode, we beg that you build a shrine and sculpt images on the opposite ridge; we have already prepared mud on the mountain.' The Master went to look at the ridge, and there was a mound of new mud, which was used to sculpt the images with none left over. Admiring the spirit of Mount Lu, the Master formed the White Lotus Society with Chancellor Duke Zhang Xun and various worthies; within six or seven years it became a great monastery. He then set the mountain ridge as a boundary, designating one-third of the forests of Nengren to supply firewood. Emperor Renzong revered his path and bestowed on it the name White Lotus. On the eighteenth day of the fifth month of the third year of Huangyou, suffering a slight illness, he ascended the hall, preached the Dharma, and bade farewell to the assembly. That night, the main beams of the Dharma hall, scripture repository, and abbot's quarters all snapped, and the bells and drums produced no sound when struck. Fishermen on the river saw a monk heading west amidst the clouds. At dawn, resting on his right side, he peacefully passed away. The weather was sweltering at the time, but an extraordinary fragrance arose. In the third month of the following year, his entire body was entombed in a stupa north of the monastery. His disciples opened the lock and observed his revered countenance as if alive, with his nails and hair having grown long, and a great lotus blossom bloomed before the stupa. He was seventy years old and had fifty-three rains retreats. His Dharma successors, such as Chuxian and others, were very numerous. The Master once conferred the precepts upon the assembly in Tiantai county; while holding the karmavācanā, beams of light suddenly shot across from Zhiyi's stupa, Guoqing Monastery, and Mount Chicheng, intersecting above the Dharma seat. Furthermore, when making offerings to a thousand Buddhas and feeding a thousand poor people, flowers were placed beneath their seats; the flowers under the Buddha seats, which should not have withered, withered instead, while the flowers under the poor people's seats, which should have withered, did not. The entire assembly marveled at this. He once composed the Renwang chanyi and drafted the Xingfa jingshu up to the ten kinds of realms before stopping; later, Master Xian continued and completed it.