佛祖統紀 13.26

13.26

Dharma Master Youyan was surnamed Hu and hailed from Linhai in Taizhou. When his mother was about to conceive him, she fell prostrate in severe pain. Her elder brother, the śramaṇa Zongben, said, “This must signify something extraordinary. If a boy is born, he must leave home [as a monk].” Hearing this, his mother joined her palms in agreement, whereupon the pain immediately ceased. Indeed, a boy was born. At the age of six, he took refuge at Lingjiu to study under a master. At fourteen, he received the full precepts. Upon reading the Xinfu (Mind-Poem) of Dhyāna Master [Yongming Yan]shou, he had an awakening. He immediately went to Dongshan to study the path of the threefold contemplation in one mind and the practice of the Lotus Samādhi under Shenzhao; there was nothing he did not divinely comprehend and personally practice. At that time, Fazhen lived together in the assembly and told him, “Though you have emerged late, you will become a vessel of great distinction.” Once, when reading Zhiguan up to the inconceivable realm, [Youyan] stated, “The ten thousand dharmas are solely the one mind; outside the mind there is not a single dharma. Mind and dharmas are unattainable; hence it is named the wondrous three thousand.” Fazhen praised and admired him all the more. He initially presided over Wuxiang and Huiyin. When Fazhen moved from Chicheng to Dongye, he recommended the Master to succeed him. [The Master] often remarked that because the Buddha is long gone, people are deluded about their own nature; whenever he expounded, he invariably pointed directly to the one mind to make it easy to grasp, so that listeners were all able to attain entry. During the Shaosheng reign period, the commandery requested him to preside over Dongye. The Master said, “Before the Great Master Zhi[yi] reached the age of fifty, he had already dispersed his disciples. I am already old; how could I endure this?” Ultimately, he did not accept. He lived in reclusion on the eastern peak of his native mountain, building a hut beside a hawthorn tree, and thus named himself Zha'an (Hawthorn Hermitage; in his collected writings there is the Record of Zha'an, whose prose and principles are exceedingly wondrous). He kept only a single bowl and possessed no superfluous goods, gathering firewood and drawing water with his own hands, eating only the three white foods. For twenty years, he guarded the light and heavy articles of the Vinaya with equal care, dedicated exclusively to the pure karma [of Pure Land], taking the Land of Peace and Sustenance (Sukhāvatī) as his homeland. He composed eight poems on longing for the Pure Land; their diction and sentiments were deeply moving, and many took joy in reciting them. The samādhis he regularly practiced frequently obtained auspicious responses: he gave food to ghosts and spirits to dispel illnesses and repel baneful influences, and expelled snakes and ants and prayed to avert floods and droughts—whenever he performed recitations, responses came like echoes in a valley. When his mother suffered from eye disease, the Master faced Avalokiteśvara and visualized the sun-essence maṇi hand; his mother promptly dreamed that the Master held the sun before her, and upon waking her eyes were clear. In the first month of summer in the first year of the Jianzhong Jingguo reign period, while in meditative absorption, he saw a heavenly deity announce, “Master, your pure karma is accomplished.” He also dreamed of a great lotus flower growing in a pond, with heavenly music arranged on all four sides. He then composed a poem on bidding farewell and returning to the Pure Land. Seven days later, he passed away sitting cross-legged. He was stupaed in an earthenware vessel to the north of the hermitage. A light appeared over the stupa like the moon, vanishing only after three nights. The Master had an exhaustive mastery of the Tripiṭaka and was thoroughly versed in secular books and histories. He annotated the Chapter on Peaceful and Joyful Practices and Emptiness, wrote commentaries on the Faxiyin jing, the Xuanqian beijian, the Wenju jiannan, the Zhiguan zhulan, and the Amituo liwen, and compiled a volume titled Huodui (Dialogues of Queries), which debated the ancient and the modern, serving as an essential work on these matters.