佛祖統紀 15.40

15.40

Dharma Master Juexian was surnamed Chen, from Cixi in Siming, and was styled Chengzhao. At the age of seven, upon receiving the scriptures, he could recite them after a single reading. He initially received instruction under Mingzhi. Having obtained his transmission, he further sought instruction from Cibian and Qingbian, and his attainment grew ever deeper. At the beginning of the Jingkang era, he took charge of Baolin in Fenghua. It happened that the county suffered a drought, and he was requested to lecture on the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra; when the roll was concluded, it rained for three days. Thereupon, he encouraged the townspeople to erect a dhāraṇī pillar of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa and recite ten thousand fascicles of the scripture to serve as a protection for the county borders. He moved to take charge of Yanqing, where he vastly propagated the teachings of the school. After a long time, he returned again to Baolin, building a chamber called Miaolian (Wondrous Lotus). He again recited a full ten thousand fascicles, maintained the Pure Land Buddha-name through forty-eight [recitations of the] canon, and selected notable sayings from scriptures and commentaries to aid contemplation and practice, entitling [the collection] Xinyao (Mind Essentials). On the fourteenth day of the first month in the sixteenth year of the Shaoxing era, he expounded the Dharma, sat peacefully, and passed away. A stūpa was built for him beside his sleeping quarters. On another day, the sound of chanting scriptures was heard at night; tracing its origin, it came from within the stūpa. Later, when Yuetang resided at Nanhu, he considered that the master had the merit of transmitting and maintaining [the lineage] at Yanqing, yet his stūpa lay amid wild weeds; he thereupon ordered it moved to the ancestral burial mound. When the earth was opened, they saw that the pegs and ropes had not decayed, and his bones were like bronze (shuan [pegs]: fan-切 for shān and yuán, meaning wooden pegs).