佛祖統紀 16.32

16.32

Dharma Master Daochen was from the Peng family of Leqing in Wenzhou. He was granted the title Yuanbian. His mother dreamed that purple mist coiled around her body, and then gave birth to him. At age eighteen he took full ordination. He initially studied the Vinaya rules. Soon after, he went to follow Xi'an at Faming; hearing the subtle words and wondrous purports, he comprehended them at once. Later he went to Nanhu to rely on Yuanzhao. After returning home, he came forth to preside over Guangji. In the twelfth year he moved to Guangci. In the third year of Jianyan, the imperial carriage arrived at Yongjia. An edict ordered that the former residence of Lin Lingsu be made the Zifu Cloister; Prime Minister Lü Yihao nominated the Master to respond to the imperial order. He once pawned his saṃghāṭī robe for rice in the marketplace; at night streaming light shone brilliantly from it, and at dawn [the merchant] held it up and returned it to the mountain. Distressed by the lack of water, he instructed workmen to dig a well; they found an ancient brick inscribed with the characters 'Tiankang' (a reign era of Emperor Wen of the southern Chen dynasty), and spring water gushed forth beneath it. The embankment of the Leqing River was continually troubled by collapses; all said it was caused by baleful spirits. Officials and commoners requested him to confer the precepts [on them]; the deity delivered thanks through mediumship. His disciple Qingshun dreamed that the patriarchs of Yanqing came to visit, with attendants holding a lineage chart beside them, but the eighth position was vacant. Shun pointed and asked about it, and they replied, 'Your master will fill that place.' When he later dwelt at Nanhu, he was indeed the eighth generation. He once exclusively cultivated the mindfulness of the Buddha samādhi, and suddenly awoke to understanding, saying, 'The mind-only Pure Land is simply one! It is truly because Amitābha realizes the precious realm of my own mind, and my own mind contains the Land of Bliss of Amitābha. Though distant, it is near, not exceeding a single thought; though near, it is far, surpassing a hundred thousand koṭis [of lands]. It is like the clear moon in the blue sky casting its reflection upon ten thousand waters; the water does not ascend, and the moon does not descend. Water and moon form a single limit, naturally illuminating each other.' One day while in meditative absorption, he saw an elder master seated on a meditation bench, who turned and said to the Master, 'I am Siming.' Startled and delighted, the Master made obeisance and asked, 'Daochen has not yet thoroughly penetrated our school's habit-energies and dharmalakṣaṇa; I beg you to deign to instruct me.' The Venerable nodded in assent. Upon waking, his mind ground was completely clear and unobstructed. From then on, whenever the Mountain School discussed teaching and contemplation, all took the Master as their authority. In the twelfth year of Shaoxing, Yuanzhao pleaded old age and recommended the Master to take his place. After the monastery had been burned and ravaged by the barbarian invaders, the Master's sincere mind moved people so that donors naturally flocked to him. Within months and years, the halls and buildings were fully restored. Because he practiced the Lotus Samādhi, he moved Samantabhadra to emit light, and his wisdom and eloquence increased still further. When the prefecture suffered a great drought, he was requested to pray for rain; because the prefectural administration was harsh and fierce, the Master remonstrated with the prefect, who was moved to realization and released several hundred prisoners. That night it rained heavily. When there were those who were chronically ill, he preached the Dharma and gave food to them, and many were healed. When Chan Master Chen of Yuwang fell ill, he went to visit him. Returning, he said to the assembly, 'Big words with no substance ultimately yield no strength.' Thereupon on the twenty-third day of the month, he established a Pure Land continuous mindfulness assembly, and monastics and laity reached ten thousand. He was a companion in the Way with Chan Master Dayuan of Xuedou. [Dayuan] once asked him to explain the meaning of the Six Identities; hearing it, he sighed and said, 'For the Master to speak like this, you must have experienced awakening?' He replied, 'If not for awakening, how would I dare speak to the Old Master?' One day, having lectured up to the meaning of the Six Arhats, students asked him to expound on it; he rebuked them, saying, 'What benefit is there in explaining the dharmalakṣaṇa of the Hīnayāna? I shall expound for you the meaning of the King of Sūtras.' It continued in rapid succession for three days without repeating a single word. On the sixteenth day of the twelfth month of the twenty-third year of Shaoxing, he assembled the community to chant the *Contemplation Sūtra* day and night without ceasing. The community smelled an extraordinary fragrance filling the room. The Master said, 'The Buddha has come to receive me.' He then bathed, changed clothes, and wrote a verse: 'The mind-only Pure Land fundamentally has no delusion or awakening; / When not a single thought arises, one immediately enters the First Abode.' He ordered them to chant the 'Practices of Ease and Bliss'. Before they had finished, he calmly passed away seated. His niche was retained for a full month, and his complexion and body appeared as if alive. His whole body was buried beside the ancestral stūpa of Chongfa.