佛祖統紀 16.43

16.43

Dharma Master Yuanzhi was of the Lin family of Huangyan. His mother gave birth to him after dreaming that an elderly Confucian scholar sought lodging. As a youth, he was intelligent and had no fondness for frivolous play; whatever writings, histories, or classics met his eyes he could fully elucidate, and there was nothing in medical prescriptions or divination that he did not thoroughly investigate. He once visited a neighboring temple and heard a lecture on the Contemplation Sūtra; sighing, he said, "The land where the sun sets is my native home. Hearing this today is like receiving a letter from home." When he left home and received the precepts, he immediately relied upon Zhenjiao at Bailian, becoming thoroughly versed in the doctrinal teachings and contemplation. He once asked about the meaning of inherent inclusion and dynamic manifestation. Zhenjiao pointed to a lantern and said, "A lantern such as this is detached from self-nature and cut off from error, inherently empty and tranquil—thus the principle is inherently included. What the six ordinary and four noble kinds of beings see differs—thus dynamic manifestation is present therein." (Kai'an says: "Inherent inclusion is like a jewel containing treasures, which is the inherent inclusion of the three thousand realms in principle. Dynamic manifestation is like a jewel raining treasures, which is the phenomenal production of the three thousand realms. This principle differs slightly from Zhenjiao's.") The Master did not tally [with this]. Later, while sweeping the ground, he recited the Lotus Sūtra, and upon reaching the line, "Knowing that phenomena are ever without a nature / The Buddha-seeds arise from conditions," he had a sudden awakening. He reported this to Zhenjiao, who said, "For the Lotus Sūtra and the Great Calming and Contemplation, this is the very throat and collar. Now that you have awakened to it, the great matter is completed." From then on, he let his mind roam in the marvels of the Way, sleeping only once every five days. When someone invited him to take a stroll, he would say, "My roaming is different from this: before a bright window and at a clean desk, opening and closing the book satchels, visiting the five Buddhas and traversing the three cycles; and when reading the Great Calming and Contemplation, the ten objects and ten vehicles allow me to behold the Patriarch beyond dust-motes of kalpas." He resided at Dongshan for fourteen years; the thousand monastics of the two monasteries deferred to him as their foremost. Constantly troubled that students were trapped in names and characteristics, he exhorted his peers, saying, "This true vigorous effort is itself the mechanism for upward advancement." Every half-month he unfailingly performed the poṣadha. Someone said, "For the Perfect and Sudden school, what need is there for this?" The Master replied, "In the Perfect school, phenomena and principle are fully complete in a single thought-moment. How could what is called 'Perfect and Sudden' dismiss phenomena to seek principle? At all times I have never failed to take the prātimokṣa as my teacher; supporting the vinaya while expounding the permanent is precisely for this day." The commandery invited him to preside over Xiangfu. Academician Liu asked, "How should a single phrase within the teachings be brought forth?" The Master said, "Directly phenomenological, yet true." Liu grasped his meaning and personally composed an invitation requesting him to preside over Hongyou. The scholar-officials wished him to be closer to the city and invited him to dwell at Rishan. He subsequently moved through Bailian, Chicheng, and Qingshan, his transformative teaching growing daily. In the twenty-third year of Shaoxing, he was ordered by imperial decree to preside over Shangzhu. In the wake of a devastating fire, only the Great Being's Hall remained. There was an attendant in plain robes who built the gates and corridors for it. An astrologer said that the presiding star was unpropitious. The Master said, "The Buddha and the celestial stars share the same creative transformation. If the precious cloister is grand and beautiful, what regret would I have if I die?" Before long, he indeed suffered a slight illness; he dreamed that an immortal gave him celestial liquid to drink, and his ailment was instantly cured, his vitality far exceeding what it had been before. In the summer of the twenty-seventh year there was a drought; an imperial decree ordered him to lecture on the sūtras at Mingqing, and as the assembly dispersed, soaking rain fell. He once arrived at a temple manor and heard that animal sacrifices were being offered; he said, "How can one violate the Buddha's prohibition?" He immediately expounded the precepts for the deity and replaced the offerings with vegetarian food. In the twenty-eighth year, he supervised the construction work very swiftly; by winter, all the halls were complete. On the twelfth day of the twelfth month, he manifested illness, wrote letters in advance to bid farewell to monastics and laypeople, wrote a verse, and passed away while sitting. A stūpa was erected for him to the east of the temple. Earlier, during the final year of Pujue's abbotship, Pujue dreamed that an arhat came from Tiantai and sat in the abbot's seat; shortly after, the Master arrived. During the Master's stay at Wuxiang, he dreamed that Piṇḍola came to visit and gave him a vessel of camellia; people thus knew that the Master was one among the Five Hundred [Arhats]. Yīng of Tongjiang, relying on his own intellectual understanding, criticized Jingxi's clarifications as far-fetched interpretations whenever he encountered points where Jingxi took pains to explain, going so far as to say that Miaole could be refuted; he posed ten difficulties, and students dared not contend with him. The Master composed the Gongying ji (Collection Refuting Ying) to demolish his arguments in succession. Readers were delighted, regretting only that the two masters had not lived at the same time.