佛祖統紀 28.42

28.42

Sun Bian was a native of Wulin, styled Retired Scholar Wuzheng (Non-Contention; his mother, Madame Gong, has a separate biography). In his youth he studied the Yijing (Book of Changes) and remarked: 'The Book of Changes is that by which one exhausts principle and fully explores nature; why should one bother with the trivial pursuit of advancement?' He shut his gates, obscured his traces, and lived detached from secular affairs. The śramaṇa Shouning befriended him and said to him: 'Bai Letian used Confucianism to cultivate his person, and Buddhism to regulate his nature. Have you heard of this?' Bian resonated deeply with the monk's words. Daily he read the Avataṃsaka, the Diamond, and the Amitābha Sūtras. He once dreamt of arriving at a lotus pond and standing at its side together with Vinaya Master Heng of Qingzhao. He also dreamt of a person holding a text written in Sanskrit golden characters, which he read but could not understand. The person said: 'It is merely inviting you to a vegetarian feast on the thirteenth day.' On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, he suddenly fell ill. His relatives wished to invite Vinaya Master Miaoguang to pray for him, but Bian said: 'Life and death are already determined; why bother to pray?' Thereupon he expounded to them the principle of rebirth in the Pure Land. He then sat cross-legged, made a mudrā, and passed away sitting facing west. The next day, Qingzhao arrived to place him in his coffin and returned to his hermitage. Three days later, Qingzhao also passed away while sitting, fulfilling the prophecy of their standing together by the lotus pond.