佛祖統紀 40.20

40.20

In the seventh year, Tripiṭaka Master Vajrabodhi of Western India arrived in Guangzhou by way of the South Sea. He came to the capital, was granted an audience, and was imperially decreed to reside at Ci'en Monastery. Bodhi transmitted the Yoga Esoteric teaching of Nāgārjuna; wherever he went, he invariably erected altars, conferred initiations, and delivered people. His prayers for rain and expelling of calamities were particularly conspicuous for their efficacy. The monk Huiri of Wangji Monastery in Chang'an returned from traveling to Western India and presented authentic portraits of the Buddha and Sanskrit leaf manuscripts. Summoned for an audience in the inner palace, his preaching of the Dharma awakened the Emperor's mind, and he was granted the title Tripiṭaka Master Cimin. The Dharma Master had passed through seventy countries, taking twenty years for the round trip. In the third month, the elder Li Tongxuan, considering the commentaries and subcommentaries of the various schools on the Great Avataṃsaka-sūtra to be excessively convoluted, took the newly translated sūtra and went to the residence of Gao Shannu in Taiyuan to compose a treatise. After three years, eating only ten dates and a cypress-leaf cake each day, the world called him the Date and Cypress Mahāsattva. As he was about to carry the scripture to Hanzhuang, he suddenly saw a tiger blocking the path; the elder placed the scriptures on its back, and it led him up Fangshan to an earthen niche where he stayed. Inside the room there was no lamp or candle, but white light emerged from his mouth, brilliantly illuminating his composition. There were two maidens who daily provided a tray of food, as well as paper and ink. On the day he passed away sitting, a white light reached up from the crown of his head to the Taiwei constellation. The treatise he composed comprises forty volumes (there is one volume of the Elder's deeds in the Canon).