佛祖統紀 49

English (machine translation) 49

Language: English

49.1

Compiled by the Śramaṇa Zhipan of Donghu in Siming under the Xianchun era of the Song

49.2

Treatise on Celebrated Writings That Illumine the Teaching, the Eighteenth, Part One

When Zhizhe flourished with this Way in his time, the texts in praise of his virtue by renowned worthies of antiquity and today—such as Liu Guyan's Guoqing Stele, Huangfu Bi's Yuquan Stele (these two writings are found in the Guoqing bailu), the Anonymous True Record of Yuquan (this stele is a re-carved text of which an ink rubbing was once obtained), Tang Liang Su's Stele for Grand Master Jingxi, Song Zhang Shangying's Record of the Ancestral Hall of Lord Guan, Hu Fang's Stele for Dharma Master Fazhi, and Chao Shuozhi's Stele for Dharma Master Mingzhi—have all had their essential matters extracted and incorporated into the Annals and Biographies, and their full texts are not recorded separately again. Yet, from the Tang down to the present, how numerous are the stele records, treatises, and prefaces that adorn the Great Teaching! Now I record the most outstanding among them to make the 'Treatise on Celebrated Writings That Illumine the Teaching'.

49.4

Stele of Chanlin Temple on Mount Tiantai

49.5

By Liang Su, Hanlin Academician of the Tang

49.6

At the southwest corner of Mount Tiantai there is a peak called Folong. It was where the Great Master Zhizhe attained the Way, the place where the Great Teaching of the previous Buddha shone forth anew. The Liang and Chen dynasties revered it and established a monastery called Xiuchan. When the Sui founded Guoqing [Temple], they abolished the name Xiuchan and designated it a site of the Way (daochang). It has been more than one hundred and eighty years since the Great Master entered extinction. The senior elder, the great monk (the venerable Ran), brilliantly illuminated the posthumous instructions of the Great Master to instruct the later scholars and disciples. Liang Su of Anding heard this from above and renamed it Chanlin. Thereupon I engrave the great achievements left behind by the Great Master to show to later generations. The Great Master's taboo name was Zhiyi (courtesy name De'an), and his honorific title was Zhizhe. His ancestors belonged to the Chen clan of Yingchuan, and had resided for generations in Huarong of Jingzhou. His resonance with conditions and manifestation of traces are recorded in the separate biography. Now, as for the classics for governing the world, were it not for Zhongni, the systems of the Three Kings and the Four Dynasties would have slumbered and remained obscure. As for the Way of transcending the world, were it not for the Great Master, the principles of the Three Vehicles and Four Teachings would have been veiled and unenlightened. Formerly, the Tathāgata mounted the causes and conditions of the One Great Affair, and the Bodhisattva manifested through the Universal Gate. From the initial opening of the Avataṃsaka to the exalted assembly at the Twin Trees, neither small nor great, all returned together to the Buddha realm. When the Great Hero showed extinction, the paths of learning branched apart; as the world declined, the teaching also languished. Therefore the Great Being Nāgārjuna was grieved by this; he then employed expedient strategies to subdue all the non-Buddhists, and expounded the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom to elucidate the ultimate tenet. When the subtle words flowed eastward, our Chan Master Huiwen attained them: through the written words he entered the non-dual Dharma gate, and transmitted it to the Great Master Si of Nanyue. At that time the teaching was still concise and esoteric, and could not be widely disseminated, while the various schools of emptiness and existence misled and confused the realm of Xia. When the Great Master received it, he thereupon opened the Dharma gate of Calming and Contemplation (Śamatha-Vipaśyanā). His teaching roughly specifies meditation and wisdom directly on body and mind, and expounds liberation directly on words. It is the aim of the Great, Middle, and One Reality, the wondrous principle realized through non-attainment. From the initial aspiration up to the realization of the Way, the stages of practice are lucid and do not violate each other's order. Then he extensively expounded the sutras and harmonized them: all dissolved brightly like melting ice to show the Buddha's knowledge and vision. Those who examine his teaching cultivate it and find rest in it; indeed, wherever they enter, they find it naturally within themselves. Such was the Great Master's establishment of the teaching. As for loosening and tightening, adopting and setting aside, opening and closing, silence and speech, he strode lofty across the seas and the world, becoming the ancestral master of two states. Like the great sun in the sky, his light covered the four quarters; like the great cloud pouring down rain, he broadly bestowed it upon the myriad things. Hence, whenever people spoke of the Buddha's Dharma, they took Tiantai as their compass, and the disparate paths and discordant discourses often withdrew and fell silent. When his conditions dispersed and his teaching was completed, he showed extinction on this mountain; this was the seventeenth year of the Kaihuang era. Now, name is the guest of reality, and teaching is the gateway to the Way. The Great Master concealed the guest and threw open the gateway; he himself spoke of his stage, indicating that he had realization, so that the affairs of his resonance and response could be known. At that time, those who gained entrance to the Great Master's gate were counted in the thousands, and those who attained the deep mind were thirty-two people. The one who compiled his words and deeds for later generations was Chan Master Guanding of Zhang'an. Guanding transmitted it to Wei of Jinyun. Wei transmitted it to Dongyang. Dongyang and Jinyun had the same title, so people of the time called him Lesser Wei. Wei transmitted it to Chan Master Lang of Zuoxi. From Jinyun to Zuoxi, they passed the dark pearl to one another, merely resting at twilight in serene repose. The foremost among the disciples of Zuoxi is the present Chan Master Zhanran: his conduct is lofty, his discernment far-reaching, and his comprehension transcendent and eloquent. Whenever the ancestral masters' teachings lay in chapters and verses, he drew them forth to make them trusted. Those who came later and relied on him to exalt virtue and resolve doubts are beyond count. He once told Su: 'The Folong of this mountain is also like the Zhu and Si rivers of Zou and Lu. The brilliant light of the wondrous Dharma and the remaining dust of the former masters have gathered here. Since the Shangyuan and Baoli eras, state rebels have caused turmoil, and the dark-robed monks with tin staffs have scattered in terror. We may change its name, build a monastery, maintain the stūpas and shrines, adorn the Buddha land, so that those who dedicate their merit have a place of refuge. For this we depend on the multitude. You are my disciple; record this in literary words and carve it upon metal and stone, so that people a thousand years hence will know why our Way is as it is.' The junior bowed his head and received the command. Therefore the Great Master's origin and traces, the successive illumination of the teaching gate, and the abbacy of his descendants are all seen in these words. The inscription reads: / The Buddhas appear in the world, / Only for the One Great Affair. / The source of Tiantai's teaching / Reaches the same end as the Buddhas'. / Glorious was the Great Master, / Who opened and revealed the profound secret; / He further propagated the essentials of the Way, / And peacefully abided in the perfect stage. / The white sun shines gloriously in heaven; / The world is cultured and bright. / When the Great Master appeared, / The state was transformed and perfected. / Unborn, yet born; / Birth and transformation both grow dark. / The firewood is consumed, the fire extinguished; / The mountain is empty, but the Way endures. / After five generations, / An eminent virtue was born in between. / The subtle words reside here; / His virtuous voice truly fills the land. / Bright and discerning is our sovereign, / Who changed the name to Pure Domain. / Though this mountain may be destroyed, / This teaching shall have no end.

49.7

General Summary of Tiantai Calming and Contemplation

49.8

By Liang Su, Hanlin Academician of the Tang

49.9

Now, what does calming and contemplation accomplish? It guides the principle of all phenomena so that they return to the ultimate reality. What is this ultimate reality? It is the origin of [one's] nature. What prevents beings from returning [to it] is the doing of delusion and agitation. That which illumines delusion is called clarity; that which arrests agitation is called stillness. Clarity and stillness are the essence of calming and contemplation. In the cause, they are called calming and contemplation; in the fruit, they are called wisdom and concentration. The cause is called practice; the fruit is called realization. The practitioner is the one who practices this; realization is the realization of this. Probing the origin: the sage perceived that emotions are enough to destroy one's resolve and agitation is enough to lose one's direction. Thereupon, he calmed and contemplated it, stilled and illumined it, enabling them to be still while active, and clear while still. Depending on mutual opposition, teachings are formed; directly transcending opposition, the source is illumined. He set up the great carriage to steer the true vehicle; major matters being many, he synthesized the expedient means. Restoring and transforming in the arena of non-duality, he inspired movement in the realm of explaining the three. Reaching the utmost subtlety to fully fathom nature; reaching the utmost profundity to embody the spirit. Speaking of what is near, even a single hair's breadth of goodness can penetrate it; speaking of what is distant, the gate of profound mystery can be peered into. Employing the utmost roundness to make them round, things have no bias; employing the utmost reality to make them real, things have no falsehood. The sage raised his words in order to reveal; he broadened his headings in order to inform. Gentle and yielding, he made them seek it themselves; deliberating and discussing, he made them attain it themselves. This is how calming and contemplation came to be composed. Now, what are the three truths? They are spoken of as the one. What are the empty, the provisional, and the middle? They are the designations of the one. The empty and the provisional are mutually relative meanings; the Middle Way is the name for attaining the one. These are teachings of conceptual thought, not the import of the ultimate one. The ultimate one is precisely the three; the ultimate three are precisely the one. It is not that they contain each other, nor that they produce each other; it is not a matter of number, nor an arbitrary designation. It is the principle of nature. That which is transmitted in words is the traces. Principle is called the root; traces are called the branches. The root is the realm attained by the sage; the branches are the teachings shown by the sage. Deriving traces from the root, there are the small, the great, the shared, the distinct, the sudden, the gradual, the exoteric, the esoteric, the provisional, the real, the definite, and the indefinite. Tracing the traces to return to the root, there are the one, the great, the round, the real, the non-abiding, the middle, the wondrous, and the ultimate truth. This is the storehouse of the three and the one. The so-called 'empty' is spoken of as comprehending all phenomena; the 'provisional' is spoken of as establishing all phenomena; the 'middle' is spoken of as making all phenomena wondrous. In destroying all delusions, nothing is greater than the empty; in establishing all phenomena, nothing is greater than the provisional; in thoroughly penetrating all natures, nothing is greater than the middle. If the middle is raised, then no phenomenon is not the middle; if the provisional is designated, then no phenomenon is not provisional; if the empty is raised, then no phenomenon is not empty. When perfected, they are called the three virtues; when cultivated, they are called the three contemplations. To state the essentials: is this not the sage's teaching that plumbs the depths, investigates the minute, exhausts principle, and completely realizes nature? It makes the ignorant clear and the obstructed unblocked. Unblocked, then there is awakening; awakened, then there is attainment; attained, then there is constancy; constant, then there is exhaustion [of delusion]. Clear, then there is illumination; illumined, then there is transformation; transformed, then there is perfection; perfected, then there is oneness. The sage encompassed all phenomena without error, spanned myriad kalpas without omission, sheltered and carried [beings like] the sands of the Ganges without possessing them, and returned to nothingness without being nothing. By provisional designation he is called Buddha; as a makeshift title he is called the Awakened One. Probing his essential intent: is not his liberation and self-mastery the greatest of exceedingly wondrous virtues? Such is the accomplishment of the three contemplations. What is called the round and sudden is neither gradual nor indefinite; it refers to the meaning of the ten chapters in the treatise. The ten chapters are the gateways for comprehensively expounding the beginning and the end to open up the path. The five summaries are the fords that present the great outlines to cut off the flow. The ten objects are the triggers that set things in motion and the truths that establish contemplation. The ten vehicles are the gates through which the wondrous functioning is cultivated and practice is brought forth. To stop at the correct contemplation and conclude with the object of [false] views is because the meaning is complete. Omitting the rest is because they are not essentials for cultivation. What is a vehicle? It carries things and moves them forward. What are the ten? They are the things that complete the task of carrying. Knowing the wondrousness of the object and arriving without traveling: this is the highest virtue. One merely rides the one; how could one rely upon the nine? The nine are nothing other than an exposition of mutual production, trodden by those who have not yet arrived. Therefore, when generating the mind, it is generated without anything generated; when pacifying the mind, it is pacified without anything pacified; when breaking through universally, it is broken through without anything broken through. Coming to the remaining vehicles, they are all spoken of only because it could not be helped. As for distinguishing its doctrinal points and dividing them into chapters and headings: extending and broadening them is not too elaborate; synthesizing and summarizing them is not too brief. Like interlocking rings, they cannot be unfastened; like a string of pearls, they cannot be mixed up; like a suspended mirror, it cannot be covered; like an open river, it cannot be dammed. The doctrinal masters have many approaches, but they are not contentious disputes. Adducing sūtras to verify meanings is not empty talk. Distinguishing the shallow and deep of the four teachings, phenomena have a source. Completing the causes and conditions of a single event, principle is without omission. Ah, calming and contemplation: is it not a book to save the world and illumine the Way? Were it not for sage-like wisdom, transcendent and outstandingly independent, who could have composed it? Were it not for deep intelligence that penetrates meanings and forgets symbols, who could understand it? People today exclusively rely on verses, phrases, and written words to interpret it; how negligent they are! Some claim that the inconceivable object and inconceivable phenomena are all the realm of the ultimate sage, which even the superior beings of equal enlightenment have not yet exhausted; if ordinary mortals, whose minds and mental activities are subject to arising and ceasing, and whose three delusions are turbulent, infer the supremely wondrous principle from within spoken words, it is like a mustard-seed bug speaking of the great Peng bird, or a summer insect discussing layers of ice. That they cannot see it is clear indeed! Now, the words of calming and contemplation number in the tens of thousands; broadly discussing the ground of fruition is of no benefit to beginners. How could it compare to quietly cultivating oneself, where once effort reaches its peak, one will naturally arrive? Why must one make early calculation one's business? This is greatly mistaken. Is the so-called realm of the supreme sage really distant and remote, separated from the realm of the ordinary like heaven from earth? It is only one single nature: attaining it is called awakening; losing it is called delusion. It is only one single principle: in delusion it is an ordinary person; in awakening it is a sage. The deluded separate themselves; principle does not separate them. The lost lose it themselves; the nature is not lost. The composition of Calming and Contemplation is precisely to distinguish identity and difference and probe into the sage and divine, enabling all living beings to rectify their nature and accord with principle. Rectifying nature and according with principle is how one walks the path of awakening and arrives at the wondrous realm. If one does not know this teaching, where can learning enter? Where can effort be applied? Where can wisdom arise? It is like being without eyes and blind to the light of the sun and moon, walking in places of double danger, stumbling and falling—how could it be fully recorded? Ah! Long has it been since the sage passed away, and worthy men do not appear. The mediocre and confused are merely conscious beings, causing demonic heresies and deceptive confusions of various factions to flare up together, chattering about emptiness and existence, becoming pits and snares. There are those glued to texts and phrases, not daring to move; there are those drifting in surging waves, unable to stay; there are those who think it is too distant and willingly accept never arriving; there are those who think it is too close and believe their own body is already it; there are those like dry wood who call it concentration; there are those who howl through cavities and call it wisdom; there are those who rush along improper paths and speak of expedient means; there are those who rely on ghosts and spirits and speak of supernormal penetrations; there are those of unbridled mind who consider it broadness; there are those of rare speech who consider it esotericism; there are those who transmit things privately between tooth and tongue as secret oral instructions. All such types set themselves up as patriarchs and carry on the patriarchs to establish schools, opposing the scriptures and going against the sages, while the ignorant remain unaware. Zhongni had a saying: 'That the Way is not understood—I know the reason: it is due to the burden of external things.' How sorrowful! In the seventeenth year of the Kaihuang reign of the Sui, the Great Master passed away. To the Jianzhong reign of our imperial dynasty, it has been nearly two hundred years. In transmitting these writings, there have been five lineage masters in all. The first was Guanding; the next was Jinyun Wei; the next was Dongyang Wei; the next was Venerable Lang of Zuoxi; the fifth was Venerable Ran of Jingxi. Master Ding was foremost in wisdom and understanding among his fellow disciples; he was able to uphold the master's instructions and compile this book, which was precisely because he did not take ornate literary phrasing as primary. Sometimes it errs on the side of being cumbersome; sometimes its merit is rustic. During the time of the two Weis, it was merely sealed and passed on; the Way was not practiced. In the Tianbao reign, Zuoxi first broadly explained it, but those who understood were few indeed. Jingxi expanded it with records amounting to hundreds of thousands of words, gathering up the remaining teachings—how diligent! How complete! After Jingxi's demise, there were barely three or four people who understood his explanations. The ancients said: 'Those who are born with knowledge are the highest; those who learn and so have knowledge are the next; those who learn after being vexed by difficulties are yet the next.' Those who are born with knowledge possess it through the virtue of their nature. Those who learn and so have knowledge have deep natural capability. If cravings are deep and ears and eyes are obstructed, even if they study they cannot know; these are the lowest. Today's students are afflicted within by obscurity and driven without by complexity; to the end of their lives they cannot penetrate its text, and for years cannot gain its benefit. Thus, the phrasing of the text becomes their stocks and shackles, and tangled sentences become chaff blown into their eyes to blind them. With teachers who cannot explain teaching disciples who do not comprehend, this is why calming and contemplation has not yet shone brightly in our time. I have always been distressed by this. Thereupon, I rearranged its great outlines and gathered its essential points. Where principle resides and where the teaching is urgent, I either transposed or expanded them. Where the meaning was rambling or the phrasing vulgar, I either pruned or polished them. Of the defects of superficiality and sloppiness, nine out of ten have been cured; of the appropriateness of expansion and brevity, one out of three has been preserved. This is to dispel vulgarity and stagnation, and to guide children. To present it to others—how would I dare? But if those of shared views and shared practice do not condemn me on account of calming and contemplation, then I have concealed nothing either. In the first year of the Jianzhong reign, the cyclical year jiazi, I began the work of editing; in the third year, when the year was at the Ford of Ximu, the task was completed, and that is all.

49.10

Biographical Essay on the Great Master Zhizhe

49.11

By Liang Su, courtesy name Jingzhi, of Anding under the Tang

49.12

The treatise says: Those who cultivate the teachings of the Śākya clan strive for three things and no more: discipline, absorption, and wisdom. This Path begins with generating the mind [of awakening] and culminates in marvelous awakening. It interweaves the Three Vehicles and leads to perfection in the myriad practices, whereby the capable functions are fully realized. Formerly, when the Dharma King appeared in the world, proceeding from the purity of the One Path, he expounded through a single voice. Because inclinations and receptivities differed, what was heard was distinct. Thus the doctrines of the five periods, the five flavors, the half and the full, the provisional and the real, the biased and the round, the small and the great, were dispersed among the various schools in splendidly disparate streams. If we summarize that to which they return, none exceeds the One Reality. Therefore a sutra says: 'Although various paths are taught, they are actually for the Buddha Vehicle.' It also says: 'Opening the gates of expedient means, he reveals the characteristic of reality.' Metaphorically, they are like the myriad streams flowing into the sea; marked as the non-dual Dharma gate, self and other both obtain and together reach the secret. This is that by which the teachings were composed. But when the Crane Forest passed into extinction, the Dharma net disintegrated; the spiritual feet concealed themselves, and the ancestral paths diverged. Each clung to what they based themselves upon, and contradictions arose anew. Among them, some manifested birth through samādhi, while the Four Refuges appeared in response to capacities unequally; their maintained arguments were also disparate. Thus the schools of the *Mahāyānasaṃgraha*, the *Bodhisattvabhūmi*, the *Tattvasiddhi*, and Vijñaptimātra arose in parallel, dividing their paths; the discourses on neither-existence nor non-existence could not be unified. Thereupon, as the Holy One receded ever further into the past, such trends fanned out even more. Those who preached the Dharma were fettered by the written words (桎 [zhì] means shackles on feet; 梏 [gù] means shackles on hands) and did not know how to liberate themselves. Those who practiced Chan made their nature and characteristics empty and void, unable to be reined in and returned. Those who approved of this condemned that; those who had not attained claimed realization. The course of intellectual understanding drifted away and forgot to return; deeds of body and speech grew dissolute and devoid of rule. Thereupon, the grand lineage of the Dharma gates almost ceased to be. Yet the teaching could not remain forever obstructed; great persons appeared advantageously. Huiwen and Huisi succeeded one another like leaping dragons. The rumbling of the Dharma thunder was not yet universal, so the wooden clapper was once again bestowed upon the Great Master of Tiantai. The Great Master possessed the transcendent awakening of Śāriputra and Subhūti, and was endowed with the auspicious signs of Emperor Yao and the Great Shun. He extolled the transmitted treatises of Nāgārjuna and followed the marvelous understanding of Nanyue. Afterward, using the three kinds of cessation and contemplation, he accomplished the causal conditions for the One Matter. He embraced the myriad things in the one mind, and unfolded the Ten Vehicles within the Eight Teachings. The expositions of discipline, absorption, and wisdom, and the contemplations of the empty, provisional, and middle, were bright and clear, capable of being taken up and practiced. Thereupon, in the teachings there was no abandoned Dharma; in the Dharma there was no forsaken person; in the person there was no neglected mind; in the mind there was no selective practice. The practice possessed that which was realized; realization possessed its source. This is why the Great Master's school of teachings was so flourishing! Thus, when he was in the world, he shone brightly across the realm as an exemplar for emperors and kings. When he departed from the world, he went back and forth to the upper realms as an assistant to Maitreya. Unfolding and folding within the manifestations of the Universal Gate, bestowing virtue as an envoy of the Tathāgata, his stages, objects, and wisdom truly transcend all praise of virtue. Ah! Although the trace of his response has passed, the subtle words have not fallen. Those who study them are still sufficient to refute the hundred schools and clearly reveal the Tripiṭaka. How much more so for those who, having heard, are able to reflect; having reflected, are able to cultivate; having cultivated, are able to advance; and having advanced, do not cease! Although such a person may be called not yet realized, I would certainly say that he is near. Today, those of correct faith are rare. Those who open the barriers of Chan sometimes transform people through the transformation of 'no Buddha, no Buddha-Dharma, what sin, what merit?' Those from mediocre persons on down—those who gallop after love and desire, and the class of those who move in caps and gowns—take these words to be supreme. Moreover, they do not offend the ear, and private desires are not abandoned. Therefore, those who follow their gate are like flying moths rushing toward a bright candle, or broken clods falling into an empty ravine: utterly unaware that they bring about their own scorching and burning and cannot escape. Though wishing to benefit them, it actually harms them, of a piece with the injury caused by the hosts of Māra and non-Buddhists. Viewed from this perspective, the grand instructions of this school and the wide succor of this teaching cannot be equaled in all the world! From Zhiyi's transmission of the Dharma down through five generations to the present Great Master Zhanran, who revived its Way, it was spoken to me like this. Therefore I recorded it to append to this volume (also titled 'Discourse on the Tiantai Dharma Gates').

49.13

Stele for the Nameless Achārya of Sheng'an Monastery

49.14

By Liu Zongyuan, Vice Director of the Ministry of Rites under the Tang

49.15

On such a year, month, and day, the Great Achārya of Yuezhou passed away at Sheng'an Monastery. He had been a monk for a certain number of years, and was of a certain age. He had a given name but no surname. The world did not know his village or his clan. When there was someone who questioned what he practiced, he answered them, saying: 'Nature is my surname. Its source has no beginning; its lineage has no end. Receiving it from the Teacher Śākya, it connects to the foundation of the Way. Do I have no surname? What is called "Dharma-Sword" is my name. If reality itself does not exist, where does a name abide? Do I have a name? The Ocean of Nature is my native village; the Dharma-realm is my house. Discipline serves as its wall; wisdom serves as its gate. Holding to it, one is secure; abiding in it, one is at peace. Are my village and neighborhood not complete? The gates of liberation and the limbs of the Way are infinite in number; the bodhisattvas and mahāsattvas are boundless in multitude. I am kin to them and they are not different from me. Is my clan not grand?' What could be heard of his Way was like this. Yet he only recited the *Lotus Sutra* and the *Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra*, totaling tens of millions of times. Some criticized this as conditioned action; he replied: 'I have never performed [any action].' Alas, as the Buddha's Way grew further distant, divergent trends arose in contention. Only the Great Master of Tiantai grasped his teaching. The Achārya inherited the foundational lineage to conform to the Middle Way; all who received his teaching did not lose their school. Living beings flow on, their destinations in confusion; only the direct path to the Land of Ultimate Bliss attains their return. The Achārya earnestly sought it with upright sincerity to fulfill the supreme vow; all who listened and believed did not stray from his Way. Some criticized him for having traces; he said: 'I have never walked.' At first he lived at Longxing Monastery in Fangzhou, and in mid-life moved to this prefecture. He established a bodhimaṇḍa at the northern peak of Laṅkā, and did not cross the threshold for fifty years. All whom the Achārya revered and served were of eminent virtue in the world. When he first left home, the one he served and relied on was called Master Zhuoran, who lived on Li Mountain in Nanyang and was buried in Yuezhou. The one from whom he received the precepts was called Master Daoying, who lived in Jingzhou. The foremost of his disciples was called Master Huaiyuan, who lived at Anguo Monastery in Changsha and held the precept methods of Nanyue; he came annually to attend upon the master. Meeting with his end, he then, on a certain day, buried him a certain number of paces east of Master Zhuoran's stūpa. The inscription reads: The Way is rooted in the One; / Departing, it forms different gates. / Taking nature as his surname, / He returned to its root. / Having no name, yet named; / The master's teaching is revered. / Provisionally used to show things, / It was not where he abided. / He dwelt not in a great township, / Nor was he close to a great clan. / Profound and magnificent, he shone within; / Tranquil and empty, he was benevolent without. / The Sage had bequeathed words; / These he investigated and practiced diligently. / In movement or in silence, / He departed like a floating cloud. / As the teaching grew long, it became increasingly faint; / The world rarely investigates or expresses it. / Then there was the Great Wise One, / Who emerged from the genuine gate. / The master used it to show and reveal, / Causing the people to be renewed. / When feelings stir, change is born; / Living things thereby sink into oblivion. / Thereupon he bestowed the Land of Bliss, / To join in the source of transformation. / The master used it to guide, / Causing the people not to be blinded. / The function of the Way does not act; / The spiritual movement leaves no traces. / Dark and bright are both as such; / Life and death are together quiescent. / The Dharma is entrusted to later scholars, / Bestowed without weariness. / Buried following my teacher, / Do not forget the genuine abode. / Inscribing this clear epitaph, / It is carved into this genuine stone.

49.16

Record on the Reverse of the Nameless Stele

49.17

By Liu Zongyuan of Longcheng

49.18

After the Nameless Achārya resided on this mountain, he said: 'Everything I seek is not outside. I will not move.' Lord Yang Yan of Hongnong, having been summoned from Daozhou as prime minister, passed by him; thinking that he should live in the capital, he urged him to go by force, but could not. He was about to submit a memorial about him, but [the Achārya] said: 'I wish to go after an interval of a year.' The next year, Yang was dismissed from his post as prime minister and banished to the South Sea, and in the end [the Achārya's] intention was fulfilled. Li E of Zhaojun was a man of eloquence and breadth; when he served in Yuezhou, full of pride, he wished to humble his Way, but upon hearing a single word he submitted and became his disciple. Pei Zangzhi of Hedong brought his entire clan to receive his teaching. The Mayor of the Capital, Lord Yang of Hongnong, offered his secluded land as a bodhimaṇḍa. Zhang Weijian, Prefect of Hezhou, purchased the western peak to expand his dwelling. Those who left goods and wealth beneath his hall could not be counted; when receiving them, he also said nothing. When he was about to pass away, he instructed his senior disciple Huaiyuan, conferring on him the marvelous secrets of the Way, but in the end did not disclose his surname. Some say he was a man of Zhou. Prefect Li of Xinzhou wrote a biography for him, Xie Chu of Changsha composed an account of his conduct, and Cui Xingjian of Boling composed an essay titled 'Guarding the Nature'. Those who used literary compositions to speak of the Achārya's merits and virtues cannot be enumerated. The Lord of Hongnong sent the account of conduct from Yuhang, and Master Huaiyuan brought the biography from Changsha, requesting me to compose the stele. Having already written its text, I have also made use of its reverse side to record this.

49.19

Record of the Pure Land Cloister at Longxing Monastery

49.20

By Liu Zongyuan of Longcheng

49.21

Tens of thousands of li to the west of the Central Realm, there is a country named Shendu (according to the pronunciation in the *Book of Han*, it is Gandu, namely Tianzhu), the place where Śākyamuni Tathāgata manifested himself. That Buddha said: 'To the west, passing through a hundred thousand koṭis of Buddha lands, there is a world named Ultimate Bliss. The Buddha's title is Amitāyus. That land has neither the three poisons nor the eight difficulties, and myriad jewels serve as its adornments. Its people have neither the ten fetters nor the nine afflictions, and the host of sages serve as their companions. If there are those who can with a sincere mind and great vows turn their hearts to this land, and if their power of mindfulness is complete, they will be reborn in that land. Afterward, they will step outside the Three Realms, and in the Buddha's Way they will be non-retrogressing.' These words are not deceptive. During the Jin dynasty, Dharma Master Huiyuan of Mount Lu composed poems on the Mindfulness of the Buddha Samādhi, greatly exhorting the people of the time. Thereafter, the Great Master of Tiantai composed the *Treatise Explaining the Ten Doubts Concerning the Pure Land*, extensively proclaiming his teaching; thorough, subtle, and profound, all the confused relied upon it. Indeed, those who left extraordinary traces and departed were very numerous. At Longxing Monastery in Yongzhou, former Prefect Li Chengzhi (pronounced *zhì*, meaning great) and the monk Falin established a Pure Land Hall on the eastern side of the monastery, regularly venerating this practice. Down to the present, more than thirty years have passed; its corners have deteriorated and the painted images have collapsed. It happened that Superior Xun resided beneath its roof (in Liu's collection: 'I studied under Chongxun of Lingling, seeking his Way for thirty years, and I alone attained something from him'), and then began to restore it. The Superior cultivates the Supreme Vehicle and understands the ultimate truth; without traces of substantializing emptiness or analyzing matter, he arrives at the genuine source. Comprehending the designations of provisional existence and borrowed non-existence, he enters into the real mark. Object and wisdom merge; phenomena and principle combine. Therefore, although it is a cause for rebirth, he does not abandon characteristics and functions. He vowed to repair this building to open the way for later students. A faithful layman painted an image of the Buddha, and the Dharma marks were very complete. Now the Prefect, Lord Feng, has built a grand gate to indicate its position. I then extended the four eaves all around, encircled them with corridors, and had the images of the Two Mahāsattvas painted, completing it with silken canopies, banners, and streamers. Ah! If there are those who can seek the birth of non-birth, they should know that the raft exists in this. Thereupon, the Tiantai *Ten Doubts Treatise* was inscribed upon the walls and buildings, causing those who view it to give rise to faith.

49.22

Stele on the Deeds and Conduct of Great Master Fazhi

49.23

By Duke Qingxian, Zhao Bian, of the Song

49.24

Master Fazhi's name was Zhili, and his style was Yueyan. His surname was Jin, and for generations his family were people of Mingzhou. His Indian-like features were extraordinary and impressive, his disposition was calm, and his capacity was vast. At first, his parents prayed to the Buddha seeking a son. In a night dream, a divine monk brought a boy and gave him to them, saying, 'This is the Buddha's son, Rāhula.' When he was born, he was accordingly named after him. He left home when he lost his baby teeth, shaved his head and received the full precepts at fifteen, and at twenty followed Dharma Master Tong of Baoyun in his home commandery to transmit the Tiantai teachings and contemplation. After just three days, the head monk said to him, 'You should receive and uphold the *Fajie cidi* (Gradual Stages of the Dharma Realm).' The Master asked, 'What is meant by the Dharma realm?' The head monk replied, 'It is the grand universal-characteristic Dharma-gate, perfectly integrated and unobstructed.' The Master said, 'If it is already perfectly integrated and unobstructed, how could there be gradual stages?' The head monk was speechless. After nearly a month, [the Master] lectured on the *Heart Sūtra* on his own. All who listened were amazed, declaring that the doctrinal teachings indeed had someone to rely on. He stayed for three years, regularly lecturing on Master Tong's behalf; delving into the texts to elucidate their meaning, he further clarified what he had learned. Later he went out to reside at Chengtian, and subsequently moved to Yanqing. His transmission of the Dharma flourished greatly, and his students were like a forest. The National Preceptor of Japan dispatched disciples bearing twenty questions to inquire about the essentials of the Dharma; the Master answered them, and all of them reached their sublime meaning. Emperor Zhenzong had long known of the Master's name, and sent palace emissaries to the monastery ordering the performance of repentance rituals, bestowing lavish gifts. In a year of great drought, the Master and the two Dharma masters Zunshi and Yiwen jointly performed the Golden Light Repentance to pray [for rain]. After three days, no rain had fallen. Clearing the mats and prostrating on the ground, they took an oath and proclaimed: 'If this assembly of Buddhist rites does not receive an answer to its prayer, we shall each burn one hand as an offering to the Buddha.' Soon after, a great, soaking rain fell. He once engaged in written inquiries, exchanges, and analyses with Qingyuan of Fengxian, Qingzhao of Fantian, and Zhiyuan of Gushan. He also dispatched his disciple Great Master Shenzhao Benru to debate with them, and in the end they prevailed. His compositions—the two subcommentaries *Zhiyao* and *Miaozong*, the *Guanyin pin biexing*, various records on the *Suvarṇaprabhāsa*, and the *Dabei chan yi* (Great Compassion Repentance Ritual)—were all transmitted to the world. He once joined ten monks in cultivating the Lotus Repentance for three years, agreeing to burn their bodies together to arouse vigorous effort. Yang Yi, Hanlin Academician, and Li Zunxu, Commandant-驸马, recommended him for a purple robe and a master's title, revering him with special devotion. Learning that he wished to burn himself, they sent letters urging him to stop, and further commissioned Master Shi of Tianzhu to travel from Hangzhou to Mingzhou to dissuade him face to face; but he would not listen to any of them. The commandery governor, Li Yigeng, secretly cautioned the neighboring associations to keep watch over him at all times. His vow unable to be fulfilled, the Master again assembled ten monks to cultivate the Great Compassion Repentance. Three years later, on New Year's Day, they formed a seven-day Golden Light Repentance as the period for passing into tranquility. On just the fifth day, he passed away sitting cross-legged; it was indeed the fifth day of the first month of the sixth year of Tiansheng. He lived to sixty-nine, with fifty-four monastic rains-retreats. A month after his demise, they opened the niche to look upon him: his complexion and skin were as if alive, and his nails and hair had grown. When he was brought to cremation, the root of his tongue remained uncorrupted, and his relics were beyond counting. Three times he presided over the Dharma seat, dedicated solely to lecturing and repentance. For more than forty years, his sides never touched the mat. Those who taught and proclaimed the doctrine were more than thirty men, disciples such as Quanjue Cong, Shangxian, Benru, Chongju, Renyue, Huicai, and Fanzhen. At that time, those who followed his transforming guidance numbered in the thousands. Today, among Jiangsu and Zhejiang, wherever lecturing assemblies flourish, none fail to transmit the Master's way. His achievement in opening and guiding people was truly vast. In the tenth month, the winter of the third year of Yuanfeng, I had retired from official service with ample leisure, and went from Quzhou to Wenzhou. Dharma Master Zhong of Faming Cloister had once traveled to Quzhou, and before I had passed the examinations I had met him. Suddenly drawing his robes together and stepping forward, he said: 'Great Master Fazhi of Siming was the wooden bell of the Buddhist school. I, Jizhong, am truly his grandson-disciple, and it has been sixty-three years since he demonstrated quiescence. Yet none among the eminent officials whose words are trusted by the world has recorded his deeds. We disciples secretly feel ashamed of this.' Thereupon he presented an account of his conduct and requested an inscription from me. I then sighed and said: 'At the beginning of human life, it is empty, unified, and quiet, originally without any distinction between ordinary and sage. When it comes to engaging in battle with the realm of things and affairs, none can return. It was out of necessity that the Buddhas and Patriarchs came to Cīnasthāna, multiplying names and marks to transform them—how could this have been done casually? They instituted the Dharma so that it could be practiced; they demonstrated the precepts so that they could not be transgressed. It is like flowers before the eyes, which others cannot see, or a chime in the ears, which others cannot hear. They wished people to subdue their own minds and seek to return to their original nature. Thereafter, guiding teachers arose one after another, wielding the eloquence of wisdom to discuss the true principle, not departing from the immediate thought to transcend to the Supreme Vehicle, not departing from written words to reveal the marks of liberation. In the final analysis, there is not a single dharma that can be spoken, nor a single word to give to others. Master Fazhi had already attained to this, so what need did he have to rely on human words to be transmitted later? For now, I have read what was recorded, and taken what is commonly heard by the multitude to make a true account, so as to answer Master Zhong's earnest sincerity.' I further praised him in verse, saying:

49.25

The Great Hero, awakening the world, bequeathed subtle words, / Encompassing the sun and moon, pervading heaven and earth. / Zhiyi’s genius and eloquence exhausted the primal origin of transformation, / Seasonally expounding them to dispel confusion and darkness. / Though the Buddha's teachings are as numerous as sands of the Ganges, / All enter the Tiantai gate of cessation and contemplation. / Fazhi arose from afar to spread pure fragrance, / With firm resolve, true spirit, and an appearance mild and warm. / Keen and awakened in his youth, in old age even more diligent, / Whether performing repentance or lecturing, he forgot dusk and dawn. / Reviving the teachings and contemplation, he truly surpassed the crowd; / Freely ranging in discourse, subtle and reaching the spiritual. / His surviving writings shine brightly and can be examined; / His diction is pure, his principle correct, and his way untroubled. / Near and far, disciples daily hastened to him, / Hoping this correct awakening would eradicate Pāpīyas. / The way of the Buddhas and Patriarchs became ever more revered; / If a stream is to run clear, one must dredge the source; / If leaves are to be lush, one must nourish the root. / His conduct lofty and his name weighty, he was heard in the capital; / The Son of Heaven dispatched emissaries from the inner palace. / The worthy and noble, imperial relatives, indeed rejoiced, / Conferring official robes and bestowing titles to repay heavenly grace. / Knowing the body changes and vanishes like floating clouds, / He bravely vowed to abandon it, willingly hastening to burn. / His former wish unfulfilled, he continued to cultivate and perfume. / Sentient beings' cravings follow greed and anger, / Revolving through the three evil destinies like a greased wheel. / If one can suddenly awaken to the causes of retribution and bestowal, / Guilt and merit, suffering and joy, branch off and divide. / Speaking is originally non-speaking—who is such a man? / The Master's mind was lucid, dedicated from long ago. / If words can forget contemplation, how can it not be true? / Though the body is said to have perished, how could it not survive? / In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, his descendants flourish; / May this text be viewed for myriad generations.

49.26

Record of the Essentials of Cessation and Contemplation and Sitting Meditation

49.27

By Chen Guan (Yingzhong), Duke Zhongsu of the Song

49.28

Originally unmoving, what cessation can there be? Originally unclouded, what contemplation can there be? Sentient beings, deluded and wandering, depart ever farther from the origin; losing both motion and stillness, if they are not drowsy, they are distracted. These two roots of affliction give rise to all kinds of suffering. To make them leave suffering and attain tranquility, one must use cessation and contemplation as medicine. When the disease is cured, the medicine is discarded, and the physician is no longer established; thus cessation and contemplation are merely provisional names. Being provisional is being empty; the path of words is cut off. Because of great compassion, there is speaking without speaking; this is why the *Great Cessation and Contemplation* was composed. Yet its text and meaning are deep and vast, an ocean without bounds—like the great sea, who can fathom its limits? Because of great compassion, he further created expedient means, so that tasting a single drop one knows the flavor of a hundred rivers, and by means of a single bubble one sees the entire body of the tide. Therefore, outside of the great scripture, he further composed this book. Its words are concise and its essentials profound; reading it, one easily understands. The medicines responding to illnesses are all present here. One who is skilled in using medicine does not treat an illness that has already developed: he stops it before it is distracted; he contemplates it before it is drowsy. Just as one stops, just as one contemplates, one has never been drowsy, never been distracted. Like the two wings of a bird or the two wheels of a cart, traversing the distant and reaching the supreme height, there is nowhere it cannot go. When one arrives at the ultimate, it does not go beyond this. Alas! If one does not know, one stops; knowing that cessation and contemplation are that by which one may enter, how can one not exert oneself? This book was personally composed by Zhiyi, yet had not circulated in the world. Master Mingzhi Zhongli had it carved onto printing blocks to transmit it; the Master's lofty conduct is revered by all, so the circulation of this book will surely be wide.

49.29

Eulogy on the Gate of Existence of the Three Thousand

49.30

By Chen Guan

49.31

The inconceivable provisional is not a one-sided provisional; / This provisional originally possesses all dharmas. / True emptiness is not empty, not mere emptiness; / Perfect middle is consummate, not mere middle. / Therefore, the first of the four gates / Is precisely the inconceivable provisional. / The first gate is immediately three; the three are immediately one; / Neither one nor three, nor again four. / One, two, three, four point to a single moon; / The four dots seem distinct, yet are only a single space. / Gate by gate, each and every one is the Dharma realm, / Gathering all dharmas without remainder. / If one does not contemplate with the wondrous provisional gate of existence, / Who would know that the Dharma realm is fully endowed with dharmas? / Hearing, contemplating, cultivating, and realizing are all wondrous, / Because the mind that can contemplate this is endowed with this essence. / If one only contemplates the mind without contemplating endowment, / Then within the single contemplation two schools are divided. / One school's contemplation gate differs from various explanations; / Though various explanations differ, contemplation itself is one. / They, deluded about the one mind possessing all dharmas, / Fall into the gradual stages of the Shared and Distinct [Teachings], / Arising sequentially and cut off sequentially. / How could they know the ten realms are originally one? / The three thousand [realms] are originally one, and are also like this. / None of them can be distinguished by worldly numbers. / The wondrous realm originally has no emptiness, provisional, or middle, / Yet it is also not separate from emptiness, provisional, and middle. / Emptiness is mind; the provisional is form; / Neither form nor mind is called the middle. / Where form and mind are cut off, the essence of the middle manifests; / In each and every dharma, the essence is completely endowed. / The ordinary person's mind is endowed, precisely as the Buddha is endowed; / Grasping and clinging is not perfect, and thus not endowed. / The single word 'endowed' reveals our present school; / Those who enter this school are exceedingly rare.

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Linked texts (1)

佛祖統紀 — 志磐, Classical Chinese