佛祖統紀 5.20

5.20

The thirteenth patriarch, the Venerable Nāgārjuna, was a descendant of brāhmaṇas in South India. On the day he was born he was beneath an arjuna tree; and because he achieved the Way only after entering the dragon palace, he was titled 'Nāgārjuna' (The *Xiyu ji* states that in Sanskrit he is called Nāgārjuna, which is translated here as Longmeng [Dragon-Valiant]). He appeared seven hundred years after the Buddha's decease. Endowed with natural intelligence and insight, while still being nursed he heard brāhmaṇas reciting the four Vedas consisting of forty thousand verses, each verse with thirty-two syllables, and fully grasped their phrasing and meaning. Coming of age, his renown spread, and he walked unmatched through all the kingdoms. In astronomy, geography, astrology, apocrypha, and all other occult arts, there was nothing he did not master. He once conferred with three close friends, saying: 'Of worldly principles that can enlighten the spiritual intelligence and reveal profound purports, we have mastered them all. By what further means shall we amuse ourselves?' They further said: 'In human life, only the pursuit of sensual desires and women is the ultimate pleasure.' Thereupon, they went together to an adept of esoteric arts to learn the art of invisibility. The master reflected: 'These four brāhmaṇas possess exalted talents and wisdom. Now, solely on account of this art, they humble themselves to approach me. If I teach them the formula, they will abandon me forever.' So he gave each of them a pellet of green medicine to grind with water and smear on their eyes, whereupon their forms would naturally become concealed. Nāgārjuna smelled its fragrance and immediately recognized that this medicine contained seventy ingredients, their names, ounces, and quantities all matching the formula. The master was astounded and straightway transmitted the complete method to the four men. Having obtained the medicine, they concealed their bodies and roamed about, entering the king's inner palace together for several months, until many of the beauties became pregnant. The king questioned his wise ministers, and a minister said: 'If it is not ghosts or demons, it must be the magical arts. Fine earth may be spread inside all the gates. If it is magical arts, their footprints will surely appear; if it is ghosts or demons, they will enter without leaving tracks. Humans may be slain with weapons; ghosts must be destroyed with incantations.' The king employed his plan, and indeed there were the footprints of four men. He then ordered brave warriors to brandish swords in the empty air, severing the heads of three men. Within seven feet of the king, the blades could not reach; Nāgārjuna drew in his body and clung close to the king, so that they could not harm him. For the first time he realized that desire is the root of suffering, and straightway vowed to himself: 'If I escape this peril, I will go to a śramaṇa and receive the rites of leaving household life.' Having escaped the palace, he immediately entered the mountains and reached a stupa of the Buddha. Kāpimara came to visit him. Nāgārjuna welcomed him, saying: 'The deep mountains are lonely and solitary; why has the Greatly Virtuous and Supreme One condescended his divine steps?' Kāpimara said: 'I am not the supreme one; I have merely come to visit a worthy.' Nāgārjuna thought silently: 'Has this master attained the determined nature? Is his eye of the Way clear? Is he a great sage succeeding to the True Vehicle?' Kāpimara said: 'Though you spoke within your mind, I already knew your thought. Just attend to leaving household life; why worry whether I am a sage or not?' Nāgārjuna repented with thanks and forthwith sought to leave household life. Within ninety days he recited and mastered the Tripiṭaka; he fully comprehended all that existed in Jambudvīpa, with unimpeded eloquence, and considered himself an omniscient man. Wishing to enter through Gautama's gate, the gate deity told him: 'Now, how is your wisdom any different from a firefly compared to the sun and moon, or Mount Sumeru matched against a mustard seed? As I see it, benevolent one, you are not omniscient; why do you wish to enter through this gate?' Nāgārjuna felt abashed and reflected in his mind: 'Although the Buddhist sutras in the world are wondrous, their phrasing and meaning are not exhaustive; I shall further expound them to enlighten later students.' He also wished to establish a master's precepts, and design different garments to make them slightly distinct. Wishing to dispel the feelings of the multitude, he chose an auspicious day and was about to institute them. While he was sitting alone in a quiet room, in a crystal chamber, the Great Dragon Bodhisattva took pity on his thoughts, and immediately with divine power brought him into the ocean palace. Opening the seven-jeweled chests, he gave him the Vaipulya sutras. Within ninety days, he thoroughly comprehended very many of them. The dragon asked: 'Have you now read the scriptures completely?' The master said: 'Your scriptures are immeasurable and cannot be exhausted; what I have read now already exceeds ten times all that is in Jambudvīpa.' The dragon said: 'The scriptures in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven exceed those here by hundreds of thousands of millions of times.' In the palace, the master practiced and became suddenly enlightened and thoroughly penetrated; he skillfully comprehended the single mark and deeply entered the patience of the non-arising of dharmas. The dragon, knowing that he had realized the Way, escorted the master out of the palace. (The *Fuxing* says: 'The dragon brought him into the palace; in one summer he only recited the catalog of the sutras of the seven Buddhas.') The king of South India was deeply tainted by heterodox views, and the master wished to convert him. Bearing a red banner in his own hands, he walked before the king for seven years. The king asked, 'Who are you?' He replied, 'I am an omniscient man.' The king said, 'What are the devas doing right now?' He replied, 'The devas are right now fighting with the asuras.' A moment later, swords and blades fell from the air one after another, and the ears and noses of the asuras dropped down from the sky. Only then was the king startled into awakening, prostrating in reverence. At that time, ten thousand brāhmaṇas in the palace praised his divine virtue, shaved their hair, and left household life. When hosts of non-Buddhists came to debate, they were subdued at a single word, yielded, and left household life. There was a brāhmaṇa well-versed in spells who petitioned the king to contest his powers. The brāhmaṇa conjured a large pond with a lotus flower and sat atop it. Nāgārjuna conjured a white elephant to enter the pond, wind its trunk around the lotus flower, lift it high, and hurl it to the ground. The brāhmaṇa injured his back, confessed his fault to the master, and thereupon sought to leave household life. Nāgārjuna composed the *Mahākāruṇikopāyasaṃgraha-śāstra* in five thousand verses, the *Mahālaṅkāra-śāstra* in five thousand verses, and the *Mahābhayadāna-śāstra* in one hundred thousand verses (The *Fuxing* says: 'The *Great Compassion Treatise* clarifies astronomy, geography, and making treasures and medicines. The *Great Adornment Treatise* clarifies the cultivation of all gates to merit. The *Great Fearlessness Treatise* clarifies the primary truth; the *Mūlamadhyamakakārikā* is one chapter thereof; that is, the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa*'), and the *Upadeśa-śāstra* in one hundred thousand verses. There was a Hīnayāna Dharma master who, seeing the master's brilliance, always harbored resentment and jealousy. His task accomplished, the master asked the Hīnayāna master: 'Do you now wish that I remain long in the world?' He replied: 'Benevolent one, truly I do not.' Suddenly one day he entered the moon-disc samādhi, where only the sound of the Dharma was heard and no physical form was seen. Only his disciple Deva recognized it, saying: 'The master is showing the Buddha-nature, which is neither sound nor form.' Nāgārjuna then transmitted the Dharma to Deva, reentered the quiet chamber, and did not come out for days. The disciples broke open the door to look, and saw that he had entered samādhi and cast off his mortal coil like a cicada shedding its shell. The kingdoms of India all erected shrines for him, revering and serving him like a Buddha. (The *Fu fazang jing* and the *Mahāmāyā Sūtra*. Master Zhiyi said: 'The tree gave birth to his physical body; the dragon gave birth to his Dharma-body; hence he was named Nāgārjuna.' Gushan and Ciyun both call Nāgārjuna the thirteenth generation, for they follow the orthodox lineage of the Western lands without including Madhyāntika.)