佛祖統紀 5.9

5.9

The third patriarch was the Venerable Śāṇavāsa, an elder of Rājagṛha. In a past life he was a merchant leader. On the road he saw a pratyekabuddha stricken with a severe illness, whereupon he sought medicine to treat him; seeing that the pratyekabuddha's robes were utterly worn and ragged, he offered him a fine woolen garment. The pratyekabuddha said, 'This is a śāṇa garment (sometimes translated as "hemp robe"; in the Western Regions there is a nine-stemmed, luxuriant grass: whenever an arhat is born, this grass grows upon pure ground). Because I went forth from home and attained the Way wearing this, I ought to wear this as I enter extinction.' He then flew into the air, displayed the eighteen transformations, and took parinirvāṇa. The merchant leader mourned, heaped up fragrant wood, cremated the relics, and built a stūpa to make offerings, making the vow: 'May my merit, majestic deportment, and clothing in future lives be no different from this now.' Through the power of this vow, for five hundred lives in the intermediate state, he constantly wore this śāṇa garment. In his final life, the garment emerged together with him from the womb and grew along with his body. When he went forth, it transformed into a Dharma robe; when he took the full precepts, it transformed into a nine-strip robe. Hence he was named Śāṇavāsa. (According to the Western Regions Record, in the kingdom of Bāmiyān, crossing the Snow Mountains to the east, there is a monastery that preserves Śāṇavāsa's nine-strip robe of deep crimson. When Śāṇavāsa was entering extinction, he left this kāṣāya behind, telling his disciples, 'Only after the Dharma has ended will it undergo transformation and decay.' Now it is already slightly damaged.) Formerly, when the Tathāgata was travelling in the kingdom of Mathurā, he saw the lush and luxuriant woods and told Ānanda, 'After my parinirvāṇa, there will be a monk named Śāṇavāsa who will build a saṅghārāma in these mountains to preach the Dharma and transform [beings].' Later, Śāṇavāsa went to sea and obtained vast treasures; he went to the Bamboo Grove to hold a great assembly of giving. Hearing that the Buddha, the Bhagavat, Kāśyapa, and Maudgalyāyana had all entered extinction, he immediately prepared and held a pañcavārṣika assembly (meaning the five-year great assembly) and built a gate-tower. Ānanda told him, 'Now you have already practiced the giving of material goods; you should further practice the giving of Dharma, going forth from home to study the Way and benefit sentient beings.' Śāṇavāsa replied, 'This accords well with my wish.' Thereupon he was ordained, went forth from home, and became an arhat. He then went to Mount Gandhamādana, where, with the samādhi of benevolence, he transformed two sons of a venomous dragon, and built meditation chambers. Furthermore, he went to Mount Śirṣa in the kingdom of Kaśmīra to sit in peace and enter samādhi. At that time his disciple Upagupta had five hundred disciples who were still bound to birth-and-death, arrogant and haughty. Upagupta then entered samādhi and observed that these people had no karmic connection with himself, and only his own teacher could transform and deliver them; so he single-mindedly concentrated on Śāṇavāsa. Śāṇavāsa, by his supernormal powers, flew through the air, wearing ragged and dirty clothes, and sat upon Upagupta's seat. The disciples were all enraged: 'What vile person occupies our master's seat?' They reported this to Upagupta. Upagupta went to the room and prostrated, touching his head and face [to the ground]. The disciples thought, 'Although our master pays him homage, his glorious virtue surpasses him.' Śāṇavāsa pointed his finger at the sky, and fragrant milk rained down, pouring like a spring from a high mountain. Upagupta did not understand what samādhi this was. Śāṇavāsa told him, 'This is the dragon-surging samādhi.' In this manner, one after another, Upagupta did not understand any of five hundred samādhis; Śāṇavāsa explained each one to him. He further said to Upagupta, 'Maudgalyāyana did not recognize the Tathāgata's samādhis; the other śrāvakas did not recognize Maudgalyāyana's samādhis. I also do not know the samādhis of my master Ānanda. Now you too do not know my samādhis. After my nirvāṇa, the seventy-seven thousand jātaka sūtras, the ten thousand abhidharma collections, and the eighty thousand pure vinayas will all vanish with me.' At that, the disciples first reproached themselves and repented. Śāṇavāsa then preached the Dharma to them, and they all attained the fruit of arhathood. Śāṇavāsa then flew into the air, displayed the eighteen transformations, and entered nirvāṇa. Upagupta heaped up fragrant wood, cremated him with fire (xiexun is a Sanskrit word meaning cremation), gathered his relics, and built a stūpa to make offerings (Transmission of the Treasury of the Dharma).