佛祖統紀 9.28

9.28

Chan Master Zhixi was of the Chen clan from Yingchuan. His ancestors had served as officials and settled in Yue. At the age of twenty, he went to Zhiyi to receive tonsure. He received the essentials of Chan and investigated his mind day and night without showing any sign of fatigue. When Zhiyi passed away, he received orders to reside at Folong. At that time, those in the assembly practicing samādhi were quite numerous, and the halls were expanded with rigorous and orderly regulations. Only the incense terrace had not yet been erected; facing Xianglu Peak there were many tamarisk and cypress trees, which the Master wished to fell and use. The assembly suspected that spirits occupied them. In a night dream, a spirit sent a document offering the timber, whereupon he sent people to fell them. Fayun, a member of the monastery assembly, wished to go to the summit of the peak to sit in Chan. The Master stopped him, saying, 'Your power in the Way is weak, and the mountain spirit is fierce and violent; you should not go.' Fayun did not heed him. Having stayed for only one night, the spirit manifested its form and drove him back. Earlier, Zhiyi had encouraged the residents along the river to give up their fish-weirs and dams to serve as life-release ponds; before many years had passed, they resumed fishing. The Master and Zhang'an bowed to Zhiyi's pagoda, burned incense, and made prayer-vows. A fisherman saw a monk standing on the weir; thinking it was someone who had fallen into the water, he took a boat to rescue him, but the monk suddenly vanished. When the residents witnessed this sign, they ceased fishing. At that time, herds of beasts cried mournfully and flocks of birds hovered and gathered, not stopping for many days. The bronze bell of the Eastern Mountain suddenly sounded, shaking the mountain valley. The Master said, 'This is summoning me.' He then bathed in scented water, sat cross-legged holding a ruyi scepter, and expounded the Dharma for a long time, after which he became completely silent. Just as the assembly was wailing and weeping, he opened his eyes again and admonished them, saying, 'Whatever has birth must have cessation; why is this worthy of grief?' Someone asked where he would be born, and he said, 'According to the verification of my dreams, it should be in Tuṣita. The palace is blue-green, situated in the northwest of heaven.' (The Nirvāṇa Sūtra states that Tuṣita Heaven always delights in the color blue-green, and uses the blue-green samādhi to destroy the existence of this heaven.) 'I saw my late master; those attending on his left and right were all seated on jeweled thrones. Only one throne was empty, and when I inquired the reason, the reply was: "Six years from now, Master Ding will ascend this throne to expound the Dharma."' The Master often went to King Aśoka's reliquary pagoda to make eighty-four thousand prostrations. He felt a purple pattern print upon his hand, square, regular, bright, and translucent. When near death, he told his disciples, 'The assembly of sages has sealed me; I am now going to be born in the inner courtyard.' Suddenly, the sound of string and wind instruments was heard, and he passed away sitting cross-legged. It was the eighteenth day of the twelfth month in the first year of the Zhenguan era.