佛祖歷代通載 17.76

17.76

（廿三）　明州奉化縣布袋和尚者。未詳氏族。自稱名契此。形裁腲脮蹙額皤腹。出語無定寢臥隨處。常以杖荷一布囊。凡供身之具盡貯囊中。入𮠔肆聚落。見物則乞。或醯醢魚爼。才接入口。分少許投囊中。時號長汀子布袋師也。嘗雪中臥。雪不沾身。人以此奇之。或就人乞。其貨則售。示人吉凶必應期無忒。天將雨。即著濕草屨途中驟行。遇亢陽。即曳高齒木履。市橋上竪膝而眠。居民以此驗知。有一僧在師前行。師乃拊僧背一下。僧迴頭。師曰。乞我一文錢。曰道得即與汝一文。師放下布袋叉手而立。白鹿和上問。如何是布袋。師便放下布袋。又問。如何是布袋下事。師負之而去。先保福和上問。如何是佛法大意。師放下布袋叉手。保福曰。為只如此。為更有向上事。師負之而去。師在街衢立。有僧問。和上在遮裏作什麼。師曰。等箇人。曰來也來也（歸宗柔和上別云歸去來）師曰。汝不是遮箇人。曰如何是遮箇人。師曰。乞我一文錢。師有歌曰。只箇心心心是佛。十方世界最靈物。縱橫妙用可憐生。一切不如心真實。騰騰自在無所為。閑閑究竟出家兒。若覩目前真大道。不見纖毫也大奇。萬法何殊心何異。何勞更用尋經義。心王本自絕多知。智者只明無學地。非聖非凡復若乎。不疆分別聖情孤。無價心珠本圓淨。凡是異相妄空呼。人能弘道道分明。無量清高稱道情。携錫若登故國路。莫愁諸處不聞聲。又有偈曰。一鉢千家飯。孤身萬里遊。青目覩人少。問路白雲頭。梁貞明二年丙子三月師將示滅。於嶽林寺東廊下端坐磐石而說偈曰。彌勒真彌勒。分身千百億。時時示時人。時人自不識。偈畢安然而化。其後他州有人見師亦負布袋而行。於是四眾競圖其像。今嶽林寺大殿東堂全身見存。

(23) Master Budai of Fenghua County in Mingzhou: his family origins and lineage are unknown. He referred to himself by the name Qici. In appearance he was corpulent and flabby, with a furrowed brow and a paunchy belly. His speech was unpredictable, and he slept wherever he happened to be. He regularly carried a cloth sack on a staff; all his personal effects were stored within the sack. Entering markets and villages, he begged whenever he saw anything. If it were pickled meat, fish, or cured dishes, the moment he took a taste into his mouth, he would divide a small portion and toss it into the sack. At that time he was called Master Budai of Changtingzi. He once lay in the snow, yet the snow did not cling to his body; people marveled at him for this. Sometimes he went to people to beg, and their goods would immediately sell. When he foretold people's good or ill fortune, it inevitably came to pass without error. When rain was about to fall, he would put on wet straw sandals and walk briskly along the road. When encountering extreme drought, he would trail wooden clogs with high teeth and sleep with drawn-up knees on a market bridge; the residents verified [the weather] by this. Once a monk was walking ahead of the Master; the Master patted the monk once on the back. The monk turned around, and the Master said, "Beg me for a single copper coin!" The monk said, "If you can speak [the Dharma], I will give you a coin." The Master set down his cloth sack and stood with his hands clasped. Master Bailu asked, "What is the cloth sack?" The Master thereupon put down the cloth sack. He asked again, "What is the matter beneath the cloth sack?" The Master slung it on his back and walked away. Former Master Baofu asked, "What is the great meaning of the Buddha Dharma?" The Master set down the cloth sack and clasped his hands. Baofu said, "Is it only like this, or is there an affair beyond?" The Master slung it on his back and walked away. The Master was standing in a thoroughfare, and a monk asked, "What are you doing here, Master?" The Master said, "Waiting for someone." The monk said, "He has come, he has come!" (Master Guizong Rou said alternatively, "Return, go back!") The Master said, "You are not this person." The monk said, "What kind of person is this?" The Master said, "Beg me for a single copper coin!" The Master had a song that said: "This very mind, mind, mind is the Buddha, / The most spiritual thing in the worlds of the ten directions. / Freely roaming in wondrous function—how wondrously alive! / Nothing is as real as the mind. / Soaring and at ease, without contrivance; / Leisurely and thoroughgoing, a true monk. / If you behold the true Great Way right before your eyes, / Not seeing even a fine hair is also wondrous. / How do the ten thousand dharmas differ? How does the mind differ? / Why labor further to search the meanings of the scriptures? / The Mind-King of itself inherently ends manifold knowledge; / The wise person is clear only about the stage beyond study. / Neither sacred nor mundane—what else could it be? / Do not forcibly discriminate so that sacred sentiments stand isolated. / The priceless mind-pearl is fundamentally round and pure; / Every differentiated appearance is falsely and emptily proclaimed. / If a person can propagate the Way, the Way is clear; / Boundless purity and loftiness accord with the sentiment of the Way. / If carrying a staff you mount the road to your native land, / Do not fret that in various places its sound will not be heard." He also had a verse that said: "One bowl for food from a thousand homes; / A solitary body roaming ten thousand miles. / Few people look on with favor; / I ask the way at the crest of the white clouds." In the third month of the second year of Zhenming of Liang, a bingzi year, as the Master was about to manifest extinction, he sat upright on a boulder beneath the eastern corridor of Yuelin Temple and uttered a verse, saying: "Maitreya, true Maitreya, / Dividing his body into hundreds of millions of forms, / Constantly manifesting to people of the time, / Yet people of the time do not recognize him!" When the verse was finished, he peacefully passed away. Later, people in other prefectures saw the Master also walking with his cloth sack slung on his back. Thereupon the four assemblies vied to paint his portrait. Today, his whole body still exists in the eastern hall of the main shrine at Yuelin Temple.