佛祖歷代通載 19.35

19.35

智海真如慕哲禪師。出於臨川聞氏。聞族寒哲又幼孤。去依建昌永安圓覺律師為童子。試所習得度具戒。為人剛簡有高識。以荷法為志。律身甚嚴。翠岩真禪師游方時。哲能識之。真好慕所長以蓋人。號真點胸。所至犯眾怒非笑之。哲與之周旋二十年。雖群居不敢失禮。真兩住剎。哲陰相之。成法席。有來學者。且令見哲侍者。謂人曰。三十年後哲其大作佛事。真歿塔於西山。心喪三年乃去。依黃蘗游湘中。一鉢雲行鳥飛。去留為叢林重輕。謝師直守潭州。聞其風而悅之。不可致。㞧岳麓席虛。盡禮迎以為出世。累月而後就俄遷大溈。眾二千指。無所約束人人自律。唯粥罷受門弟子問道。謂之入室。齋罷必會大眾茶。諸方纔月一再。而哲講之無虛日。放參罷哲自役作。使令者在側如路人。晨香夕燈十有四年。夜禮拜持茅視殿廡燈火。倦則以帔蒙首假寐三聖堂。初猶浴。盡老不浴者十餘年。紹聖元年有詔住大相國寺智海禪院。京師士大夫想見風裁。叢林以哲靜退畏閙。不敢必其來。哲受詔欣然俱數衲子至。解包之日。傾都來觀。至謂一佛出世。院窄而僧日增。無以容則相枕地臥。有請限之者。哲曰。僧佛祖所自出。厭僧厭佛祖也。安有名為傳法而厭佛祖乎。安得不祥之語哉。凡驗學者。舉趙州洗鉢話。上人如何會。僧擬對。哲以手托之曰。歇去。自始至終未甞換機。明年十月初八。無疾而化。

Chan Master Zhihai Zhenru Muzhe hailed from the Wen family of Linchuan. The Wen clan was poor, and Zhe was orphaned at an early age. He went to rely on Vinaya Master Yuangue of Yong'an in Jianchang as an acolyte. Being tested in his studies, he was ordained and received the full precepts. In character he was unyielding and simple, possessed of lofty insight; he took upholding the Dharma as his aspiration, and disciplined his person with great rigor. When Chan Master Cuiyan Zhen was traveling, Zhe was able to recognize him. Zhen was fond of flaunting his strengths to outshine others and was called Zhen "Chest-Thumper"; wherever he went, he offended the assembly and was ridiculed. Zhe associated with him for twenty years, and even when dwelling among the crowd, he never failed in propriety. Zhen twice served as abbot of monasteries, and Zhe aided him in secret, establishing his Dharma assemblies. When students came, he would first have them see Zhe, his attendant, and said to people, "Thirty years hence, Zhe will carry out great works of the Buddha." When Zhen died, a stūpa was erected for him in Xishan; Zhe observed mourning in his heart for three years before departing. He went to Huangbo and traveled in the Xiang region; with a single bowl he wandered like clouds and flew like a bird, his coming and going carrying weight in the monasteries. Xie Shizhi, serving as prefect of Tanzhou, heard of his reputation and was pleased, but could not summon him. When the seat at Yuelu became vacant, Xie extended every courtesy to welcome him to begin his public teaching. After several months Zhe finally accepted. Shortly thereafter he was transferred to Dagui. His assembly numbered two thousand monks; without imposing restrictions, each person disciplined himself. Only after the morning gruel was finished did he receive disciples to ask about the Way, which was called "entering the room." After the midday meal, he inevitably gathered the great assembly for tea; in other quarters this was done only once or twice a month, but Zhe gave instruction without missing a day. When evening instruction was over, Zhe performed manual labor himself, while the attendants stood by his side as if they were strangers on the road. For fourteen years he offered morning incense and evening lamps, bowed in worship at night, and holding a torch of rushes, inspected the lamps and fires of the halls and corridors. When weary, he would cover his head with his robe and doze lightly in the Hall of the Three Sages. At first he still bathed; toward his old age, he did not bathe for more than ten years. In the first year of the Shaosheng era [1094], an imperial decree appointed him to the Zhihai Chan Cloister of the Great Xiangguo Monastery. The scholar-officials of the capital longed to behold his demeanor, but the monasteries, knowing Zhe was quiet, retired, and averse to commotion, dared not assume he would come. Zhe received the decree and gladly arrived with several patch-robed monks. On the day he unpacked his bundle, the entire capital came out to look, even remarking that a Buddha had appeared in the world. The cloister was cramped and monks increased daily; lacking space to accommodate them, they slept on the floor using one another as pillows. When someone requested that limits be set, Zhe said, "Monks are that from which Buddhas and Patriarchs arise; to be averse to monks is to be averse to the Buddhas and Patriarchs. How could one purport to transmit the Dharma while being averse to the Buddhas and Patriarchs? How could one utter such inauspicious words?" Whenever he tested students, he would raise Zhaozhou's topic of washing the bowl, asking, "How does the Venerable understand this?" When a monk hesitated to answer, Zhe would push him away with his hand and say, "Rest!" From beginning to end, he never changed his dynamic method. On the eighth day of the tenth month of the following year, he was transformed without illness.