佛祖歷代通載 4.15

4.15

（甲午）　第十二祖馬鳴大士者。波羅奈國人也。亦名功勝。以有作無作諸功德最為殊勝。故名焉。既受法於夜奢尊者。後於華氏國轉妙法輪。忽有老人坐前仆地。師謂眾曰。此非庸流。當有異相。言訖不見。俄從地踊出一金色人。復化為女子。右手指師而說偈曰。稽首長老尊。當受如來記。今於此地上。宣通第一義。說偈已瞥然不見。師曰。將有魔來與吾校力。有頃風雨暴至。天地晦冥。師曰。魔之來信矣。吾當除之。即指空中現一大金龍。奮發威神震動山巖。師儼然於坐魔事隨滅。經七日有一小蟲。大若蟭螟。潛形坐下。師以手取之示眾曰。斯乃魔之所變。盜聽吾法耳。乃放之令去。魔不能動。師告之曰。汝但歸依三寶即得神通。遂復本形作禮懺悔。師問曰。汝名誰邪。眷屬多少。曰我名迦毘摩羅。有三千眷屬。師曰。汝盡神力變化若何。曰我化巨海極為小事。師曰。汝化性海得否。曰何謂性海。我未嘗知。師即為說性海云。山河大地皆依建立。三昧六通由茲發現。毘摩羅聞言遂發信心。與徒眾三千俱求剃度。師乃召五百羅漢與授具戒。復告之曰。如來大法眼藏今當付汝。汝聽偈言。隱顯即本法。明暗元不二。今付悟了法。非取亦非離。付法已。即入龍奮迅三昧。挺身空中如日輪相。然後示滅。四眾以真體藏之龍龕。即顯王四十二年甲午歲也。

(Jia-wu) The Twelfth Patriarch was the Mahāsattva Aśvaghoṣa. He was a native of Vārāṇasī, also named Gongcheng ("Merit Supreme"); because his produced and unproduced merits were supreme above all, he was so named. Having received the Dharma from the Venerable Yaśas, he later turned the wondrous wheel of Dharma in Pāṭaliputra. Suddenly, an old man fell to the ground before his seat. The master said to the assembly, "This is no ordinary fellow; there will surely be an unusual manifestation." As soon as he finished speaking, the man vanished. Soon, a golden person leaped out from the ground, transformed again into a woman, pointed her right hand at the master, and spoke a verse: / "I bow my head to the elder, the venerable one, / Destined to receive the Tathāgata's prophecy, / Who now upon this ground / Proclaims the supreme meaning." Having spoken the verse, she suddenly vanished. The master said, "A māra is about to come to vie in power with me." Soon, wind and rain broke out fiercely, and heaven and earth became dark. The master said, "The arrival of the māra is verified; I must eliminate it." Pointing into the air, he manifested a great golden dragon, which unleashed its awe-inspiring power, shaking the mountain cliffs. The master remained dignified in his seat, and the works of māra were straightaway extinguished. After seven days, a tiny insect as small as a midge hid beneath his seat. The master took it up with his hand, showed it to the assembly, and said, "This is what the māra transformed into, merely to eavesdrop on my Dharma." He then released it to let it go, but the māra was unable to move. The master told him, "If you only take refuge in the Three Jewels, you will immediately obtain supernatural powers." It then reverted to its original form, made prostrations, and repented. The master asked, "What is your name? How many followers do you have?" He said, "My name is Kapimala, and I have three thousand followers." The master said, "If you exhaust your spiritual power, what transformations can you make?" He said, "Transforming a vast ocean is an utterly minor matter for me." The master said, "Can you transform the ocean of nature?" He said, "What is called the ocean of nature? I have never known it." The master then expounded the ocean of nature for him, saying: "The mountains, rivers, and the great earth are all established relying upon it; samādhi and the six supernatural knowledges manifest from this." Kapimala, hearing these words, conceived faith and, together with all three thousand of his disciples, requested tonsure. The master then summoned five hundred arhats to confer the full precepts upon them. He then told him, "The Tathāgata's treasury of the eye of the correct Dharma should now be entrusted to you. Listen to the verse: / Hidden and manifest are just the original Dharma; / Brightness and darkness are originally not two. / Now I entrust to you the Dharma of awakening and comprehension: / It is neither grasping nor renouncing." Having entrusted the Dharma, he entered the Dragon-Stride Samādhi, thrusting his body into the air like the disk of the sun, and thereafter manifested parinirvāṇa. The fourfold assembly enshrined his true body in a dragon shrine. This was the forty-second year of King Xian, the year Jia-wu.