佛祖歷代通載 4.41

4.41

（九）　第十四祖龍樹尊者。西天竺國人也。亦名龍勝。始於毘羅尊者得法。後至南印度。彼國之人多信福業。聞尊者為說妙法。遞相謂曰。人有福業世間第一。徒言佛性誰能覩之。尊者曰。汝欲見佛性。先須除我慢。彼人曰。佛性大小。尊者曰。非大非小非廣非狹。無福無報不死不生。彼聞理勝悉回初心。尊者復於座上現自在身如滿月輪。一切眾唯聞法音不覩師相。彼眾中有長者子。名迦那提婆。謂眾曰。識此相否。眾曰。目所未覩安能辯識。提婆曰。此是尊者現佛性體相以未我等。何以知之。蓋以無相三昧形如滿月。佛性之義廓然虛明。言訖輪相即隱。復居本座而說偈言。身現圓月相。以表諸佛體。說法無其形。用辨非聲色。彼眾聞偈咸願出家以求解脫。尊者即為剃髮。命諸聖授具其國先有外道。五千餘人作大幻術。眾皆宗仰。尊者悉為化之令歸三寶。復造大智度論中論十二門論。垂之於世。後告上首弟子迦那提婆曰。如來大法眼藏今當付汝。聽吾偈言。為明隱顯法。方說解脫理。於法心不證。無瞋亦無喜。付法訖。入月輪三昧。廣現神變。復就本座凝然禪寂。迦那提婆與諸四眾共建寶塔以葬焉。即秦始皇三十五年己丑歲也。

(9) The fourteenth patriarch, the Venerable Nāgārjuna, was a native of West India, also named Longsheng. He initially received the Dharma from the Venerable Kāpimala, and later went to South India. The people of that country mostly believed in meritorious actions. Hearing the Venerable explain the wonderful Dharma, they said to one another, "For human beings, meritorious deeds are foremost in the world. Merely speaking of Buddha-nature—who can see it?" The Venerable said, "If you wish to see Buddha-nature, you must first eliminate self-conceit." Those people asked, "How large or small is Buddha-nature?" The Venerable said, "It is neither large nor small, neither broad nor narrow; it has neither merit nor retribution, neither dying nor being born." Hearing this supreme principle, they all turned their initial minds around. The Venerable then manifested on his seat an unobstructed body resembling the full moon disk. The whole assembly only heard the sound of Dharma and did not see the master's physical form. In that assembly was an elder's son named Kāṇadeva, who said to the assembly, "Do you recognize this sign?" The assembly said, "Our eyes have never seen it; how could we discern or recognize it?" Deva said, "This is the Venerable manifesting the substance and sign of Buddha-nature to show it to us. How do we know this? Because the formless samādhi has a shape like the full moon, and the meaning of Buddha-nature is vast, empty, and bright." When he finished speaking, the sign of the moon disk disappeared, and [Nāgārjuna] sat once more in his original seat and spoke a verse: / "My body manifests the form of the round moon, / To represent the substance of all Buddhas. / Expounding the Dharma has no material form, / Used to make clear that it is neither sound nor form." / Hearing the verse, the assembly all wished to go forth into the homeless life to seek liberation. The Venerable then shaved their hair and had the holy ones bestow the full precepts. In that country, there had previously been non-Buddhists—more than five thousand—who practiced great illusionary arts, and everyone revered them. The Venerable converted them all, causing them to take refuge in the Three Jewels. Furthermore, he composed the Dàzhìdù lùn, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, and the Dvādaśanikāya Śāstra, transmitting them to the world. Later he said to his foremost disciple, Kāṇadeva: "The Tathāgata's treasury of the eye of the Great Dharma is now entrusted to you. Listen to my verse: / 'In order to clarify the obscured and manifest Dharma, / One only then explains the principle of liberation. / Toward the Dharma, the mind realizes nothing; / There is neither anger nor joy.'" / Having completed the transmission of the Dharma, he entered the moon-disk samādhi, manifested extensive spiritual transformations, and then returned to his seat in calm meditative absorption. Kāṇadeva and the fourfold assembly together built a jeweled stūpa to bury him. This was the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shi Huang, the jichou year.