佛祖歷代通載 4.41

4.41

(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.