佛祖歷代通載 4.9

4.9

(Wu-xu) The Eleventh Patriarch was Puṇyayaśas, a native of Pāṭaliputra of the Gautama clan; his father was Baoshen. Having received the Dharma from the Venerable Pārśva, he soon went to Vārāṇasī. The Mahāsattva Aśvaghoṣa welcomed him and paid homage, asking, "I wish to know the Buddha. What is it?" The Patriarch said, "You wish to know the Buddha: that which does not know is it." [Aśvaghoṣa] said, "Since the Buddha is not known, how can one know it is it?" The Patriarch said, "Since one does not know the Buddha, how can one know it is not?" [Aśvaghoṣa] said, "This is the meaning of a saw." The Patriarch said, "That is the meaning of wood." He further asked, "What is the meaning of a saw?" [The Patriarch] said, "Coming out level with the master." He further asked, "What is the meaning of wood?" The Patriarch said, "You have been sawed apart by me." Aśvaghoṣa was suddenly awakened, bowed his head in refuge, and asked for tonsure. The Patriarch told the assembly: "This Mahāsattva was formerly the king of Vaiśālī. In that kingdom, there was a class of people who went naked like horses; the king exercised his spiritual powers to divide his body into silkworms so that they obtained clothing. The king was later reborn in Central India. The horse-people felt affection and longing, neighing mournfully, hence he was named Aśvaghoṣa ('Horse Neigh'). The Tathāgata prophesied: 'Six hundred years after my parinirvāṇa, there shall be a worthy one named Aśvaghoṣa who, in the kingdom of Vārāṇasī, will subdue heterodox paths, save countless people, and continue my transmission and transformation.' Now is precisely that time." He then told him, "The Tathāgata's treasury of the eye of the correct Dharma is now entrusted to you." He then spoke a verse: / "Delusion and awakening are like hidden and manifest; / Brightness and darkness are not separate from each other. / Now I entrust to you the hidden and manifest Dharma: / It is neither one nor two." Having entrusted the Dharma, he manifested spiritual transformations and entered peaceful parinirvāṇa. The assembly raised a precious stūpa to enshrine his whole body. This was the nineteenth year of King An, the year Wu-xu.