佛祖歷代通載 4.91

4.91

[15] The seventeenth patriarch, Saṃghanandi, was the son of King Ratnavyūha of the city of Śrāvastī. He was able to speak from birth and constantly praised the Buddha's deeds. At seven years of age he already abhorred worldly pleasures, and addressed his parents in verse, saying: / 'I bow my head to my most compassionate father; / I make obeisance to my mother of flesh and blood. / I now wish to leave household life (pravrajyā); / I pray you will take pity on me.' / His parents firmly forbade him, whereupon he did not eat for the entire day. They then permitted him to leave household life at home, naming him Saṃghanandi, and further commanded the śramaṇa Chanlituo to be his master. For nineteen years accumulated, he never grew weary or backslid. The Venerable often reflected to himself, saying: 'How can staying in the royal palace be considered leaving the household life?' One evening a celestial light descended, under which he saw an even and level road; without realizing it he walked slowly along it for about ten li, arriving in front of a great cliff where there was a stone cave, and within it he took up peaceful solitude. Having lost his son, his father banished Chanlituo from the country and searched for his son, but did not know his whereabouts. Ten years passed; after the Venerable had attained the Dharma and received transmission, he traveled about teaching until he reached the kingdom of Mada. Suddenly a cool breeze struck the assembly, making their bodies and minds extraordinarily pleased and comfortable, yet they did not know why. The patriarch said: 'This is the wind of virtue and the Way. Must there not be a sage appearing in the world to succeed to the lamp of the patriarchs?' Having spoken, by his spiritual power he gathered the great assembly to travel through mountain valleys. In the space of a meal they arrived beneath a peak, and he said to the assembly: 'At the crest of this peak is a purple cloud like a canopy; a sage dwells here.' Thereupon he lingered with the great assembly for a long time. They saw a boy from a mountain cottage holding a round mirror who came directly before the Venerable. The patriarch asked: 'How old are you?' He replied: 'A hundred years old.' The patriarch said: 'You are still young; why do you say a hundred years old?' He replied: 'I do not comprehend the principle—I am just a hundred years old.' The patriarch said: 'Are you skilled in [understanding] capacity?' He replied: 'The Buddha said: "If a person lives for a hundred years without comprehending the capacity of the Buddhas, it is not as good as living for a single day and attaining clear decisive realization of it."' The patriarch said: 'What does that in your hand signify?' He replied: 'The great round mirror of the Buddhas: / without and within, it has neither flaw nor veil. / Two people together obtain its sight; / both in mind and eye they are alike.' When his parents heard their son's words, they at once gave him up to let him leave the household life. The patriarch led him back to his own place, and after he had received the full precepts (upasampadā), named him Gayāśata. At another time, hearing the wind blowing the sound of the hall's bronze bells, the patriarch asked: 'Is it the bell that sounds, or the wind that sounds?' Śata replied: 'It is neither the wind nor the bell; it is my mind that sounds.' The patriarch said: 'And who is the mind?' He replied: 'Because both are silent.' The Venerable said: 'Excellent, excellent! Who else could succeed to my Way but you?' He then transmitted the Dharma, with the verse: / 'The ground of mind is originally unarisen; / from the ground of cause it arises dependent on conditions. / Conditions and seed do not obstruct one another; / flower and fruit are likewise thus.' / Having transmitted the Dharma, he held onto a tree with his right hand and passed away. The assembly deliberated, saying: 'The Venerable entered quiescence beneath a tree; does he not shed shade upon his descendants?' When they were about to convey his whole body to an elevated plateau to erect a stūpa, the collective strength of the assembly could not lift it. So they erected the stūpa right beneath the tree. This corresponded to the thirteenth year of Emperor Zhao of the Former Han, the dingwei year.