釋氏稽古略 1.457

1.457

十八祖伽耶舍多大士　摩提國人也。姓欝頭藍。父天蓋。母方聖娠。凡七日而誕。童時持鑑出遊。遇難提得度。行化至大月氏國至一婆羅門舍。舍主鳩摩羅多年三十學梵志。適見祖問曰。是何徒眾。祖曰。是佛弟子。彼聞佛號心神竦然。即時閉戶。祖良久扣其門。羅多應曰。此舍無人祖曰答無者誰。羅多聞語知是異人。據開門延接。祖指其舍簷之下犬宿之處為羅多曰。汝父埋金於此今為犬以守之。遂掘地果得金。乃發宿命智。投誠出家。祖度之授具已。祖以法眼付之。偈曰。有種有心地。因緣得發萌。於緣不相礙。當生生不生。祖付法已。踊身虛空現十八變化火自焚。眾以舍利起塔供養。當此前漢成帝之世也（正宗記）。

The Eighteenth Patriarch, the Great Being Gayāśata: A native of Madhyadeśa. His family name was Udra. His father was Tiangai and his mother was Fangshing. She was pregnant for merely seven days before giving birth. As a child, he wandered about holding a mirror and was delivered upon meeting Nandi. Travelling to convert beings, he reached the land of the Da Yuezhi and arrived at the house of a brāhmaṇa. The master of the house, Kumāralāta, was thirty years old and studying the ways of brahmacārins. Happening to see the Patriarch, he asked, "What manner of followers are these?" The Patriarch said, "We are disciples of the Buddha." Hearing the name of the Buddha, his mind shuddered with awe, and he immediately closed the door. After a good while, the Patriarch knocked on his door. Lāta replied, "There is no one in this house." The Patriarch said, "Who is it that answers 'no one'?" Hearing these words, Lāta knew he was an extraordinary man, and immediately opened the door to invite him in. The Patriarch pointed under the eaves of his house to the place where a dog slept, and said to Lāta, "Your father buried gold here, and now is a dog to guard it." Thereupon they dug the ground and indeed found the gold. He then awakened the knowledge of past lives, and wholeheartedly renounced the household life. The Patriarch ordained him, gave him the full precepts, and transmitted the Dharma Eye to him with a verse: / 'There is a seed and there is a mind-ground; / Through causes and conditions it is able to sprout. / Conditions do not obstruct one another; / When it ought to be born, it is born yet unborn.' / Having transmitted the Dharma, the Patriarch leapt into the empty sky, manifested eighteen supernormal transformations, and cremated himself with fire. The assembly erected a stupa with his relics to make offerings to him. This was during the time of Emperor Cheng of the Former Han (Zhengzong ji).