釋氏稽古略 4.327

4.327

Chan Master Pu'an Jigan Miaoji Zhenjue Zhaokuang, named Yinsu, was born into the Yu family of Yichun in Yuanzhou, Jiangxi. At the age of six, he dreamed of an extraordinary monk who encouraged him to leave home, and his parents sent him forth. He was tonsured under Master Xian of Shoulong Cloister. At age twenty-seven he shaved his head, and the following year received the full precepts. Xian encouraged him to read the Lotus Sūtra, but the Master said: 'I have heard that the primal purport of all Buddhas must be valued for complete awakening in the mind.' Thereupon he took leave of his master and traveled through Lake Xiang, calling upon Chan Master Mu'an Chong at Mount Dagui. He asked: 'The ten thousand dharmas return to the one; where does the one return?' Chong held up his whisk, and the Master thereupon had an awakening. Later he returned to his tonsure cloister. Reaching this gui-you year of Shaoxing, there was a neighboring monastery named Cihua, and the community invited the Master to reside there. It had no permanent property; the Master wore cloth quilts and paper robes, ate gruel, and sat in meditation. One day, while reading the Huayan jing helun (Combined Treatise on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra), he spoke a verse, saying: 'Kneaded, it forms no ball; brushed away, it does not disperse. / What need for Nanyue, and what need for Tiantai? / Before the gates of the six sense faculties there is no one using it, / Bringing about the barbarian monk's special coming.' In his daily life he spoke a verse, saying: 'Marvelous, as such, no different from the Great Void; / Generating and transforming the ten thousand things, unimpeded by direction or boundary.' When those who admired the Master's Way came, the Master preached the Dharma to them according to suitability, or wrote verses for them. For the sick, he would pluck grass to make medicine and give it to them, and those who received it were instantly cured; his efficacious responses were not just one. Because of this, the monastery was completely renovated. Someone asked the Master what practice he cultivated to attain this; the Master drew a horizontal line, saying: 'Do you understand?' The person replied: 'I do not.' The Master said: 'Stop, stop, no need to speak.' On the twenty-first day of the seventh month in the fifth year of Qiandao under Emperor Xiaozong, he instructed the assembly, saying: 'The Buddhas do not appear in the world, nor is there any nirvāṇa. Those who enter my room will certainly attain the primal accord. Guard and protect it well, and do not let it slip away.' He requested a bath, changed his robes, and passed away seated in the lotus posture. His worldly age was fifty-five; his monastic age was twenty-eight summers. His entire body was entombed in a stupa at the monastery. He repeatedly received imperial favors, titles, and posthumous names. The Master possessed an imposing stature, and his wisdom arose naturally from heaven. He was a dharma heir of Chan Master Mu'an Chong of Huanglong (Pudeng [lu]).