釋氏稽古略 4.346

4.346

In the Song, in the second month of spring, the emperor visited Upper Tianzhu to pay homage to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. He asked the abbot Ruone: "Why do you perform the Golden Light Repentance every year?" Ne replied: "The honored god Mahābrahmā is the lord of the sahā world; Śakra Devānām Indra, emperor of the gods, centrally governs the thirty-three heavens to look down upon the earthly realm; and the four guardian Heavenly Kings together vowed to protect the Dharma and protect the people. Therefore the Buddha preached the Golden Light Samādhi for the gods. This is a ceremony for emperors and kings in times of flourishing peace; it is fitting that the imperial court's incense and lamp offerings be performed year after year." The emperor was pleased, promoted Ne to Monk Record Keeper of the Right Street, and bestowed twenty thousand cash. On the former site of the Later Jin monk Daoyi, who originally founded the mountain, a Hall of the Sixteen Contemplations was erected. Hanlin Academician Lou Yue was commanded to compose a record according to the plans, and one was also built within the palace. On the eighth day of the fourth month, the Buddha's birthday, in the following year, Ne was summoned and requested fifty monks to enter the Inner Contemplation Hall to perform the Golden Light Samādhi for the Protection of the State. When the feast concluded, he ordered Ne to preach the Dharma. The emperor was pleased and advanced him to Monk Record Keeper of the Left Street, granting the title Dharma Master Huiguang; each monk was granted one bolt of silk. From this time on, it became customary each year on the Tathāgata's birthday to bestow fifty bolts of silk and dispatch them to Upper Tianzhu to observe and practice Buddhist services. In the eleventh month of the sixth year of the Qiandao era, the emperor personally wrote the twelve large characters: "Lingan Guanyin zhi Si" (Temple of the Efficacious Avalokiteśvara) and "Lingan Guanyin Baodian" (Precious Hall of the Efficacious Avalokiteśvara), bestowing them on Upper Tianzhu to be prominently displayed on the mountain gate. On the seventh day of the first month of the ninth year of the Qiandao era, Ne was summoned to an audience in the Xuande Hall; at the beginning of the hour of the horse (11:00 a.m.) he was admitted and granted a seat. The emperor said: "At the new year, have you gone to present a vegetarian feast to the Bodhisattva?" Ne said: "I have already received your Sagely grace." The emperor asked: "What is the ritual procedure of the Golden Light Repentance like?" Ne said: "In the sūtra there is repentance based on principle and repentance based on phenomena. Repentance based on principle means sitting upright and examining the mind; hence it is said: 'Karmic hindrances are like frost and dew; they all arise from delusive thought. Sit upright and contemplate true reality; the sun of wisdom can eliminate them.' Repentance based on phenomena has five [aspects]: diligently rectifying one's own mind and sincerely reflecting upon the Great Vehicle's profound meaning of emptiness, following good like flowing water and not begrudging the correction of faults—this is practicing the first repentance; serving parents with filial piety so as to guide all within the four seas—this is practicing the second repentance; governing the world with the true Dharma and not wronging the people—this is practicing the third repentance; not killing within one's realm on the six fasting days—this is practicing the fourth repentance; having deep faith in cause and effect, keeping cause and effect in mind, and not forgetting the entrustment at the Vulture Peak—this is practicing the fifth repentance. One need not set fixed dates for bowing; if one can merely practice these five, using phenomena to tally with principle, this is called the supreme repentance of the ultimate truth." The emperor was delighted and said: "This brings great illumination!" The emperor asked: "What sūtra do you lecture on daily?" Ne said: "The Lotus Sūtra." The emperor asked: "Where does the wonder of the seven-fascicle sūtra lie?" Ne said: "It is to cause sentient beings to open, reveal, awaken to, and enter into the Buddha's knowledge and vision; without ever moving the fundamental substance, it turns iron into gold, pointing directly to the human mind to see one's nature and attain Buddhahood." The emperor was pleased. It was announced to be the hour of the sheep (1:00 p.m.); Ne gave thanks for imperial favor and stepped down from the hall. In the first year of the Chunxi era, the emperor provided twenty thousand strings of cash from the inner treasury and dispatched them to Upper Tianzhu to build a Canon Hall, bestowed one printing of the Fuzhou Canon, and ordered the Crown Prince to inscribe the placard for the hall, which read: "Precious Treasury of the Wheel of the Dharma" (widely found in the Record of the Scenic Splendors of Upper Tianzhu). In the third month of spring in the second year of the Chunxi era, the emperor visited Upper Tianzhu to pay homage to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, established a Bodhimaṇḍa of the Golden Light for the Protection of the State, and bestowed a seal of the Baiyun Hall to superintend the doctrinal school (the seal of Zhizhi Hall of Lingyin). On the first day of the sixth month in summer, Ne was summoned to an audience in the Inner Contemplation Hall. The emperor said: "Recently I have been reading the Ratnakūṭa Sūtra; why is its text so vast?" Ne said: "The Avataṃsaka, Prajñā, Ratnakūṭa, and Nirvāṇa sūtras all expound the Dharma for those of great capacity; their text is long and their meaning is vast." The emperor said: "The Śūraṅgama deeply plumbs the profound and subtle; why is it spoken so well and yet surges like billows?" Ne said: "The Buddha is one who understands and reaches the fundamental source; giving rise to function from substance, by means of the inexhaustible treasury samādhi, his speech and silence are as one." An attendant eunuch announced the hour of the sheep, and Ne withdrew. In the eleventh year of the Chunxi era, Ne requested to retire on grounds of old age and was promoted to Grand Monk Record Keeper of the Left and Right Streets, retiring to reside at the Amitābha Xingfu Cloister on Mount Tianzhu. An imperial decree appointed his eminent Dharma-heir disciple, the head monk Shijue, to fill the position of Monastic Evaluator of the Right Street and succeed to the abbot's seat. In the sixteenth year of the Chunxi era, Jue was summoned and detained in the Inner Contemplation Hall, lecturing for seven days on the Tiantai Perfect and Sudden Cessation and Contemplation. At the beginning of Emperor Guangzong's Shaoxi era, when the emperor resided in the Chonghua Palace, he permitted Ne to enter and exit in a sedan chair. [Ne] annotated the Diamond Prajñā Sūtra and presented it; Emperor Guangzong composed a panegyric for it. On the first day of the tenth month in the second year of the Shaoxi era, Ne entered quiescence, at the age of eighty-two, with a monastic seniority of sixty-nine summers. He was buried at the Amitābha Xingfu Cloister. Supervising Secretary Song Zhirui composed his Stele of Conduct. His various Dharma-heir disciples were the Monk Record Keeper (Shijue), Guanghui Miaogui, Xu'an Youhong, Shijian Congjie, and others. On the twenty-second day of the tenth month in the fourteenth year of the Chunxi era, the emperor wrote out one scroll of the Heart of Wisdom Sūtra in the Inner Contemplation Hall. On the tenth day of the fourth month in the second year of the Jiading era under Emperor Ningzong, it was bestowed again with the imperial seal upon the Upper Tianzhu Monk Record Keeper Miaogui. Vice Grand Councillor Lou Yue and Supervising Secretary Zou Ying wrote colophons at the end, and it was stored at Upper Tianzhu (from the Stele Inscription of the Scenic Splendors).