釋鑑稽古略續集 3.251

3.251

千松法師　諱明得。號月庭。得法於萬松之門。故又號千松。湖州烏程周氏子。十三出家郡之雙林慶善菴。首參百川海公不契。次遇萬松禪師。授以楞嚴大旨。研究朗然。偈曰。楞嚴經內本無經。覿面何須問姓名。六月炎天炎似火。寒冬臘月冷如氷。深得華嚴宗旨。夢遊兜羅綿世界。登座闡經偈。從本已來無。今日何曾有。一毛頭上現。虛空笑開口。咄下座即寤白松。松撫之曰。此聖力之冥被耳。後於徑山凌霄峯。力參說偈曰。千年翠竹萬年松。葉葉枝枝是祖風。雲嶽高岑棲隱處。無言杲日普皆同。萬曆丁亥秋告眾曰。吾為汝等。轉首楞嚴法輪。作再後開示。無復為汝更轉也。冬示疾。明年正月十七日。吉祥而逝。壽五十八。臘四十六。荼毘塔於徑山。

Dharma Master Qiansong: Taboo name Mingde, sobriquet Yueting. He attained the Dharma at the gate of Wansong, hence he was also known as Qiansong. He was a son of the Zhou clan of Wucheng in Huzhou. At thirteen, he left the household at Qingshan Hermitage in Shuanglin in the prefecture. He first visited Master Baichuan Hai, but did not accord with him. Next, he met Chan Master Wansong, who instructed him in the essential purport of the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra*. His investigation became luminous and clear. His verse read: / "Within the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* there is originally no sūtra; / Face to face, why bother asking for a name? / In the fiery heat of the sixth month, it burns like fire; / In the dead of freezing winter, it is cold as ice." / He deeply attained the central purport of the Huayan. He dreamed of traveling to the Cotton-Wool World, ascending the seat, and expounding the sūtra with a verse: / "Originally nonexistent from the start, / How could it ever exist today? / Appearing upon the tip of a single hair, / Empty space opens its mouth in laughter." / With a shout, he descended from the seat and immediately awoke; he reported this to Song. Song stroked him and said, "This is merely the unseen aid of holy power." Later, at Lingxiao Peak on Mount Jing, he investigated vigorously and spoke a verse: / "Ten-thousand-year pines, thousand-year emerald bamboo; / Every leaf and every branch is the ancestral style. / The dwelling of seclusion amidst high cloud-crested peaks: / The wordless, brilliant sun is universally identical." / In the autumn of the dinghai year of the Wanli era, he told the assembly, "I have turned the wheel of the Dharma of the *Śūraṅgama* for you, giving this one final instruction. I shall never turn it for you again." In the winter, he showed signs of illness. On the seventeenth day of the first month of the following year, he passed away auspiciously, at the age of fifty-eight, with forty-six monastic years. He was cremated, and a stupa was built for him on Mount Jing.