高僧傳 2.42

2.42

The śramaṇa Shi Huiyuan, who had long admired his reputation, heard of his arrival and was delighted as if greeting an old friend. Huiyuan considered that [Buddhabhadra's] expulsion was due to his disciple's fault, and that predicting the five ships was merely spoken among like-minded companions, which did not violate the Vinaya. He then dispatched his disciple Tanyong to deliver a letter to the Qin ruler Yao Xing and the monks of Guanzhong to resolve the matter of his expulsion, and Huiyuan then requested him to translate various scriptures on dhyāna and enumeration. [Buddhabhadra's] aspiration lay in wandering and transforming others, and in dwelling he sought no comfort. After staying for about a year, he went west again to Jiangling. He encountered the arrival of foreign ships, and upon inquiring, they turned out to be the five ships from Tianzhu that he had seen before. The gentry and commoners throughout the region vied to come and pay reverence, but he accepted none of their offerings; holding his bowl, he begged for alms (piṇḍapāta) without distinguishing between the noble and the lowly. At that time, Yuan Bao of Chen Commandery served as Senior Clerk to the Grand Defender under Emperor Wu of Song; when Emperor Wu campaigned south against Liu Yi, Yuan Bao accompanied the military administration and arrived in Jiangling. [Buddhabhadra] led his disciple Huiguan to visit Yuan Bao to beg for food. Yuan Bao had never been respectful or devout, and treated them very meanly, so they excused themselves and withdrew before eating to satiety. Yuan Bao said, "You seem not to have had enough; pray stay a little longer." [Buddhabhadra] said, "The dānapati's mind of giving was limited, which is why the food provided has run out." Yuan Bao at once called his attendants to add more rice, but the rice was indeed exhausted, and Yuan Bao felt deeply ashamed. Afterwards he asked Huiguan, "What kind of man is this śramaṇa?" Huiguan replied, "The magnitude of his virtue is lofty and distant, beyond the measure of ordinary men." Yuan Bao marveled greatly and reported this to the Grand Defender. The Grand Defender requested to meet him, revered him exceedingly, and provided all manner of offerings. Soon afterwards, the Grand Defender returned to the capital and invited [Buddhabhadra] to return with him, settling him at Daochang Temple. [Buddhabhadra's] demeanor was simple and unadorned, different from Chinese customs, yet his spirit and tone were pure and distant, possessing an elegant and profound grace. The Dharma Master Sengbi in the capital wrote in a letter to the śramaṇa Baolin: "The Dhyāna Master of Daochang has a very great mind; he is indeed a figure of the refined spirit of Wang [Bi] and He [Yan] of Tianzhu." Such was the praise he received.