[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [續高僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060) › 11.17 # 續高僧傳 11.17 續高僧傳 11.17 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [11.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.11.17) 釋慧海。姓張氏。河東虞鄉人。久積聞熏早成慧力。年在童齓德類老成。所以涉獵儒門歷覽玄肆。雖未窮其章句。略以得其指歸。乃曰。可以栖心養志者。其惟佛法乎。年至十四。遂落髮染衣。為沙門大昭玄統曇延法師弟子也。流心宗匠觀化群師。十八便講涅槃。至於五行十德二淨三點。文旨洞曉詞采豐贍。既受具戒轉厭囂煩。屏迹山林專崇禪業。居于弘農之伏讀山。會周武肆勃仁祠廢毀。乃竄身避難奔齊入陳。戒品無虧法衣不捨。又採聽攝論研窮至趣。大隋御宇方踐京邑。帝姊城安長公主。有知人之鑒。欽其德望為立伽藍。遂受以居之。今之靜法寺是也。課業四部三學兼弘。門徒濟濟于今傳美。末愛重定行不好講說。緘默自修唯道是務。而無恃聲望不言加飾。直心道場於斯人矣。仁壽已前。文帝頻頒璽書分布舍利每感異祥。恒有延譽之美。故感應傳云。初海造塔于定州恒岳寺。塔基之左有瀅。名曰龍淵。其水不流深湛懸岸。及將安置即揚濤。沸涌激注通于川陸。父老傳云。此水流竭不定。但有善事相投。必即泄流奔注。其徵感如此類也。後又送舍利于熊州十善寺。有人𮜭躄及痼疾者積數十年。聞舍利初到。輿來禮懺心既殷至。忽便差損輕健而歸久值亢旱飛塵天塞。又感甘澤地如油塗。日朗空清來蘇數萬。大業二年五月二十七日卒于本寺。春秋五十有七。初病極命諸徒曰。吾聞上棟下宇生民之偓齪。外槨內棺世界之縈羈。既累形骸於桎梏亦礙生世於大患。豈揖禮義於囂塵。卜宅葬於煩飾者也。宜宗薄葬用嗣先塵貽諸有類矣。弟子欽崇德範。收骨而建塔于終南之峯。即至相之前嶺也。刻石立銘樹于塔所。自海之立寺。情務護持勤攝僧倫延迎賓客。凶年拯及振名京邑云爾。 > Śramaṇa Huihai had the secular surname Zhang and was a native of Yuxiang in Hedong. Having long accumulated the perfuming of what he had heard, he developed the power of wisdom early on. While still in his boyhood, his virtue resembled that of an elder; hence he dipped into Confucian teachings and explored the profound philosophical schools. Although he had not yet exhausted their chapters and verses, he grasped their general import, and thereupon said, "What can truly settle the mind and nourish the aspiration is only the Buddha-Dharma!" When he reached the age of fourteen, he had his hair shaved, donned the dyed robes, and became a disciple of the śramaṇa Master of the Dharma Tanyan, Great Controller of the Clergy. He directed his mind to ancestral masters and observed the transformative teachings of various teachers. At eighteen he was already lecturing on the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra; as for the Five Practices, the Ten Virtues, the Two Purities, and the Three Dots, he penetrated the meaning of the text and his eloquence was richly abundant. After receiving the full precepts, he became increasingly weary of clamor and vexation, withdrew his traces to mountains and forests, and exclusively venerated the practice of dhyāna. He resided at Mount Fudu in Hongnong. It coincided with the Zhou Emperor Wu's reckless violence, when the benevolent shrines were demolished. He thus hid himself to escape disaster, fleeing to Qi and entering Chen; his precept quality was never impaired, nor did he cast aside his Dharma robes. He also attended lectures on the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and thoroughly investigated its ultimate purports. When the Great Sui governed the realm, he then arrived in the capital. The Emperor's elder sister, Eldest Princess Chengan, had discernment of character; revering his virtuous reputation, she established a monastery for him, which he accepted and resided in—this is the present Jingfa Monastery. He assigned duties according to the four divisions of teachings and broadly promoted the three trainings; his disciples were numerous and their renown continues to this day. In his later years, he treasured the practice of concentration and disliked lecturing, maintaining silence in self-cultivation and attending solely to the Way; he did not rely on his fame or add embellishments through speech: the straightforward mind as the bodhimanda was embodied in this man! Prior to the Renshou era, Emperor Wen frequently issued imperial decrees distributing relics, and abnormal auspicious signs were regularly evoked, with praise continuously extended to him. Thus the Gan'ying zhuan states: Earlier, Hai built a pagoda at Hengyue Monastery in Dingzhou. To the left of the pagoda's foundation was a deep pool named Dragon Abyss; its water did not flow, remaining still and deep beside a steep bank. When \[the relics\] were about to be enshrined, it raised billows, bubbling and surging, flowing out across rivers and land. The village elders said that this water was unpredictable in flowing or drying up, but whenever a good deed concurred, it would surely flow forth and gush; such were the evoked responses. Later, he also escorted relics to Shishan Monastery in Xiongzhou. There was a person crippled and afflicted with a chronic disease for several decades; hearing that the relics had just arrived, he was carried over to pay homage and repent. His mind being deeply sincere, he suddenly recovered, returning home nimble and healthy. They had long suffered an extreme drought, with blowing dust filling the sky; this also evoked sweet rains, making the earth glistening as if coated with oil. The sun shone bright and the sky cleared, reviving tens of thousands. On the twenty-seventh day of the fifth month of the second year of the Daye era, he passed away in his own monastery at the age of fifty-seven. When his illness became critical, he commanded his disciples, saying: "I have heard that upper beams and lower roofs are the petty confines of living mortals, and outer and inner coffins are the entanglements of the world; they encumber the physical frame with shackles and hinder living beings with great affliction. How could one make courteous gestures toward noisy dust, or divine a grave site to be buried in burdensome ornamentation? One should honor a simple burial, following the former dust and bequeathing it to those of like kind." The disciples revered his virtuous exemplar, gathered his bones, and built a pagoda on a peak of Mount Zhongnan, which is the ridge in front of Zhixiang Monastery; they inscribed a stone to set up an epitaph at the pagoda site. Ever since Hai established the monastery, his concern was to protect and maintain it, diligently gathering the saṅgha community and welcoming guests; in lean years he rescued the needy, spreading his fame throughout the capital. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 11.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.11.16) - [Next: 11.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.11.18) - [Up: 11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.11) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060~en-mt.11.17) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.11.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.11.17) · Pramāṇa