續高僧傳 18.18

18.18

釋真慧。陝州河北人。姓陳氏。河北諸陳代稱冠族。遠稱漢右相陳平。中云魏向侯陳陟。乃至江表陳代並出此鄉。真早厭身城。父母留礙逼納妻室不免外情。玉潔之志涅而逾淨。開皇十二年。年財及冠二親俱往。既將出俗猶縈妻累。先勸喻已便為解髮。資給道具送往尼寺。真往陝州大通寺清禪師所。出家受具。清示以學方次第有本。曰尸羅不淨三昧無由。令往鄴下靜洪律師所。因循兩載備探幽致。又詣衛州淋落泉詢禪師所。朝授夕悟經歷歲餘。於詢所得略貫終始。禪侶三百嗟詠聲馳。詢摩其頂堪傳燈法。令往山西啟諸未悟。真以學日既少。恐有差分。更住陶研乃經兩載。一一呈示去取無疑。開皇十八年承命西歸。路經白鹿百家巖。時號幽絕。山勢窮美。因登遊觀。又為留連夏坐栖之。又陳禪道。至秋擇地無越晉川。遂之蒲坂首山麻谷。創築禪宇。四眾爭趨端居引學蔚成定市。十有八載成就極多。栖巖傑昂最稱深入。仁壽四年召與僧名住栖巖寺。其為人也諒直剛決。清儉退讓安苦忍樂。容止可觀。獨處樂靜不希華靡。大業元年。餌黃精絕粒百日。檢校教授坐禪禮懺不減生平。後覺肥充。恐有學者便休服餌。於閑田原北杯盤谷。夏坐虎窟。虎為之移。及秋虎還返窟。常有山神節度時分。如有遲延必來警覺。以大業十一年十月七日。因疾卒麻谷禪坊。春秋四十有七。初將終夕神彩若常。曰吾將生淨土。見蓮花相候。又聞異鍾聲幽淨異香充蔚。斯相既至潛然而絕。門人道俗依而闍維收骨。起塔於麻谷。

Shi Zhenhui was a native of Hebei in Shanzhou, surnamed Chen. The various Chen clans of Hebei were praised from generation to generation as an exalted family: of old, they claimed Chen Ping, Right Prime Minister of the Han; in the middle period, they claimed Chen Zhi, Marquis of Xiang in the Wei; down to the Chen dynasty east of the Yangzi, all stemmed from this locality. Zhen early on grew weary of the city of the body. His parents restrained and hindered him, forcing him to take a wife, so that he could not avoid external entanglements; yet his aspiration, pure as jade, remained all the cleaner through defilement. In the twelfth year of Kaihuang, when his age had just reached twenty, both of his parents passed away. Being about to leave secular life, he was still entangled in the burdens of a wife; having first exhorted and persuaded her, he then untied her hair, supplied her with requisites, and sent her to a nunnery. Zhen went to Daitong Temple in Shanzhou, to the place of Dhyāna Master Qing, where he left household life and received the full precepts. Qing instructed him that the sequence of learning had a root, saying: 'If śīla is not pure, there is no way for samādhi to arise.' He directed him to go to Ye, to the place of Vinaya Master Jinghong. Following this for two years, he fully explored its profound depths. He also went to Weizhou, to the place of Dhyāna Master Xun of the Linluo Spring. Taught in the morning, he awakened by evening; more than a year passed, and what he obtained from Xun broadly covered the whole from start to finish. His three hundred fellow dhyāna practitioners sighed in praise, his renown spreading widely. Xun stroked his crown, deeming him fit to transmit the lamp of the Dharma, and directed him to go west of the mountains to open the minds of those who had not yet awakened. Zhen, considering that his days of study were few and fearing there might be errors, stayed further to refine and investigate for two more years, presenting each point so that what to accept and reject was beyond doubt. In the eighteenth year of Kaihuang, he followed orders and returned west. On his route he passed through the Baijia Cliffs of Bailu, which was then renowned for its utter seclusion and the supreme beauty of its mountain contours. Thereupon he climbed it to sightsee, and lingering on, he spent the summer retreat dwelling there, also setting forth the path of dhyāna. Coming to autumn, in choosing a site, none surpassed Jinchuan; he then went to Magu at Mount Shou in Puban. He initiated the construction of a dhyāna building; the four assemblies vied to hasten there, and by uprightly dwelling to guide students, it luxuriantly grew into a marketplace of dhyāna. Over eighteen years, those who attained fulfillment were exceedingly numerous; Jie'ang of Xiyan was praised most for his profound penetration. In the fourth year of Renshou, he was summoned, given a monastic title, and dwelt at Xiyan Temple. As a person, he was trustworthy, upright, firm, and decisive, pure, frugal, yielding, peaceful under hardship, and patient under pleasure. His deportment was worthy of beholding; he dwelt alone and took joy in quietude, not longing for luxury. In the first year of Daye, he ingested Solomon's seal and abstained from grains for a hundred days; yet inspecting and instructing in dhyāna sitting, repentance, and worship were no less than in normal life. Later, feeling himself growing stout, he feared students might imitate him and so ceased the ingestion. At the Beipan Valley north of the Xiantian Plain, he spent the summer retreat in a tiger's cave; the tiger relocated for him, and when autumn came, the tiger returned to the cave. A mountain deity constantly regulated the divisions of time; if there was any delay, it would certainly come to alert him. On the seventh day of the tenth month of the eleventh year of Daye, he died of an illness in the dhyāna quarters at Magu, at the age of forty-seven. On the night when he was about to pass away, his spiritual presence was as normal; he said: 'I am about to be born in the Pure Land; I see lotus flowers waiting for me.' He also heard the sound of an extraordinary bell, and a subtle, pure, unusual fragrance filled the air. Once these signs arrived, he quietly expired. His disciples, clergy, and laity cremated him accordingly, collected his bones, and erected a stupa at Magu.