續高僧傳 18.23

18.23

釋道舜。未詳何人。靜處林泉庇道自隱。言常含笑談述清遠。嘗止澤州羊頭山神農定藥之所。結宇茅茨餘無蓄積。日惟一食常坐卒歲斯亦清素之沙門也。德豐內溢聲流氓俗。能感蛇鼠同居在繩床下各孚產育不相危惱。又致虎來蹲踞其側。便為說法。有人還往告虎令去。或語之云。明日人來。汝不須至。便如舜言。虎便不現。其通感深識為若此也。給侍之人與虎同住。視如家犬。曾莫之畏。身著弊納略無可採。跣行林野不擇晨夕。開皇之初忽遊聚落。說法化諸村民。皆盛集受法。獨不為一女人授戒。告云。汝當生牛中。其相已現。戒不救汝也。業不定者。爾乃濟耳。時有不信其言。以為惑眾。咸有疑者。舜欲決於眾議。告眾曰。必不信者。試蹋汝牛尾業影。必當不起。即以足躡女裙後空地。云是尾影。其女依言趣起不得。時眾驚信。請舜曰。如何除此業報。其女家積粟數萬石。既懼惡業一時頓捨。舜並為營福令其懺悔。如此累作業惡便傾。方為受戒。由斯以談。能見業影之存亡。將隣聖之極矣。或醫諸癘村受於癘供。見有膿潰外流者。皆口就而𠲿之。情無餘念。或洗其衣服。或淨其心業。用為己任。情向欣然初無頻蹙。後遊於林慮洪谷。北詣晉盤亭等諸山隱寺。綜禪定業不測終所。

Śramaṇa Daoshun's origins are unknown. Dwelling quietly among forests and springs, he sheltered the Way and kept himself concealed. When he spoke, he always wore a smile, and his conversation was pure and transcendent. He once stayed at the site where Shennong determined medicinal herbs on Mount Yangtou in Zezhou. There he constructed a thatched hut, storing nothing beyond it. Taking only one meal a day and always sitting in meditation throughout the year, he was indeed a pure and unadorned śramaṇa. His virtue abounded within and overflowed without, and his renown spread among the common people. He was able to cause snakes and rats to live together under his corded chair, each bearing and nurturing their young without harming or alarming each other. He also brought tigers to squat at his side, whereupon he would preach the Dharma to them. When people came and went, he would tell the tigers to leave, or say to them, “People are coming tomorrow; you need not come.” It was always as Shun said, and the tigers would not appear. Such were his spiritual resonance and profound perception. The attendants who served him lived alongside the tigers, viewing them as domestic dogs and never showing any fear. He wore ragged patched robes with virtually nothing worth keeping, and walked barefoot through the forests and wilderness without distinguishing morning from evening. In the early Kaihuang era, he suddenly traveled through villages, preaching the Dharma to convert the villagers. They gathered in great numbers to receive the teachings, yet he alone refused to transmit the precepts to one woman, telling her: “You are destined to be reborn among cattle. The signs have already appeared; the precepts cannot save you. Only when karma is not yet fixed can one be rescued.” At the time, some disbelieved his words and took them to be deceiving the multitude, all harboring doubts. Wishing to settle the matter before the assembly, Shun addressed them: “If you truly disbelieve, try stepping on the karmic shadow of her cow tail; she will surely be unable to rise.” He then placed his foot upon the empty ground behind the woman's skirt, saying it was the shadow of the tail. When the woman tried to stand up as instructed, she was unable to do so. The crowd was then awed into belief and asked Shun, “How can this karmic retribution be eliminated?” The woman’s family had amassed several tens of thousands of shi of grain; terrified of the evil karma, she renounced it all at once. Shun used it entirely to cultivate merit on her behalf, instructing her to practice repentance. Having accumulated such deeds, her evil karma was overturned, and only then did he confer the precepts upon her. Judging from this, his ability to see the presence or absence of the karmic shadow placed him nearly at the summit of sagehood. At times he visited leper colonies to accept offerings from the afflicted. Whenever he saw pus oozing forth, he would apply his mouth to suck it away, without a single aversion in his mind. He would wash their clothes or purify their mental karma, taking these tasks as his own duty, feeling joyous at heart without ever furrowing his brow. Later, he wandered to Honggu in Linlü, and went north to hidden monasteries in various mountains such as Panting in Jin. Devoting himself comprehensively to the practice of dhyāna, the place of his death remains unknown.