續高僧傳 18.24

18.24

釋慧歡。俗姓管氏。京兆雲陽人也。弱齡厭俗深慕出家。迫以恒日取拔無路。歷任僚署頻經涼暑。年逾壯齒方蒙本遂。三十有七被緇在道。依清禪寺崇公諮受定法攝心儀體存息短長。觀覺安立冷然祛寫。兼以志得林泉銷形人世。損略塵欲。山學推先。嘗經行山頂誤墮高巖。乃石上端居不忘禪念。其感靈如此。逮隋文晏駕。建大伽藍。以歡志德潛被。召而供養。大業六年二月卒大禪定道場。春秋六十有九。遺令施形寒林之下。弟子等敢從德義。送於終南梗梓谷中。率諸道俗立銘樹塔矣。

Śramaṇa Huihuan, whose secular surname was Guan, was a native of Yunyang in Jingzhao. From his youth, he was weary of worldly life and deeply yearned for pravrajyā. However, constrained by everyday affairs, he had no way to extricate himself. He held posts in government offices, passing through many seasons of heat and cold. Only after passing his prime was he able to fulfill his original aspiration. At the age of thirty-seven, he put on the black robes and entered the Way. He relied on Master Chong of Qingshan Monastery, consulting him to receive the methods of dhyāna, concentrating the mind, maintaining deportment, and observing the brevity or length of the breath. He established contemplative awareness and calmly dispelled defilements. Furthermore, with his mind delighting in forests and springs, he shed his worldly persona, curtailed worldly desires, and was regarded as foremost in mountain studies. Once, while practicing walking meditation on a mountaintop, he accidentally fell from a high crag, yet sat upright upon a stone without forgetting his meditative mindfulness. Such was his spiritual resonance. When Emperor Wen of the Sui passed away and a great monastery was founded, Huan's aspirations and virtue had invisibly influenced others, so he was summoned to receive offerings. In the second month of the sixth year of Daye, he passed away at the Da Chanding Bodhimaṇḍa at the age of sixty-nine. In his final instructions, he ordered his body to be abandoned beneath the charnel ground (śītavana). His disciples dared to follow his virtuous intention, sending his remains to Gengzi Valley in the Zhongnan Mountains, where they led the monastics and laity to erect an inscription and set up a stūpa.