續高僧傳 18.25

18.25

釋智通。姓程氏。河東猗氏人也。生知信慤樂崇道慧。將習書計遂欲出家。父母異而許之。十歲已從剃落。敦肅恭孝執履謙冲。師長友朋接事無怠。修持戒行歌詠法言晝夜不輟。誦諸經中讚佛要偈三千餘章。五十許年初無告倦。自木德不競。立喪攸在。釋門淪廢法侶無歸。方從俊律師延法師。服膺受業。不以艱危涅志。隋祖再興奄還蒲坂。慈濟所及。乃立孤老寺於城治。等心賑贍以時周給。授戒說法乘機間起。食椹懷音日有千計。仁壽創塔締構栖巖。翻然脫屣就閑修業。親事香花躬運掃洒。口恒稱讚目常瞻睹。善由己積道為含生。財雖有屬並充功德。以大業七年十月二十四日。以疾而卒於山寺。春秋六十有四。初未終前。數日不悆。維那鳴鍾而杵自折。識者以為不越振矣。通聞之。命侍者稱彌陀佛名。迴心攝念願生彼土。有入室門人頂蓋者。夙夜祗奉。忽問蓋曰。厨中作何食耶。蓋曰。為何所須。曰有達官諸貴來耳。蓋曰。昔聞生人道者見諸貴勝。師本修德所詣。豈在人耶。至晚乃開目正視。良久不眴。狀有所覩。旁侍加香。寂然立敬。炊頃方止。乃彈指云。不可思議也。有問其故。云見寶幢華蓋塔廟莊嚴。初夜又迴首眄云。始見明珠。今何所在。又云。有何緣務大然燈燭。遂奄燈令闇。須臾復云。火明何為轉盛。蓋曰。室今暗昧。是師淨相。不可怪也。乃合掌達旦。曰吾生淨土矣。因而氣靜。山地動搖門窓振裂。群雉驚雊非恒所聞。寺僧道慧。未曉假寐。至是驚覺出倚廊下曰。禪師若終必生淨土。何以知然。向於眠中見西嶺上並是樓閣殿堂乘空而去。言畢方知通已終逝。又蓋母王氏。久懷篤信。讀誦眾經。禮懺發心。以往生為務。貞觀十一年二月。臨將捨命彌加勤至。目見床前有赤蓮華。大如五斛甕許。又見青蓮華滿宅阿彌陀佛觀音勢至一時俱到。蓋與姪薛大興共親聞所述。而興見有佛色形甚大并二菩薩。久而自隱。斯並近事。故傳實錄。沙門行友。蒲晉名僧。為之本傳。因著論曰。夫法本不生。今則無滅。如身實相觀佛亦然。因斯以談。則三界與一識冥歸。生死共涅槃同體。又何容淨穢彼此於其間哉。然則凡夫學人。妄情未盡。不能齊彼我均苦樂遺欣厭亡是非。故須迴向願求標心所詣然後往生耳。其實則不然。譬猶明鏡現形空谷應聲。影響之來豈云遠乎。而惑者以暗識生疑。謂淨土越度三有超過九定。絕域寥廓經途敻遠。自非三乘極位及十地聖人積行累功。安能生彼。何其謬歟。觀斯上人。雖稟性溫柔為人清潔。其所修習。則福德偏長。定慧之功蓋不足紀。直以一生之散善臨命之虛心。遂能目覩光明親見幢相。動搖坤象夢感旁人。是知九品之業有徵。十念之功無爽。凡我同志可不勗哉。若夫尋近大乘。修行正觀。察微塵之本際。信一念之初源。便可荊蕀播無常之音。梟鏡說甚深之法。十方淨國未必過此。如其眷戀妻孥槃桓弊執營生未厭逐物已疲。推有齡於倉卒之間。畢一世於遑忙之際。內無所措外無所恃。則長劫冥沒。亦奚能自返悲夫。

Śramaṇa Zhitong, surnamed Cheng, was a native of Yishi in Hedong. Possessed of innate faith and sincerity, he delighted in venerating the wisdom of the Way. Just as he was about to study clerkship and reckoning, he wished to enter pravrajyā. His parents marveled at this and granted permission. At the age of ten, he had his head shaved. He was earnest, solemn, respectful, and filial, conducting himself with modesty and humility. In serving his teachers, elders, and companions, he was never indolent. Cultivating and upholding the precepts and conduct, he chanted the words of the Dharma day and night without ceasing. He recited more than three thousand essential verses in praise of the Buddha from various sūtras, never showing fatigue over some fifty years. When the wooden virtue [of Northern Zhou] ceased to flourish and destruction befell [the Dharma], the gate of Śākya was abandoned and the companions of the Dharma had nowhere to turn. He then followed Vinaya Master Jun and Dharma Master Yan, holding their teachings to heart and receiving instruction, refusing to allow hardships and dangers to taint his resolve. When the founder of the Sui arose again, he promptly returned to Puban. Reaching out with compassionate relief, he established a Monastery for the Orphaned and Elderly in the prefectural seat, distributing provisions equitably and providing timely support. Bestowing precepts and expounding the Dharma, he seized opportunities to instruct, so that those who tasted his berries and remembered his kindness numbered thousands daily. During the Renshou era, when a stūpa was founded to construct Xiyan Monastery, he cast aside his sandals with ease to retire to leisure and cultivate his practice. He personally tended to incense and flowers and swept and washed in person; his mouth constantly praised [the Buddha] and his eyes constantly gazed upon [the sacred images]. Goodness accumulated from oneself, and the Way was pursued for all sentient beings; though wealth was owned, it was entirely dedicated to meritorious deeds. On the twenty-fourth day of the tenth month of the seventh year of Daye, he died of illness at the mountain monastery at the age of sixty-four. Days before his end, he had been indisposed. When the karmadāna struck the bell, the pestle broke by itself; those with understanding took this to mean that the resonance would not be surpassed. Hearing of it, Tong ordered his attendants to chant the name of Amitābha Buddha, turning his mind and concentrating his thoughts with the wish to be reborn in that land. There was a disciple admitted to his chamber named Dinggai, who served him day and night. Tong suddenly asked Gai, “What food is being prepared in the kitchen?” Gai said, “What is needed?” Tong replied, “Dignitaries and nobles have arrived.” Gai said, “I have heard in the past that those to be reborn in the human realm see nobles and luminaries. With the virtues Master has cultivated, could his destination merely be among humans?” Toward evening, Tong opened his eyes and gazed straight ahead, not blinking for a long time as if beholding something. The attendants beside him added incense and stood silently in reverence. Only after the time of a meal did it cease, whereupon Tong snapped his fingers and said, “Inconceivable!” When someone asked the reason, he said he saw jeweled banners, flowered canopies, and adorned stūpas and temples. During the first watch of the night, he turned his head again, glanced, and said, “I just saw a bright pearl; where is it now?” He also asked, “What business is there that requires lighting such grand lamps and candles?” They then covered the lamps to darken the room. After a moment, he said again, “Why has the blazing fire grown brighter still?” Gai said, “The room is dark now; these are Master's pure visions, and should not be wondered at.” Tong then joined his palms until dawn, saying, “I am born in the Pure Land!” Thereupon his breath fell still. The mountain earth shook, doors and windows rattled, and flocks of pheasants called out in alarm, unlike anything normally heard. The monk Daohui of the monastery had been dozing before dawn; startled awake, he came out, leaned against the corridor, and said, “If the Dhyāna Master has ended his life, he will surely be reborn in the Pure Land. How do I know this? Just now in my sleep I saw pavilions, halls, and palaces all ascending through the sky over the western ridge.” Only after he finished speaking did they realize Tong had already passed away. Furthermore, Gai's mother, Lady Wang, had long harbored deep faith, reading and reciting various sūtras, practicing repentance, generating the bodhimind, and making rebirth her primary goal. In the second month of the eleventh year of Zhenguan, when she was about to surrender her life, she became even more diligent and earnest. With her own eyes she saw a red lotus before her bed, as large as a five-hu jar, and also saw blue lotuses filling the residence, with Amitābha Buddha, Avalokiteśvara, and Mahāsthāmaprāpta arriving all at once. Gai, together with his nephew Xue Daxing, personally heard her account, and Xing himself saw the Buddha’s bodily form of immense size, along with two bodhisattvas, which vanished after a long time. These were recent events, and thus recorded truthfully. Śramaṇa Xingyou, a renowned monk of Pu and Jin, composed his original biography. Thereupon a treatise remarks: Phenomena are fundamentally unarisen, and now they do not cease. As is the true mark of the body, so too is the contemplation of the Buddha. Judged from this perspective, the three realms and the single consciousness secretly converge, and samsāra and nirvāṇa share the same essence. How could there be room for purity and defilement, this and that, between them? Yet ordinary beings and trainees have not exhausted their delusive attachments; unable to equalize self and other, level suffering and joy, abandon craving and aversion, or forget right and wrong, they must dedicate merit, make vows, direct their minds to their destination, and only then attain rebirth. In truth, it is not so: it is like a bright mirror reflecting a form, or an empty valley echoing a sound. How could the coming of shadow and echo be called distant? Yet the confused raise doubts with darkened minds, claiming that the Pure Land transcends the three realms of existence, surpasses the nine absorptions, lies in a vast and remote realm, and spans an immense journey—so unless one has achieved the ultimate stages of the Three Vehicles or is a sage of the ten stages accumulating practices and merits, how could one be born there? How mistaken this is! Looking at this venerable master: though endowed with a gentle nature and pure conduct, his practice leaned toward meritorious blessings, and his achievements in dhyāna and wisdom were hardly worth recording. Simply by virtue of a lifetime of dispersed goodness and an empty mind at the threshold of death, he was able to behold radiance, personally witness banners and signs, shake the earth, and appear in dreams to onlookers. Thus we know the karma of the nine grades has its evidence, and the efficacy of the ten recollections does not fail. Can all of us companions fail to exert ourselves? If one investigates the Mahāyāna closely and cultivates correct contemplation, examining the ultimate boundary of fine dust and trusting the initial source of a single thought, then even thorns will proclaim the sound of impermanence, and owls and mirror-beasts will expound the profound Dharma; the pure lands of the ten directions do not necessarily surpass this. If, however, one clings to wife and children, lingers in base attachments, tirelessly pursues worldly livelihood, and is exhausted by chasing material things, casting away one's years in haste and finishing a lifetime in agitation, with nothing to hold to within and nothing to rely upon without, then through long kalpas of dark submersion, how could one return of oneself? Alas, how lamentable!