續高僧傳 20.21

20.21

釋慧斌。姓和氏。兗州人也。博覽經藝文義洞開。偏曉字源尤明章曜。年十九鄉黨所崇為州助教。而情厭煩梗懷慕出世。年二十三方預剪落。尋即歷聽經律相沿兩載。覩講席喧撓惟論聲勢。便入臺山修諸靜慮。一入八載備行觀法。乃往泰山靈巖諸寺。以行道為務先。年三十四方隷官名。住秦州梁父甑山存道寺。更尋律部博聽經論。而性狎禪林譽彰遐邇。及獻后云背禪定攸興。下勅徵延乃旋京邑。于時名望盛德八表一期。各擅英髦人程鱗翼。而斌夏第最小聲稱彌隆。衣鉢之外更無箱襆。容質清素挺異恒倫。緇素目屬莫不迴向。斯亦象季清厲之僧也。兼以布行純粹言無品藻。每聞評論輒即默然。防護戒儀慈救為慮。每夏行履執帚先掃。恐傷蟲蟻故也。隨得利養密行檀濟。或造漉囊。或施道俗。惟急者方乃行之。仍復累屬勿泄人世。及帝造寺前訪綱維。京室同美勿高斌也。乃下詔徵為弘福寺主。緝諧上下無敢乖猷。貞觀十九年十月六日。遘疾終寺。時年七十有二。自斌之入道。生常恒務。多以行道呪業為心。或誦釋迦觀音。或行文殊悔法。歲中八十一日六時行業前後通數八十道場。身心悅懌。所得法利未可知也。至於教誡門學。惟論煩惱須斷。每有出罪露過。無不為之流涕。喜怒不形誦持無忘。故羯磨之匠通僧仰屬。道俗歸戒其徒弘矣。故使魏王以下內外懿親及梁宋諸公皆承戒素。初斌父朗有子七人。家世儒宗。斌第二也。仁壽徵入愛敬無因。朗齒迫期頤。鍾鳴漏盡。今古意絕。生死路分。乃於汶水之陰九逵之會。建義井一區。仍樹豐碑用裨其德。其銘略云。哀哀父母。載生載育。亦既弄璋。我履我復。一朝棄予山川滿目。雲掩重關風驚大谷。愛敬之道天倫在茲。殷憂暮齒見子無期。鑿井通給託事興詞。百年幾日對此長悲。玉檢之南嶧陽之北。獲麟之野秉禮之國。君有美政俗多儒墨。玉井洞開高碑斯勒。

Śramaṇa Huibin was surnamed He and was a native of Yanzhou. He read extensively across the classics and arts, gaining a penetrating comprehension of literature and principles. He was especially versed in the etymological origins of characters and extraordinarily enlightened regarding textual decoration. At age nineteen, revered by his home district, he served as a provincial assistant instructor (zhujiao). Yet inwardly, weary of worldly entanglements and vexations, he harboured a longing to leave the world. Only at age twenty-three did he enter the monastic life and take the tonsure. Immediately thereafter he listened successively to scriptures and vinaya treatises over the course of two years. Witnessing how the lecture halls were turbulent and clamorous, concerned solely with reputation and worldly influence, he withdrew into Mount Tiantai to cultivate various forms of quiet meditation (śamatha). During this single retreat of eight years, he fully carried out the methods of contemplation (vipaśyanā). He then traveled to various monasteries on Mount Tai and Mount Lingyan, taking circumambulation (caṅkramaṇa) as his foremost practice. Only at age thirty-four was his name officially entered into the civil register of monks, and he resided at Cundao Temple on Mount Zeng, Liangfu, in Qinzhou. He further explored the Vinaya Piṭaka and broadly attended lectures on sūtras and śāstras. Because he was fond by nature of monastic groves of meditation, his reputation became celebrated far and wide. When Empress Xian died and dhyāna meditation came to be widely promoted, an imperial decree summoned him, whereupon he returned to the imperial capital. At that time, eminent virtues of great fame converged from all eight directions in one season, each demonstrating their peerless brilliance, showing their pre-eminence like fish displaying scales or birds displaying wings. Although Huibin was the junior-most in monastic seniority, his renown was all the more elevated. Beyond his robes and alms bowl, he kept not a single chest or bundle. His appearance and temperament were pure and plain, rising strikingly above the common run. Clerics and laity gazed upon him, and none failed to direct their devotion; he was indeed an exemplary, pure and austere monk in the final age of the semblance of the Dharma. Moreover, his ascetic practice was unadulterated, and in speech he never engaged in critical evaluations of others. Whenever he heard others engaged in criticism, he would immediately fall silent. He guarded the monastic deportment and precepts, holding compassion and salvation as his foremost concerns. Every summer when walking, he would hold a broom and sweep before his steps, fearing that he might harm insects or ants. Whenever he received offerings of gain, he secretly practiced charitable donations—either fashioning water strainers or distributing them to clerics and laity, bestowing aid only where there was urgent need, and repeatedly enjoining them never to reveal it to the world. When the Emperor built a monastery and inquired beforehand concerning officers of the monastic assembly (karmadāna / samgha-sthiti), the entire capital was unanimous in praise, holding that none was more eminent than Huibin. An imperial edict was thus issued summoning him to serve as abbot of Hongfu Temple. He brought harmony to superiors and subordinates, and none dared to deviate from correct monastic principles. On the sixth day of the tenth month in the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, he fell ill and passed away at the temple at the age of seventy-two. From the time Huibin entered the Way, throughout his life his constant practice was mostly focused on the practice of circumambulation and incantations. He would either recite the names of Śākyamuni and Avalokiteśvara, or perform the Mañjuśrī repentance ritual. In the course of a year, he observed the six periods of religious practice for eighty-one days, accumulating across his life a total of eighty sessions in the ritual hall. With joyful body and mind, the Dharma benefits he attained remain beyond measure. As for his instruction to his disciples, he spoke only of the necessity of cutting off defilements. Whenever someone confessed a transgression or exposed a fault, he never failed to shed tears on their behalf. Joy and anger did not show on his face, and his recitation and retention of texts never failed him. Therefore, as an expert in the ritual acts of the saṅgha (karmavācanā), the entire community of monks looked up to him. Monastics and laypeople taking refuge and receiving the precepts under him were exceedingly numerous. Thus, from the Prince of Wei downward, both imperial relations and high ministers from Liang and Song all received the pure precepts from him. Early on, Huibin's father, He Lang, had seven sons; their household had been dedicated to Confucian learning for generations, and Huibin was the second son. In the Renshou era, when Huibin was summoned to the court, there was no opportunity for father and son to see each other. As Lang reached nearly a century of age, the bell chimed and the water-clock drained away; ties of present and past were severed, and their paths parted in life and death. He thus established a charitable well at the intersection of nine thoroughfares on the north bank of the Wen River, and further erected a grand stele to extol his father's virtue. Its inscription stated in summary: 'Lamentable parents, / bearing and nurturing me. / Once I was born a son, / they guided my steps and embraced me. / In a morning I abandoned them; / mountains and rivers fill my gaze. / Clouds veil the heavy passes; / winds startle the great valleys. / The way of love and reverence: / familial bonds reside herein. / Deep sorrow in waning years, / with no hope to see my son. / Digging a well to supply all, / I lodge my feelings in these verses. / How many days in a hundred years? / Facing this, endless sorrow. / South of the Jade Tablets, / north of Mount Yiyang; / the plain where the qilin was captured, / a land upholding the rites. / You possessed a splendid administration; / the customs favored scholars and writers. / The jade well is flung wide open; / this lofty stele is carved.'