續高僧傳 20.54

20.54

釋道暀。姓周。汝南人。幼而精確。希志尚聞。古跡勝人心願齊之。負笈金陵。居高座寺聽阿毘曇心妙達關鍵。非其好也。欽匡山遺軌每逸言前。隋開皇十二年。依大將軍周羅侯。遠屆廬岳止東林精舍。心願匿迹無事音塵。山寺法擁勸引非一。遂不拒命弘道度人。修建僧坊四時無絕。隋季寇擾華戎薦臻。獎撫門徒如初不替。貞觀二年九月。身示有疾。曾未浹旬。忽有大星天墮正在西閣大水池中。照朗山谷逾千炬火。二十三日。僧正中食謂弟子曰。僧食訖未。答曰未竟。又曰。且喚上座來。依言既至。委以後事跏坐而卒。諸殿閣門一時自開。異香滿寺七日便歇。年八十二矣釋法顯。姓丁氏。南郡江陵人。十二出家。四層寺寶冥法師服勤累戴諮詢經旨。有聞欲界亂地素非道緣。既已生中如何解網。冥曰。眾生並有初地味禪。時來則發。雖藏心種歷劫不亡。有顗禪師者。荊楚禪宗。可往師學。會顗隋煬徵下迴返上流。於四層寺大開禪府。徒侶四百蔚爾成林。遂依座筵聞所未悟。但夙有成惠通冠玄蹤。霜鐘暫扣已傳秋駕。顗師去後。更求明智成彥習皓等諸師。皆升堂覩奧。盡斲磨之思。及將冠具歸依皓師。誨以出要之方。示以降心之術。因而返谷靜處閑居。二翼之外一無受畜。屬炎靈標季薦羅戎火。餒殘相望眾侶波奔。顯獨守大殿確乎卓爾。旦資蔬水中後絕漿。賊每搜求莫之能獲。自非久入慈室已抽毒箭。焉能忍茲疲苦。漏此凶威。自爾宴坐道安梅梁殿中三十餘載。貞觀之末乃出別房斯則追善吉之息嫌。蹈空生之祕行也。此堂有彌勒像。并光趺高四十尺。八部圍繞。彌天之所造也。其寶冠華帳供具經臺。並顯所營。堂中五燈晝夜不絕。忽一燈獨熾焰高丈餘。又一夜著五色衣人。持一金瓶來奉。又夢見一僧威容出類。曰可往蘄州見信禪師。依言即往雙峯更清定水矣。而一生染疾並信往業。受而不治。衣食節量柔順強識。所住之寺。五十餘年。足不出戶。永徽三年十二月八日。夢身坐寶殿授四眾戒。因覺漸疾。至四年正月十一日午時遷化。時年七十有七。顯以昨日申時自能起止神彩了亮。踞禪床盥浴剃髮。就床跏坐儼然便絕。其月十七日葬于大明寺之北原。未終之前。門人見室西壁大開白光遍滿。夜有白雲亘屋南北。二道堂中佛事並搖動。明日方絕。自終及葬嶷然匡坐。合境道俗奔湊凄零。荊州都督紀王。夙傳歸戒欽仰清暉。命右記室郭瑜。銘之于彼。

Śramaṇa Daowang, whose secular surname was Zhou, was a native of Runan. From his youth he was rigorous and exacting, harboring high aspirations and pursuing learning; he wished in his heart to equal the ancient traces and superior men of old. Carrying his book-box, he traveled to Jinling and resided at Gaozuo Monastery, listening to the Abhidharmahṛdaya and penetrating its subtle core; yet it was not his true delight. He revered the legacy of Mount Kuang and often spoke of it with longing. In the twelfth year of the Kaihuang era of the Sui, relying on the Grand General Zhou Luohou, he traveled far to Mount Lu and settled at the Donglin Hermitage. In his heart he wished to conceal his traces, undisturbed by worldly news and traffic; but the monastery was obstructed in its Dharma activities, and the community repeatedly exhorted and invited him. He therefore did not decline their request, but propagated the Dharma to deliver people, constructing monks' quarters continuously throughout the four seasons. In the final years of the Sui, when bandits ran rampant and incursions of Chinese and barbarians came repeatedly, he guided and comforted his disciples without flagging, just as from the start. In the ninth month of the second year of the Zhenguan era, his body showed signs of illness. Before ten days had passed, a great star suddenly fell from the sky directly into the large reservoir of the Western Pavilion, illuminating the mountain valleys more brightly than a thousand torches. On the twenty-third day, at the midday meal of the Saṅgha, he asked his disciples, 'Have the monks finished eating?' They replied, 'Not yet.' He said again, 'Call the Sthavira to come here.' When he had arrived as instructed, Daowang entrusted him with the affairs that would follow his departure, sat cross-legged, and passed away. The doors of all the halls and pavilions opened of their own accord at the same time, and a rare fragrance filled the monastery, dispersing only after seven days. He was eighty-two years old. / Śramaṇa Faxian, whose secular surname was Ding, was a native of Jiangling in Nanjun. He left home at the age of twelve. Serving Dharma Master Baoming at Siceng Monastery with diligent devotion for several years, he inquired into the essential meanings of the sūtras. Having heard that the desire realm is a turbulent land and naturally unfavorable for the Path, he wondered: having already been born within it, how might one untie its snare? Ming said, 'All sentient beings possess the relish-dhyāna of the first stage; when the time arrives, it emerges. Though hidden as seeds in the mind, it is not lost across kalpas. There is Dhyāna Master Yi, a master of meditation in Jing and Chu; you may go and study under him.' It so happened that Yi, having been summoned downstream by Emperor Yang of the Sui, was returning upstream and opened wide a seat of dhyāna at Siceng Monastery, where his assembly of four hundred disciples flourished like a grove. Faxian thereupon attended his lectures and heard what he had not yet realized; endowed with innate wisdom, his understanding surpassed the abstruse tracks of ordinary men, so that when the frost bell was struck but once, the autumn wind of instruction was already conveyed. After Master Yi departed, he further sought out various masters such as Mingzhi, Chengyan, and Xihao, ascending the hall and penetrating their depths, applying the utmost diligence of polishing and cutting. When he reached adulthood and was about to take the full precepts, he took refuge under Master Hao, who instructed him in the methods of spiritual escape and showed him the arts of subjugating the mind. Thereupon he returned to a secluded valley to dwell in quiet solitude, keeping nothing beyond his two robes. At the close of the Sui dynasty, when the flames of war arose repeatedly and the starving and wounded came into view as the assembly scattered like surging waves, Faxian alone guarded the great hall, unyielding and prominent. In the morning he sustained himself on wild greens and water; after noon, he ceased taking liquids altogether. Whenever bandits searched for him, none were able to find him. Had he not long dwelled in the chamber of compassion and already plucked out the poisoned arrow, how could he have endured such exhaustion and hardship, and escaped such ferocious violence? From then on, he meditated peacefully in Dao'an's Plum-Beam Hall for more than thirty years. At the end of the Zhenguan era, he moved out to a separate chamber; this was done to emulate Śāriputra in dispelling suspicion and follow Subhūti in hidden practice. In this hall there was an image of Maitreya, which stood forty feet tall including its nimbus and pedestal, surrounded by the eight classes of beings; it had been made by Dao'an. Its jeweled crown, floral canopies, offering utensils, and sūtra platform were all prepared by Faxian. Five lamps in the hall burned continuously day and night; suddenly, one lamp flared up alone with flames rising over ten feet. On another night, a person dressed in five-colored robes arrived holding a golden vase to present to him. Later, he saw in a dream a monk of peerless majestic bearing who said, 'You may go to Qizhou to see Dhyāna Master Xin.' Following these words, he went directly to Shuangfeng to further clarify the waters of meditative absorption. Throughout his life he suffered from illness, but believing it to be past karma, he bore it without seeking treatment. He was moderate in food and clothing, gentle and compliant, and endowed with a strong memory. In the monastery where he dwelled, his feet did not leave the gate for more than fifty years. On the eighth day of the twelfth month in the third year of the Yonghui era, he dreamed that his body was seated in a jeweled palace conferring the precepts upon the fourfold assembly; upon awakening, he gradually fell ill. At noon on the eleventh day of the first month in the fourth year, he passed away. He was seventy-seven years old. On the previous day at the hour of the monkey, Faxian had been able to rise and walk about by himself, his spiritual radiance clear and bright. He sat upon the meditation couch, washed himself, shaved his hair, seated himself cross-legged on the couch, and passed away with great solemnity. On the seventeenth day of that month, he was buried on the northern plateau of Daming Monastery. Before his demise, his disciples saw the west wall of his room open wide, filled everywhere with white light. At night, white clouds stretched across the hall from south to north, and the Buddhist implements in the two practice halls all shook and swayed; on the following day he passed away. From his death to his burial, he remained sitting upright and dignified; the monastics and laypeople of the entire region rushed there in sorrow. The Area Commander of Jingzhou, the Prince of Ji, had long received the refuges and precepts from him, deeply revering his pure luster, and ordered Guo Yu, the Assistant Editorial Director of the Right, to inscribe a memorial there.