續高僧傳 20.80

20.80

釋惠明。姓王。杭州人。少出家。遊道無定所。時越州敏法師。聚徒揚化遠近奔隨。明於法席二十五年。眾侶千僧解玄第一。持衣大布二十餘載。時共目之青布明也。翹勇果敢策勤無偶。後至蔣州巖禪師所。一經十年諮請禪法在山禪念。經雪路塞七日不食。念言。我聞不食七日便死。今明知業也。若業自在可試知之。以繩自懸於高崖。怳怳如人割斷。因落崖底。如人擎置一無所損。復至荊州四望山頭陀。二虎交鬪自往分解。冬夏一服行止形俱。所去無戀。即經所謂如鳥凌空。喻斯人矣。誦思益經依經作業。近龍朔年。從南山出至京遊觀。與其言論無得為先。不久旋返云往江曲。依閑修道莫知定所。

Shi Huiming, surnamed Wang, was a native of Hangzhou. He left secular life in his youth and wandered in search of the Way without a fixed dwelling. At that time, Dharma Master Min of Yuezhou gathered disciples and propagated his teachings, with seekers rushing to follow him from near and far. Ming remained in his Dharma assembly for twenty-five years; among the assembly of a thousand monks, his understanding of the profound was foremost. He wore robes of coarse cloth for over twenty years, and his contemporaries commonly called him 'Ming of the Blue Cloth.' Courageous, resolute, and tireless in his efforts, he had no equal. Later, he went to Dhyāna Master Yan in Jiangzhou, spending ten years inquiring into the dhyāna teachings, practicing meditation and mindfulness in the mountains. Once, when snow blocked the roads, he did not eat for seven days. He thought to himself: 'I have heard that if one does not eat for seven days, one dies. Now I clearly know this is karma; if karma has self-mastery, let it be tested to know.' He suspended himself with a rope from a high cliff; in a daze, it seemed as if someone cut the rope, and he fell to the bottom of the cliff. It was as though someone held him up and set him down, leaving him completely unharmed. Again he went to Mount Siwang in Jingzhou to practice dhūta; when two tigers were fighting, he personally went to separate them. He wore a single garment through winter and summer, his conduct and form ever the same, harboring no attachment wherever he went. This is precisely what the sūtra describes as 'like a bird gliding through empty space'—a metaphor for such a person. He chanted the Viśeṣacintibrahmaparipṛcchā Sūtra and conducted his practice according to it. Recently, during the Longshuo era, he emerged from the Southern Mountains and went to the capital on a journey; in discussions with him, no one could surpass him. Soon afterward, he returned, saying he was going to Jiangqu, where he cultivated the Way in quiet seclusion, with no one knowing his fixed dwelling.