續高僧傳 22.20

22.20

釋慧旻。字玄素。河東人。志用方直操行不群。仁愛汎洽稟自天性。道振三吳名流七澤。情好幽居多處巖壑。九歲出家。勤精潔業誦法華經。朞月便度。十五聽法迴向寺新羅光法師成論。率先問對秀逸玄賓。命覆幽宗耆宿同悅。年十七赴請還鄉。海鹽之光興寺講法華經。聽眾雲翔咸陳嘉瑞。異香彈指屢結空中。受具之後。從竹園寺志律師稟承十誦。文理精通傍訊諸部。志公將漸學徒用委。喪事云畢。東入會稽。至剡禮石佛。天台遊講肆。數年還吳止通玄寺。結徒厲業一十七年。不出寺門無窺別請。元始要終布衣蔬食。慶弔既絕談謔斯亡。屬隋末崩離吳中飢饉道俗逃難避地東西。乃守死不移禪誦無輟。鳥集無擾獸群不亂。蘇州總管聞嗣安。迎請出山固辭不往。重使再請不獲而赴。時刺史李廉薛通王榮等。深相器重永崇供覲。而懷志栖隱終日慼慼。聞公通鑒不可奪也。乃送入華亭谷幹山。立寺行道數年。地惟下濕蚊虻甚多。恐致損傷將事移止。大唐開化法事廣流。更入海虞山隱居二十餘載。遠方請業常百餘人。地宜梓樹勸勵裁植數十萬株。通給將來三寶功德。中年別於南㵎止一草菴。兩兔一彪相親同止。內外盤遊無相凌惱。至於禽獸神祇請受歸戒。敘其事績未可具也。蘇州都督武陽公李世嘉。遣書降使頻請不赴。貞觀十九年。刺史江王。因國度人行道之次。請令出山。王欲受戒施衣傳諸香供。並固讓諸德不授不納。辭退山泉逍遙自翫。凡講經律菩薩戒成實論數各有差。古律舊疏有漏失者。皆刪正而通暢焉。著十誦私記十三卷。僧尼行事二卷。尼眾羯磨兩卷。道俗菩薩戒義疏四卷。受業學士傳化者二十餘人。以貞觀末年八月十一日旦。終於所遁。春秋七十有七。未終三日異香滿寺。舉眾怪問。曰吾後日當去矣。生死人之常也。寄世本若行雲慎無哭泣。各念無常早求自度。喪事殯葬律有恒儀。碑誌飾詞一不須作。能依此訣吾何言哉。斯固臨終不撓。可謂堅貞者矣。

Śramaṇa Huimin, courtesy name Xuansu, was a native of Hedong. His mind and purpose were upright and straightforward, and his conduct stood out from the crowd. Benevolence and love flowed universally, endowed by his natural disposition. His spiritual influence shook Sanwu, and his fame spread across the Seven Marshes. By nature fond of secluded dwelling, he mostly stayed among crags and gorges. He left the household life at nine years of age, diligently applying himself to pure practice and reciting the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra; after a full month, he was ordained. At fifteen, he listened to the Dharma at Huixiang Temple, where Master Guang from Silla was lecturing on the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra. He took the lead in questions and answers, excelling among the guests of the profound; ordered to restate the obscure doctrines, the elders were all delighted. At seventeen, upon invitation, he returned to his home region to lecture on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra at Guangxing Temple in Haiyan. The audience gathered like clouds, all witnessing auspicious signs: unusual fragrance and snapping fingers repeatedly manifested in the air. After receiving the full precepts, he received the Ten-Category Vinaya from Vinaya Master Zhi of Zhuyuan Temple. He became thoroughly versed in its text and principles and investigated the various other schools as well. When Master Zhi passed away, the disciples were entrusted to him. Once the funeral rites were completed, he traveled east into Kuaiji, reached Shan to pay homage to the stone Buddha, and toured the lecture halls on Tiantai Mountain. After several years, he returned to Wu and resided at Tongxuan Temple, gathering disciples and strictly practicing for seventeen years. He never stepped beyond the temple gate nor looked for special invitations. From beginning to end, he wore plain cloth robes and ate vegetarian food. Visits of congratulation and condolence ceased, and all jesting talk was abandoned. During the collapse and turmoil at the end of the Sui, when famine struck Wu and monastics and laypeople fled in all directions to escape hardship, he remained steadfast unto death, never interrupting his dhyāna and recitation. Birds gathered without disturbance, and wild beasts did not alarm him. The Area Commander of Suzhou, Wen Si'an, invited him to leave the mountain; he firmly declined and would not go. An envoy was dispatched again to insist, and unable to refuse, he went. At that time, the Prefects Li Lian, Xue Tong, Wang Rong, and others held him in deep esteem, ever offering him worship and provisions. Yet, harbouring a longing for reclusion, he was sorrowful all day long. Lord Wen understood clearly that his resolve could not be shaken, and thus sent him into Gan Mountain in Huating Valley, where he founded a temple and practiced the Path for several years. The terrain being low and damp, mosquitoes and gnats were numerous; fearing that harm might come to them, he was about to move his dwelling. With the opening of the Great Tang and the broad spread of Dharma activities, he went deeper into Mount Haiyu to live in seclusion for more than twenty years. More than a hundred people constantly arrived from distant lands to seek instruction. Because the land was suitable for catalpa trees, he encouraged the planting of hundreds of thousands of them, to universally provide for the merit of the Triratna in the future. In his middle years, he stayed apart in a grass hermitage at the southern stream; two hares and a small tiger lived harmoniously alongside him, roaming inside and out without molesting one another. As for birds, beasts, gods, and spirits requesting the refuges and precepts, the full account of such deeds cannot be told in detail. Li Shijia, Duke of Wuyang and Commander-in-Chief of Suzhou, sent letters and dispatched envoys repeatedly inviting him, but he did not go. In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, when Prince Jiang, the Prefect, was holding ordination rites and circumambulation ceremonies on behalf of the state, he invited him to leave the mountain. The Prince wished to receive the precepts, donate robes, and offer various incense provisions, but Huimin firmly deferred to the other venerable monks, neither conferring the precepts nor accepting the offerings. Declining, he withdrew back to the mountain springs, roaming freely at ease. In total, the number of times he lectured on the sūtras, the Vinaya, the Bodhisattva Precepts, and the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra varied. Whenever ancient vinayas and old commentaries contained omissions or errors, he pruned, corrected, and clarified them. He composed the Personal Notes on the Ten-Category Vinaya in thirteen fascicles, Observances for Monks and Nuns in two fascicles, Karmavācanā for the Saṅgha of Nuns in two fascicles, and Commentary on the Meaning of the Bodhisattva Precepts for Monastics and Laypeople in four fascicles. More than twenty of his disciples spread the teachings. At dawn on the eleventh day of the eighth month in the final years of the Zhenguan era, he passed away in his hermitage at the age of seventy-seven. Three days before his death, an unusual fragrance filled the monastery. The whole assembly, wondering, inquired about it, and he said: 'The day after tomorrow, I shall depart. Life and death are the ordinary course of humanity; our temporary stay in this world is originally like a drifting cloud—be careful not to weep. Let each of you be mindful of impermanence and strive early for your own liberation. For funerals and burials, the Vinaya provides standard rites; do not compose any memorial inscriptions or ornamental writings. If you can follow these parting words, what more need I say?' Thus, remaining unshaken at the end, he may truly be called staunch and pure.