續高僧傳 24.18

24.18

釋弘智。姓萬氏。始平槐里鄉人。隋大業十一年。德盛鄉閭權為道士。因入終南山。絕粒服氣期神羽化。形骸枯悴心用飛動。乃入京至靜法寺遇惠法師。問以喻道之方。惠曰。有生之本以食為命。假糧粒以資形。託津通以適道。所以古有繫風捕影之論。仙虛藥誤之談。語事信然。幸無惑也。乃示以安心之要遣累之方。義寧元年。委擲黃冠入山修業。武德之始天下大同。佛道二門峙然雙列。智乃詣省申訴。請隷釋門。並陳理例。朝宰咸穆。遂得貫入緇伍隨情住寺。而性樂幽栖。乃於南山至相寺而居焉。周歷講會亟經炎燠。神用通簡莫不精詣。然而性立虛融。慈矜在務。陶甄士俗延納山賓。巖隱匱乏之流。飛走飢虛之類。咸贍資糇粒錫以貝泉。雖公格嚴斷寺制深約。而能携引房宇。同之窟穴泰。斯亦叔代匡護之開士也。滅後遂絕此蹤惜哉。故其所獲法利。積散不窮。弘誘博愛為而不恃。加之以忍邦行事音聲厥初。開務通識非斯莫曉。故凡有福會必以簫鼓為先。致令其從如雲真俗不爽於緣悟矣。講華嚴攝論等。以永徽六年五月九日。終於山寺。春秋六十有一。露骸林下攸骨焚散。遵餘令也。門人散住諸寺者。咸謹卓正行不墜遺風。重誨誘之劬勞。顧復之永沒。乃共寫八部般若。用崇屺岵之恩。又建碑一區。陳於至相寺山外。二丈四尺。寶德寺莊所。

Shi Hongzhi's secular surname was Wan, and he was a native of Huaili village in Shiping. In the eleventh year of the Daye era of the Sui, his virtue flourished in his village, and he temporarily became a Daoist master. Thereupon he entered the Zhongnan Mountains, fasting and consuming qi, hoping his spirit would transform into an immortal. His physical body became withered and emaciated, yet his mind was soaring and agile. He then entered the capital, reached Jingfa Monastery, and met Master of the Law Hui, asking him for methods to understand the Way. Hui said, 'The basis of living beings is to take food as life; we rely on grain to sustain the body, and depend on the conduits of nourishment to advance toward the Way. Therefore, antiquity has the saying of 'binding the wind and catching shadows,' and talks of 'false immortals misled by elixirs.' In speaking of the matter, this is truly so; fortunately, do not be deluded.' He then showed him the essentials of calming the mind and the methods for relinquishing entanglements. In the first year of Yining, he discarded his Daoist cap, entered the mountains, and practiced his cultivation. At the beginning of the Wude era, when the realm was unified under the Great Tang, the two gates of Buddhism and Daoism stood side by side in parallel. Zhi went to the Department of State Affairs to submit a petition, requesting to be affiliated with the Śākya clan, and set forth the principles and precedents. The court ministers all concurred, and thus he was able to be enrolled among the ranks of the black-robed monks, residing in a monastery as he pleased. By nature he took delight in secluded dwellings, so he lived at Zhixiang Monastery in the Southern Mountains. He made the rounds of lecture assemblies, repeatedly enduring cold and heat; his spiritual capacity was penetrating and succinct, and there was nothing he did not master thoroughly. Moreover, his nature was founded upon empty openness, and compassion was his foremost concern: he transformed both scholars and commoners, and welcomed guests from the mountains. Those who lived in secluded crags and lacked provisions, or birds and beasts that were hungry and destitute—he provided them all with grain and gave them coins. Although the official statutes were strict and severe and the monastic rules were deeply restrictive, he was able to lead them into his chambers, treating them as peaceably as if they were in their own caves. Was this not also a bodhisattva who rectified and defended the Dharma in a degenerate age? After his passing, this practice was lost, which is lamentable! Therefore, the Dharma benefits he obtained were accumulated and dispersed without end; he guided broadly with universal love, acting without presuming upon it. In addition, within this Sahā realm of forbearance, he was the first to use musical sounds to conduct affairs; without him, none could have opened such activities or communicated such discernment. Thus, whenever there was a merit assembly, he invariably took pipes and drums as the prelude, causing his followers to gather like clouds, so that neither the absolute nor the conventional conflicted with their conditions for awakening. He lectured on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, and so forth. On the ninth day of the fifth month in the sixth year of the Yonghui era, he passed away at the mountain monastery at the age of sixty-one. His corpse was exposed beneath the trees, and his scattered bones were cremated, in accordance with his final instructions. His disciples, who resided scattered among various monasteries, all strictly maintained upright conduct and did not let his bequeathed traditions lapse. Deeply mindful of the toil of his instructions and guidance, and the eternal loss of his nurturing care, they jointly copied the eight-part Prajñāpāramitā to venerate the debt owed to their fatherly teacher. They also erected a stele, twenty-four feet high, outside the mountain of Zhixiang Monastery, at the estate of Baode Monastery.