續高僧傳 25.61

25.61

釋慧偘。姓湯。晉陵曲阿人也。少受學於和闍梨。和靈通幽顯。世莫識其淺深。而翹敬尊像。事同真佛。每見立像不敢前坐。勸人造像惟作坐者。道行遇諸困厄無不救濟。或見被縛之猪。和曰解脫首楞嚴。猪尋解縛。主因放之。自爾偏以慈救為業。大眾集處輒為說法。皆隨事讚引即物成務。眾無不悟而歸於道。末往鄴下大弘正法。歸向之徒至今流詠。臨終在鄴。人問其所獲。云得善根成熟耳。侃奉其神化積有年稔。眾知靈異初不廣之。後往嶺南歸心真諦。因授禪法專精。不久大有深悟。末住栖霞。安志靈靜。往還自任不拘山世。時往楊都偲法師所。偲素知道行。異禮接之。將還山寺。請現神力。侃云。許復何難。即從窓中出臂。長數十丈。解齊熙寺佛殿上額。將還房中。語偲云。世人無遠識。見多驚異。故吾所不為耳。以大業元年。終於蔣州大歸善寺。春秋八十有二。初侃終日。以三衣襆遙𢱍堂中自云。三衣還眾僧。吾今死去。便還房內。大眾驚起追之。乃見白骨一具跏坐床上。就而撼之鏗然不散。

Shi Huikan was surnamed Tang, a native of Qu'e in Jinling. In his youth he studied under Ācārya He. He was spiritually attuned to both the unseen and the visible realms, and the world could not fathom the depth of his attainments. Yet he held statues of the Honored Ones in reverent awe, serving them as if they were true Buddhas. Whenever he saw a standing statue, he dared not sit down before it, and he urged people making statues to make only seated ones. When traveling along the roads, wherever he encountered people in difficulty or distress, he never failed to rescue them. Once, seeing a bound pig, He said: "Emancipation, Śūraṅgama!" The pig was immediately released from its bonds, and its master thereupon set it free. From then on, he made compassionate rescue his sole vocation. Wherever a great assembly gathered, he would preach the Dharma to them, offering praise and guidance according to the circumstances, and turning every phenomenon into an opportunity for spiritual work; among the multitude, none failed to awaken and take refuge in the Way. Later he went to Ye, where he vastly propagated the true Dharma, and the disciples who turned to him still sing his praises today. When he was on the verge of death in Ye, someone asked what he had attained, and he said, "I have only attained the ripening of wholesome roots." Kan served him through his spiritual transformations for many years; although the crowd knew of his supernatural powers, Kan initially did not publicize them. Later he went south of the Nanling Mountains to devote his heart to Paramārtha; having received the dhyāna method, he practiced it with single-minded devotion, and before long experienced a great and profound realization. In his final years he resided at Qixia Monastery, keeping his mind at peace in spiritual stillness, coming and going at his own leisure without being confined by mountains or the secular world. From time to time he went to the capital of Yang to visit Dharma Master Si. Si had always known of his spiritual practice and received him with extraordinary courtesy. When Kan was about to return to his mountain monastery, Si asked him to demonstrate his supernatural powers. Kan said, "If that is permitted, what is so difficult about it?" He then extended his arm through the window to a length of several tens of zhang, untied the inscribed plaque above the Buddha hall of Qixi Monastery, and brought it back into the room. He said to Si, "Worldly people lack farsighted vision and are easily startled by what they see; that is why I normally do not do this." In the first year of the Daye era, he passed away at Daguishan Monastery in Jiangzhou at the age of eighty-two. Earlier, on the day of Kan's death, he tossed his bundle of the three robes across into the hall from a distance, saying of his own accord, "I return the three robes to the assembly of monks; I am dying now." He then returned inside his room. The great assembly arose in alarm and pursued him, only to find a set of white bones sitting in the lotus posture upon the bed; when they approached and shook it, it clattered firmly without falling apart.