續高僧傳 27.22

27.22

釋玄覽姓李。隨州房子人。昆季五人。最處其末。伯父任蒲州萬泉令。久而無子。養之若親。年十三心慕出家。深見俗過。遂逃迸山谷。北達汾州超禪師所。見其言情博遠。即依而出家。令既失之。遣人羅捕。雖復藏竄不免捉獲。口云身屬伯耳。心屬諸佛。終無俗志。願深照也。伯乃愍而放之。貞觀年初入京蒙度。配名弘福。常樂禪誦禮悔為業。每語法屬曰。雖同恒業而誓欲捨身。至貞觀十八年四月。初脫諸衣服。總作一幞。付本寺僧。惟著一覆單衣。密去至京東渭陰洪陂坊側。且臨渭水稱念禮訖。投身瀅中。眾人接出。覽告眾曰。吾誓捨身命久矣。意欲仰學大士難捨能捨諸經正行。幸勿固遮兩妨其業。眾悟意故乃從之。即又入水。合掌稱十方佛。廣發弘願已投于旋渦中。三日後其屍方出。村人接之起塔本寺。怪其不歸顧問無處。便開衣幞乃見遺文。云敬白十方三世諸佛。弟子玄覽。自出家來一十二夏。雖沾僧數大業未成。今欲修行檀波羅蜜。如薩埵投身尸毘割股魚王肉山。經文具載。請從前聖教附後塵。衣物眾具任依佛教。臨終之人多不周委。同學等見其遺文。往尋究云。

Śramaṇa Xuanlan, whose secular surname was Li, was a native of Fangzi in Suizhou. He had five brothers and was the youngest among them. His uncle served as magistrate of Wanquan in Puzhou; having been childless for a long time, he raised him as his own. At the age of thirteen, feeling a yearning in his heart to renounce secular life and seeing clearly the faults of the mundane world, he fled into the mountains and valleys, traveling north to the place of Chan Master Chao in Fenzhou. Chao saw that his aspirations were broad and far-reaching, so Lan relied upon him and entered the monastic life. Having lost him, the magistrate dispatched men to hunt him down; although he hid away, he could not avoid capture. Lan declared: 'My body belongs to my uncle, but my mind belongs to the Buddhas; I have no worldly ambitions left. I pray you understand this deeply.' Pitying him, his uncle let him go. In the early Zhenguan years, he entered the capital, received ordination, and was registered at Hongfu Temple. He constantly took delight in meditation, scriptural recitation, and repentance rituals as his practice. He would often say to his Dharma companions: 'Though I share the common practice with you, my vow is to abandon this body.' In the fourth month of the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, he first stripped off all his clothes, tied them into a single bundle, and handed them to a monk of his temple, wearing only an unlined undergarment. He quietly departed to the side of Hongpi Ward on the north bank of the Wei River east of the capital. Facing the waters of the Wei, after completing his recitations and bows, he threw himself into the swirling deep. The onlookers pulled him out. Lan told them: 'I made the vow to abandon my life long ago. My intention is to respectfully emulate the Great Beings (mahāsattvas) who can give what is difficult to give, according to the correct practices of various sūtras. Please do not stubbornly obstruct me, hindering my practice on both sides.' Understanding his resolve, the crowd consented. He then entered the water again, joined his palms, invoked the Buddhas of the ten directions, and having made broad, great vows, cast himself into the whirlpool. Only three days later did his body emerge. The villagers recovered it and erected a stūpa for him at his original temple. Puzzled by his failure to return and finding no trace of him anywhere, they opened his bundle of clothes and found his posthumous writing, which read: 'I respectfully address the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three periods of time: I, your disciple Xuanlan, have passed twelve rains retreats since my ordination. Although I have been numbered among the saṅgha, my great enterprise remains unaccomplished. Now I wish to practice the perfection of generosity (dāna-pāramitā), emulating Mahāsattva casting his body to the tigress, King Śibi cutting his own flesh, and the Fish King becoming a mountain of meat, as fully recorded in the sūtra texts. I pray to follow the footsteps of former sage teachings and leave my dust behind. My robes and monastic requisites may be disposed of according to the Buddha's teachings. Those approaching the end often fail to leave comprehensive instructions.' When his fellow students saw this posthumous text, they went to investigate and discovered these events.