續高僧傳 3.6

3.6

Prabhākaramitra—translated into Chinese as 'Maker of Light-Friend', or abbreviated as Bopo, here translated as 'Light-Wisdom'—was a native of Central India. He was originally of kṣatriya royal stock, with the clan name Kṣatriya. At the age of ten he left home [to become a monk] and studied under his master, reciting one lakṣa of Mahāyāna scriptures, about one hundred thousand verses. After receiving full ordination he studied the Vinayapiṭaka; thoroughly versed in the net of precepts, his mind delighted in dhyāna contemplation. He also followed eminent and virtuous teachers to cultivate the practice of concentration. Because he practiced without ceasing, after twelve years he then traveled south to Nālandā Monastery in the country of Magadha. There he encountered the treatise master Śīlabhadra vigorously propagating the Treatise on the Seventeen Grounds. He thereupon attended his lectures and gathered [its teachings]; because this treatise also clarifies the Hīnayāna teachings, he additionally recited one lakṣa of verses from various Hīnayāna treatises. Bopo's discernment was keen and penetrating, and his character was deep and lofty. Thoroughly versed in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist lore, he investigated both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna with precision. As for transmitting the lamp and teaching others, he was deferred to by his peers. Among the disciples who received his transformative teaching, Prajñāindravarmā and others achieved great scholarly merit and deeply mastered the essential outlines of doctrine; he is presently leading disciples to guide and transform his native land, being held in great esteem by its king and ministers. However, as an ordained son of the Śākya clan, he would not linger in one place, moving every six months and resigning himself to conditions without fixity. Learning that the northern barbarians were greedy and fierce, and not yet cognizant of righteousness, and knowing that the Dharma relies on people to propagate it, he boldly wished to transmit and transform them. Thereupon, together with ten monks and laymen, he journeyed step by step northward until he reached the court of the Yabghu Qaghan of the Western Region. He instructed and exhorted them with the Dharma for not even a full ten days before he was profoundly trusted and respected by the barbarian lord. He was provided with daily rations for twenty people and attended to morning and evening. His companions, both monastic and lay, were all treated with great honor; their generated merit and heightened reverence were daily redoubled compared to before. In the ninth year of the Wude era, the Prince of Gaoping was sent as an envoy to the barbarians and consequently met him. Receiving his influence, [the prince] was about to undertake his return east, but the Yabghu and his ministers were reluctant to part with him and would not permit it. The Prince thereupon memorialized the throne, and an imperial edict was issued summoning him to enter [the capital]. He thus came with the Prince of Gaoping to have an audience with the Emperor. In the twelfth month of that year, he arrived at the capital, and was ordered by imperial decree to reside at Xingshan Monastery. The outstanding figures of the Buddhist community all paid visits to him. Whenever there were passages in the transmitted scriptures and doctrines from antiquity whose meaning had not yet been fully grasped, he laid bare their lineages and harmonized their similarities and differences. His refutations of inner [Buddhist] and outer [non-Buddhist] attachments were as clear as looking at one's own palm; in responding to queries and confronting difficulties, his explications were without hindrance. A report was submitted to the Emperor, and [Prabhākaramitra] received an audience within the inner palace. He personally expounded the principles of the Dharma without any flaw in his responses. He was granted forty bolts of colored silk and one newly tailored robe from the palace, while the rations and provisions for the five monks he had brought along were augmented, with repeated inquiries of solace and receptions of extraordinary honor. In the third month of the third year [of the Zhenguan era], the Emperor, considering that worldly existences are not blissful and that both self and objects are empty, and reflecting that for the true essentials none surpassed the Buddhist scriptures—how could the utmost dissemination not consist in translating and transmitting them?—issued an edict to the relevant authorities to search out and summon nineteen men of great virtue who were fully versed in the three teachings to initiate translation work at Daxingshan Monastery. Śramaṇa Huicheng and others verified the meaning; Śramaṇa Xuanmo and others translated the language; and śramaṇas Huize, Huijing, Huiming, Falin, and others polished the prose. In addition, an imperial edict ordered the Pillar of State and Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs Fang Xuanling, and the Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary and Supervisor of the Household of the Crown Prince Du Zhenglun, to assist in the collation and revision. The Grand Master of Splendid Happiness and Chamberlain for the National Treasury Xiao Jing was placed in overall charge as supervisor. The hundred offices supplied the four requisites in abundance and magnificence. They first translated the Ratnatārā Sūtra, then moved to Shengguang Monastery, where they also translated the Prajñāpradīpa and the Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra, totaling three works in thirty-five fascicles. By the winter of the sixth year, the collation was complete and the copying was finished. The relevant officials read them in detail and then submitted a memorial to the throne. An imperial decree ordered that ten copies of each be made and distributed throughout the realm, and Bopo was granted one hundred bolts of fabric, with varying amounts of bundled silk given to the other participating translation monks. An imperial edict also commanded Li Baiyao, Mentor to the Crown Prince, to compose a preface, which is fully recorded at the head of the treatise. Bopo's intent lay in transmitting the Dharma; his aspirations were as taut as a bowstring. Yet the eminent virtues of that era were selfishly concerned with their own interests. Someone said: 'Bopo is opportunistically seizing contemporary fame to speed his reputation for posterity; thus he gathers renowned scholars while abandoning the lecturing on scriptures and treatises. This is not the time to widely propagate [the Dharma].' At that time there was a śramaṇa named Lingjia, outstanding and preeminent, who subtly comprehended the opportune moment. Addressing the supervising commissioner, he fully explained the principles of the matter, saying: 'Bopo has journeyed far to cast his lot with the Eastern Xia, his mind estranged from fame and profit. He wishes to make the Dao flow for a thousand years and his voice resound with ancient times. Formerly, in the two dynasties of the Fu and the Yao, the scholars translating scriptures numbered three thousand. Now, under the Great Tang, the translators do not exceed twenty. The intention is to have illuminated virtue jointly certify [the work] so that its trustworthiness will not be mere talk, enabling future generations to follow it clearly without current doubts.' Those of understanding unanimously agreed, and [the opposition] subsequently did not take effect. At that time, the Crown Prince contracted an illness and numerous treatments proved ineffective. An imperial edict was issued summoning Bopo into the inner palace. For more than one hundred days, his personal answers to royal inquiries never fell short of the Emperor's intent. When the illness gradually abated, he took his leave and returned to his original monastery. He was rewarded with sixty bolts of patterned damask and silk, along with ten sets of seasonal vestments. Bopo had vowed to transmit the transformative teachings of the Dharma without fear of hardship or danger. Traversing the Congling Mountains from afar, he had arrived in Cīnasthāna, the journey extending over more than forty thousand [li]. Personally carrying Indic manuscripts, he had hoped to translate them all. He did not foresee that the eminent talents [of China] would abandon the imperial edicts; his original aspiration fell into ruins, and his noble sentiments found no outlet. Consequently, he fell ill and knew himself to be beyond cure. He distributed his robes and assets to perform various pure deeds; sitting upright, he visualized the Buddha and submitted a posthumous memorial requesting to donate his body. An imperial edict specially granted permission. Shortly thereafter, he passed away at Shengguang Monastery at the age of sixty-nine. The Eastern Palace issued an order providing twenty men to carry the corpse in seated posture and escort it to the mountain site. After the jhānita was concluded, Śramaṇa Xuanmo collected his remaining bones and erected a stupa for him at Shengguang Monastery, to the east of Master Cheng's stupa, on the sixth day of the fourth month in the seventh year of the Zhenguan era. Those of understanding all lamented the halting of the wheel of the Dharma. Through four years of translation, three sets of cases yielded their merit; yet the light of wisdom was obscured when looking to illuminate the defilements of delusion. That his propagation of the Dao was cut short like this is something one can hardly bear to hear. Now that the man has passed and the Dharma has crumbled, his return to the long night has come to this. This was the fault of our eastern land, not the blame of the western sage. How sorrowful!