宋高僧傳 1.50

1.50

至九年，自春抵夏，宣揚妙法，誡勗門人。每語及《普賢願行》、《出生無邊法門經》，勸令誦持，再三歎息。其先受法者，偏令屬意觀菩提心本尊大印，直詮阿字了法，不生證大覺身，若指諸掌，重重囑累。一夜，命弟子趙遷：「持筆硯來，吾略出涅槃茶毘儀軌以貽後代，使準此送終。」遷稽首三請「幸乞慈悲久住。不然，眾生何所依乎？」空笑而已。俄而示疾，上表告辭。勅使勞問，賜醫藥，加開府儀同三司，封肅國公，食邑三千戶，固讓不俞。空甚不悅，且曰：「聖眾儼如舒手相慰，白月圓滿，吾當逝矣。奈何臨終更竊名位？」乃以五股金剛鈴杵先師所傳者，并銀盤子、菩提子、水精數珠留別，附中使李憲誠進。六月十五日，香水澡沐，東首倚臥，北面瞻望闕庭，以大印身定中而寂，享年七十，僧臘五十。

When it came to the ninth year [of Dali], from spring until summer, he propagated the wondrous Dharma and admonished and exhorted his disciples. Whenever he spoke of the Vows and Practices of Samantabhadra and the Scripture on the Sprouting of Boundless Dharma Gates, he urged them to recite and uphold them, sighing in admiration repeatedly. To those who had previously received the Dharma, he specifically instructed them to set their minds on contemplating the bodhicitta and the great seal of the tutelary deity, and through direct exposition of the syllable *A* to comprehend that all phenomena are unborn and realize the body of great awakening, as clear as pointing to the palm of one's hand, earnestly entrusting this to them again and again. One night, he instructed his disciple Zhao Qian: "Bring pen and inkstone; I shall briefly outline the ritual procedures for nirvāṇa and cremation to pass down to future generations, so that they may send me off according to this." Qian bowed his head and thrice requested: "We humbly pray that out of compassion you will remain long in the world. Otherwise, upon what shall sentient beings rely?" Amoghavajra merely smiled. Soon after, he manifested illness and submitted a memorial taking his leave. The emperor dispatched an envoy to express solicitous regard, bestowed medicines, advanced him to Specially Promoted with the Same Dignity as the Three Excellencies Opening an Office, enfeoffed him as Duke of the State of Su with a fief of three thousand households; [Amoghavajra] firmly declined, but it was not granted. Amoghavajra was quite displeased and said: "The holy host solemnly stretches forth their hands to comfort me; when the waxing moon is full, I shall pass away. How can I, at the end of life, further purloin titles and ranks?" He then presented, as parting gifts via the palace envoy Li Xiancheng, the five-pronged vajra bell and scepter transmitted by his former teacher, along with a silver dish, bodhi seeds, and crystal rosary beads. On the fifteenth day of the sixth month, having bathed in scented water, he lay reclining with his head to the east, looking north toward the palace court, and entered quiescence while in the samādhi of the Great Seal Body. He lived for seventy years, with a saṅgha age of fifty.