宋高僧傳 11.12

11.12

釋天然，不知何許人也。少入法門，而性梗槩，謁見石頭禪師，默而識之，思召其自體得實者，為立名天然也。乃躬執爨，凡三年，始遂落飾。後於嶽寺希律師受其戒法。造江西大寂會，寂以言誘之，應答雅正。大寂甚奇之。次居天台華頂三年，又禮國一大師。元和中，上龍門香山，與伏牛禪師為物外之交。後於慧林寺遇大寒，然乃焚木佛像以禦之。人或譏之，曰：「吾茶毘舍利。」曰：「木頭何有？」然曰：「若爾者，何責我乎？」元和三年，晨過天津橋，橫臥，會留守鄭公出，呵之不去。乃徐仰曰：「無事僧。」留守異之，乃奉束素衣兩襲，月給米麵。洛下翕然歸信。至十五年春，言「吾思林泉」，乃卜南陽丹霞山結菴。以長慶四年六月告門人曰：「備沐浴，吾將欲行矣。」乃戴笠策杖入屨，垂一足，未及地而卒，春秋八十六。膳部員外郎劉軻撰碑紀德焉。勅諡智通禪師，塔號妙覺。

Śramaṇa Tianran—it is not known where he was from. In his youth he entered the Dharma gate, being unyielding and forthright by nature. He called upon Chan Master Shitou, who recognized him in silence; reflecting that he summoned his own nature and attained reality, he gave him the name Tianran ("Natural"). Tianran then took upon himself the work of the kitchen for full three years before at last being shorn of hair and robes. Later, he received the precepts from Vinaya Master Xi at Mount Yue Temple. He went to the assembly of Daji in Jiangxi; Daji guided him with words, and his responses were elegant and correct. Daji marveled at him greatly. Next he lived at the Huading Peak of Mount Tiantai for three years, and also paid homage to Grand Master Guoyi. During the Yuanhe era, he ascended Xiangshan at Longmen and formed a friendship beyond mundane things with the Chan master of Mount Funiu. Later, encountering bitter cold at Huilin Temple, Tianran burned a wooden Buddha statue to ward it off. Someone reproached him, and he said, "I am cremating it for śarīra." The person said, "How could a piece of wood have any?" Tianran replied, "If that is so, why blame me?" In the third year of the Yuanhe era, he crossed the Tianjin Bridge in the morning and lay across it horizontally; it happened that the regent Lord Zheng came out, and scolded him, yet he did not leave. He slowly looked up and said, "A monk of no affairs." The regent found him extraordinary and presented him with a bundle of two sets of plain robes, as well as a monthly allowance of rice and flour. The people of Luoyang gathered in faith to take refuge in him. In the spring of the fifteenth year, he said, "I long for the forests and springs," whereupon he divined a site at Mount Danxia in Nanyang and built a hermitage. In the sixth month of the fourth year of the Changqing era, he announced to his disciples, "Prepare a bath; I am about to depart." He then donned his bamboo hat, grasped his staff, stepped into his shoes, and while dangling one foot before it reached the ground, he passed away at the age of eighty-six. Liu Ke, vice director in the Ministry of Sacrifices, composed a stele recording his virtues. An imperial edict posthumously granted him the title Chan Master Zhitong, and his stupa was named Miaojue.