宋高僧傳 16.15

16.15

釋神湊，姓成氏，京兆藍田人也。生而奇秀，丱角出塵，遠慕戒律，祈南嶽希操師受具，復參鐘陵大寂禪師。然則志在《楞嚴經》，行在《四分律》，其他諸教，餘力則通。大曆八年，制懸經、論、律三科策試天下出家者，中等第方度。湊應是選，詔配九江興果精舍。後從僧望移居東林寺，即雁門賈遠之舊道場也，有甘露戒壇、白蓮池在焉。既居是，嗣興佛事，雖經論資神，終研律成務。湊羸瘠，視之頹然，州將門人醫療，而不願進藥。元和十二年九月遘疾，二十六日儼然坐終于寺。十月十九日，門人奉全身窆于寺西道北，祔雁門墳左——若僧詮葬近郭文之墓也。春秋七十四，夏臘五十一。湊以精進心脂不退輪，以勇健力撾無畏鼓，故登壇秉法垂三十年，一盂而食，一榻而居，衣縫枲麻，坐薦[葶-丁+呆]秸。由茲檀施臻集于躬，即迴入常住無盡財中，與眾共之。每夜捧鑪秉燭，行道禮佛，徇十二時，少有廢闕，如是經四十五載。生常遇白樂天為典午于郡，相善。及終，悲悼，作《塔銘》云：「本結菩提香火社，共嫌煩惱電泡身，不須惆悵隨師去，先請西方作主人。」

Shi Shencou was surnamed Cheng and was a native of Lantian in Jingzhao. Born extraordinary and refined, he left the dust of the world in his youth. Longing for the precepts and vinaya from afar, he besought Master Xicao of the Southern Peak to receive the full precepts, and also visited Dhyāna Master Daji of Zhongling. His aspiration lay in the *Śūraṅgama-sūtra*, his conduct in the *Cāturvargīya-vinaya*, and as for other teachings, he mastered them whenever he had spare energy. In the eighth year of the Dali era, an imperial decree instituted examinations on three subjects—sūtra, śāstra, and vinaya—to test all those who wished to leave home across the empire, ordaining only those who passed the grades. Shencou answered this selection and was assigned by imperial decree to Xingguo Monastery in Jiujiang. Later, in accordance with the saṅgha's hope, he moved to Donglin Temple, which was the former sanctuary of Yanmen [Hui]yuan, where the Sweet-Dew Ordination Platform and the White Lotus Pond were located. Having settled there, he continued to promote Buddhist affairs; though sūtras and treatises nourished his spirit, he ultimately made the study of the vinaya his duty. Shencou was emaciated and lean, appearing frail; the provincial military commander and his disciples sought medical treatment, but he was unwilling to take medicine. In the ninth month of the twelfth year of the Yuanhe era, he contracted an illness; on the twenty-sixth day, he sat upright and passed away at the temple. On the nineteenth day of the tenth month, his disciples interred his whole body to the north of the road west of the temple, adjoining the left of Yanmen's tomb—just as Sengquan was buried near Guo Wen's tomb. His age was seventy-four, and his summer retreats fifty-one. Shencou oiled the wheel of non-retrogression with an energetic mind and beat the drum of fearlessness with vigorous strength; thus, he ascended the platform and upheld the Dharma for nearly thirty years. He ate from a single bowl and dwelt on a single cot, wearing clothes sewn of coarse hemp and sitting on mats of rush and straw. Therefore, when alms offerings converged upon his person, he redirected them into the inexhaustible property of the permanent community to share with the multitude. Every night, holding a censer and carrying a candle, he circumambulated the Way and paid homage to the Buddha, keeping to the twelve periods of the day with scarcely any omission, doing so for forty-five years. During his life, he met Bai Letian (Bai Juyi) when the latter served as governor of the commandery, and they were on good terms. At his death, Bai grieved and mourned, composing an inscription for his stupa: 'Originally we formed a society of incense and fire for bodhi, / Mutually weary of this body of afflictions, lightning, and bubbles. / There is no need to follow the master in sorrow; / Please go first to the Western Land to be our host.'