宋高僧傳 20.24

20.24

釋神暄，俗姓留，建陽人也。幼而沈靜，非問不言。客遊婺女，入開元寺，志願出家焉。無何，本郡太守入寺訪其師，見暄神彩朗練。太守善相人也，顧之數四，且曰：「是子真出塵之器，異日承受深法，千眾圍遶，必超上果，非凡氣也。」乃誦《七佛俱胝神呪》，昏曉不絕。納戒畢，於金華山北洞百家巖——有石穴——，暄居中止息，不構庵室，作露地頭陀。復無床榻，然有神人吐紫色雲氣而高覆之——遐望冉冉，猶獨柱觀焉。其神人時來問道，拱手白暄曰：「赤松洞之東峯有林泉卓異，師可居之否？」暄隨請往住，數年越多徵瑞。貞元二年遇志賢禪師，問暄如此持誦，魔事必生。欲滅魔怨，須識身本。身本既真，無魔無佛，豁然開悟，理事俱成，神呪功倍。元和八年，范敭中丞知仰，遣使齎乳香、氈罽、器皿施暄，並迴施現前大眾。次中書舍人王仲。請於大雲寺為眾受菩薩戒。十二載，平昌孟簡尚書自會稽甄請，不赴。八月，俄迴舊山，人莫詳測。倏云示滅，春秋七十六。弟子建塔焉。一云暄在金華山北，多寒少陽。神人問曰：「師須何物？」曰：「吾在山之陰，苦於凜冽」神曰：「小事耳。」至夜聞暄闐之聲，明旦見一小峯移矣。

Śramaṇa Shenxuan, whose secular surname was Liu, was a native of Jianyang. From youth he was quiet and reserved, speaking only when asked. While traveling in Wunü, he entered Kaiyuan Temple with the aspiration to renounce household life. Soon after, the prefect of the commandery entered the temple to visit his master and saw that Shenxuan possessed a clear and refined spirit. The prefect was skilled in physiognomy; he looked at him several times and said: "This youth is truly a vessel of renunciation. In the future he will receive the profound Dharma, be encircled by a assembly of a thousand, and surely surpass to the supreme fruit; he is of no ordinary disposition." Shenxuan then recited the Cundī Dhāraṇī of the Seven Buddhas without ceasing day and night. After taking the precepts, he went to a stone cave at Baijia Cliff in the northern cave of Mount Jinhua. Shenxuan took up residence there to rest, not erecting a hut, but practicing dhūta out in the open. Moreover, he had no bed or couch. Yet a spirit-being emitted purple clouds that covered him from above—gazing from afar, it rose gently like a single-pillar watchtower. The spirit-being would frequently come to inquire about the Way, clasping hands and saying to Shenxuan: "On the eastern peak of the Red Pine Cave, there are trees and springs of outstanding quality; could the master reside there?" Shenxuan went to reside there upon this request, and after several years, auspicious omens became increasingly numerous. In the second year of the Zhenyuan era, he met Chan Master Zhixian, who questioned Shenxuan, saying that in holding and reciting [spells] in this manner, demonic hindrances would inevitably arise. If he wished to extinguish demonic enmity, he had to recognize the root of his own body. Once the root of the body is realized as true, there is neither demon nor Buddha; [then] opening to enlightenment in a flash, both principle and phenomena are accomplished, and the efficacy of the divine dhāraṇī is doubled. In the eighth year of the Yuanhe era, Vice Censor-in-chief Fan Yang, learning of his virtue and looking up to him, sent an envoy bearing frankincense, woolen felt carpets, and vessels to donate to Shenxuan, who turned around and donated them all to the gathered assembly present before him. Next, Secretariat Drafter Wang Zhong invited him to Dayan Temple to confer the bodhisattva precepts upon the assembly. In the twelfth year, Meng Jian, Minister of Personnel from Pingchang, personally sent an earnest invitation from Kuaiji, but he did not go. In the eighth month, he suddenly returned to his former mountain, for reasons people could not fathom. He abruptly manifested his extinction at the age of seventy-six. His disciples built a stūpa for him. Another account says that Shenxuan lived on the north side of Mount Jinhua, where it was bitterly cold with little sunlight. The spirit-being asked him: "What does the master require?" Shenxuan replied: "Living on the shady side of the mountain, I suffer from the biting cold." The spirit said: "A trivial matter." When night fell, the rumbling sound of clamor was heard, and at dawn, they saw that a small peak had moved.