宋高僧傳 24.37

24.37

釋懷玉，姓高，丹丘人也。執持律法，名節峭然。一食長坐，蚤虱恣生，唯一布衣，行懺悔之法。課其一日念彌陀佛五萬口，通誦《彌陀經》三十萬卷。至天寶元年六月九日，俄見西方聖像數若恒沙，有一人擎白銀臺，從窓而入。玉云：「我合得金臺。」銀臺却出，玉倍虔志。後空聲報云：「頭上已有光暈矣。請跏趺結彌陀佛印。」時佛光充室，玉手約人退曰：「莫觸此光明。」至十三日丑時，再有白毫光現，聖眾滿空。玉云：「若聞異香，我報將盡。」弟子慧命問：「師今往何剎？」玉以偈云：「清淨皎潔無塵垢，蓮華化生為父母。我修道來經十劫，出示閻浮厭眾苦。一生苦行超十劫，永離娑婆歸淨土。」玉說偈已，香氣盈空，海眾遍滿，見阿彌陀佛、觀音、勢至身紫金色，共御金剛臺來迎。玉含笑而終，肉身現在。後有讚云：「我師一念登初地，佛國笙歌兩度來。唯有門前古槐樹，枝低只為挂銀臺。」一云是台州刺史段懷然詩也。

Shi Huaiyu, surnamed Gao, was a native of Danqiu. He held strictly to the vinaya laws, and his moral integrity was lofty and austere. Taking one meal a day and constantly sitting, allowing fleas and lice to multiply freely, he wore only a single hempen robe and practiced the methods of repentance. His daily regimen included reciting the name of Amitābha Buddha fifty thousand times, and he recited the Amitābha Sūtra three hundred thousand times in all. On the ninth day of the sixth month in the first year of the Tianbao era, he suddenly beheld holy images of the Western Direction, numerous as the sands of the Ganges. A person holding a silver dais entered through the window. Yu said, "I should obtain a golden dais." The silver dais withdrew, and Yu redoubled his devotion. Later, a voice from the sky announced: "A halo of light already crowns your head. Please sit cross-legged and form the mudrā of Amitābha Buddha." At that time, the Buddha's light filled the room; Yu gestured to the people with his hand to step back, saying, "Do not disturb this radiance." On the thirteenth day at the hour of the ox, the white curl light appeared again, and the holy assembly filled the void. Yu said, "When you smell an extraordinary fragrance, my life will come to an end." His disciple Huiming asked, "To which realm is the master going now?" Yu responded with a gāthā:
"Pure and brilliant, without dust or defilement, / The lotus flower transforms and gives birth, serving as parents.
Since practicing the Path, ten kalpas have passed; / I appeared in Jambudvīpa, weary of manifold sufferings.
A single lifetime of austerities surpasses ten kalpas; / Forever leaving the sahā world, I return to the Pure Land."
After Yu finished reciting the gāthā, an extraordinary fragrance filled the sky, and the ocean-like assembly spread everywhere. He beheld Amitābha Buddha, Avalokiteśvara, and Mahāsthāmaprāpta, their bodies purplish-gold, coming to welcome him riding together upon a vajra dais. Yu passed away with a smile, and his corporeal body remains preserved to this day. Later, a eulogy said:
"Our master in a single thought ascended to the First Ground; / From the Buddha realm, reed pipes and songs arrived twice.
Only before the gate, the old locust tree / Has lowered branches solely to hang the silver dais."
Another account says this was a poem by Duan Huairan, the prefect of Taizhou.