[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [宋高僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061) › 6.14 # 宋高僧傳 6.14 宋高僧傳 6.14 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [6.14](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.6.14) 釋湛然，俗姓戚氏，世居晉陵之荊溪，則常州人也。昔佛滅度後十有三世，至龍樹，始用文字廣第一義諦。嗣其學者號「法性宗」，元魏、高齊間有釋慧文默而識之，授南嶽思大師，由是有三觀之學。洎智者大師蔚然興於天台，而其道益大。以教言之，則然乃龍樹之裔孫也，智者之五世孫也，左溪朗公之法子也。家本儒、墨，我獨有邁俗之志，童丱邈焉異於常倫。年二十餘，受經於左溪，與之言，大駭。異日謂然曰：「汝何夢乎？」然曰：「疇昔夜夢披僧服，掖二輪，遊大河之中。」左溪曰：「嘻，汝當以止、觀二法度群生於生死淵乎？」乃授以本師所傳止觀。然德宇凝精，神鋒爽拔，其密識深行，冲氣慧用，方寸之間，合於天倪。至是始以處士傳道，學者悅隨，如群流之趣於大川也。天寶初年，解逢掖而登僧籍。遂往越州曇一律師法集，廣尋持犯開制之律範焉。復於吳郡開元寺敷行止觀。無何，朗師捐代，挈《密藏》獨運於東南，謂門人曰：「道之難行也，我知之矣。古先至人靜以觀其本，動以應乎物，二俱不住，乃蹈于大方。今之人或蕩於空，或膠於有，自病病他，道用不振。將欲取正，捨予誰歸？」於是大啟上法，旁羅萬行，盡攝諸相，入於無間。即文字以達觀，導語默以還源。乃祖述所傳章句凡十數萬言。心度諸禪，身不踰矩，三學俱熾，群疑日潰，求珠問影之類，稍見罔象之功行。「止觀」之盛，始然之力也。天寶末、大曆初，詔書連徵，辭疾不就。當大兵大饑之際，揭厲法流，學徒愈繁，瞻望堂室，以為依怙。然慈以接之，謹以守之，大布而衣，一床而居，以身誨人，耆艾不息。建中三年二月五日，示疾佛隴道場，顧語學徒曰：「道無方，性無體，生歟死歟，其旨一貫。吾歸骨此山，報盡今夕，要與汝輩談道而訣。夫一念無相謂之空，無法不備謂之假，不一不異謂之中，在凡為三因，在聖為三德。爇炷則初後同相，涉海則淺深異流，自利利人，在此而已。爾其志之！」言訖隱几，泊然而化，春秋七十二，法臘三十四。門人號咽，奉全身起塔，袝于智者大師塋兆西南隅焉。入室弟子吳門元浩，可謂邇其人，近其室矣。然平日輯纂教法，明決前疑，開發後滯，則有《法華釋籤》、《法華疏記》各十卷、《止觀輔行傳弘訣》十卷、《法華三昧補助儀》一卷、《方等懺補闕儀》二卷、《略維摩疏》十卷、《維摩疏記》三卷、《重治定涅槃疏》十五卷、《金𰼺論》一卷，及《止觀義例》、《止觀大意》、《止觀文句》、《十妙不二門》等。盛行于世。詳其然師，始天寶，終建中，以自證之心，說未聞之法，經不云乎：「云何於少時大作佛事」，然師有焉。其朝達得其道者唯梁肅學士，故摛鴻筆成絕妙之辭。彼題目云：「甞試論之，聖人不興，其間必有命世者出焉。自智者以法傳灌頂，頂再世至于左溪，明道若昧，待公而發。乘此寶乘，煥然中興。蓋受業身通者三十有九僧，搢紳先生高位崇名屈體承教者又數十人。師嚴道尊，遐邇歸仁，向非命世而生，則何以臻此！」觀夫梁學士之論，儗議偕齊，非此人何以動鴻儒？非此筆何以銘哲匠？蓋洞入門室見宗廟之富，故以是研論矣。吁，吾徒往往有不知然之道！《詩》云：「維鵲有巢，維鳩居之。」梁公深入佛之理窟之謂歟！有會稽法華山神邕作真讚，至大宋開寶中吳越國王錢氏追重而誄之，號圓通尊者焉，可不是歟！ > Śramaṇa Zhanran, whose secular surname was Qi, belonged to a family that had resided for generations in Jingxi of Jinling, and thus he was a native of Changzhou. Anciently, thirteen generations after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, Nāgārjuna was the first to use written words to extensively expound the supreme truth. Those who succeeded to his learning were called the 'Dharma-nature school.' Between the Northern Wei and Northern Qi, Śramaṇa Huiwen silently understood it and transmitted it to Grand Master Huisi of Mount Nanyue, from which arose the study of the three contemplations. When Grand Master Zhiyi flourished magnificently on Mount Tiantai, this teaching became even greater. Speaking in terms of the lineage of teachings, Zhanran was an heir of Nāgārjuna, a fifth-generation descendant of Zhiyi, and a Dharma child of Master Xuanlang of Zuoxi. His family originally practiced Confucianism and Mohism, yet he alone possessed the aspiration to transcend the worldly; as a youth, he was markedly distinct from ordinary folk. In his twenties, he received the scriptures from Zuoxi, and when Zuoxi conversed with him, Zuoxi was greatly astonished. On another day, Zuoxi asked Zhanran, 'What have you dreamed?' Zhanran replied, 'Past night I dreamed I wore monastic robes, held two wheels under my arms, and journeyed through a great river.' Zuoxi said, 'Ah, shall you deliver the multitude of living beings in the abyss of birth and death by means of the two dharmas of calming and contemplation (śamatha-vipaśyanā)?' He then transmitted to him the calming and contemplation handed down by their root master. Zhanran's moral demeanour was solid and pure, his spiritual acuity sharp and exceptional; his hidden understanding and profound practice, his balanced qi and wise functioning, within his heart of hearts, tallied with the spontaneous workings of nature. Thereupon he first transmitted the Way as a retired layman; scholars joyfully followed him, like many streams rushing toward a great river. In the early years of Tianbao, he took off his wide-sleeved layman's robes and entered the monastic register. He then went to the Dharma assembly of Vinaya Master Tanyi in Yuezhou to extensively investigate the monastic standards for maintaining and breaking, permitting and prohibiting \[the precepts\]. Next, he expounded and practiced calming and contemplation at Kaiyuan Temple in Wu Commandery. Soon after, Master Xuanlang passed away; Zhanran took up the Secret Store and carried it forward alone in the southeast, saying to his disciples: 'I know the difficulty of putting the Way into practice! The ancient sages observed the fundamental in stillness and responded to things in motion; resting in neither, they stepped onto the great avenue. People today are either swept away into emptiness or glued to existence; ailing themselves and ailing others, the function of the Way fails to flourish. If one wishes to uphold correctness, who else but me can be turned to?' Thereupon he broadly revealed the supreme teaching and encompassed all the myriad practices, thoroughly absorbing all marks into the non-differentiation \[of ultimate truth\]. Relying on the written word to achieve penetrative insight, he guided speech and silence to return to the source. He then ancestralized and expounded the transmitted commentaries and chapters, totaling over a hundred thousand words. In his mind, he traversed the various dhyānas, while his conduct never transgressed the rules. The threefold training all blazed brightly, and the crowd's doubts daily crumbled away; those who sought pearls by asking after shadows gradually witnessed his wondrous, formless spiritual cultivation. The flourishing of 'Calming and Contemplation' began through the power of Zhanran. At the end of Tianbao and the beginning of Dali, imperial decrees summoned him repeatedly, but he declined on grounds of illness and did not go. In the midst of great warfare and great famine, he held up the flow of the Dharma, and his students grew ever more numerous, looking toward his hall as their reliance. Zhanran received them with compassion and maintained his discipline with prudence; clothed in coarse hemp and dwelling with only a single mat, he instructed others by his personal conduct, never ceasing even in advanced old age. On the fifth day of the second month in the third year of Jianzhong, he manifested illness at the Folong Bodhimaṇḍa, turned to his students, and said: 'The Way has no direction; nature has no substance. Life or death, their principle is running as one thread. I return my bones to this mountain; my retribution ends tonight. I must speak of the Way with you all and bid farewell. The marklessness of a single thought is called emptiness; having no dharma lacking is called the conventional; being neither one nor different is called the middle. In ordinary beings, these are the three causes; in sages, they are the three virtues. Lighting an incense stick, the beginning and the end share the same mark; wading into the sea, the shallow and deep waters differ in their flow. Benefiting oneself and benefiting others lies in this alone. Strive for it!' Having finished speaking, he leaned on his armrest and peacefully passed away at seventy-two years of age, with a dharma age of thirty-four. His disciples wept and choked with grief; they preserved his whole body and erected a stupa, annexing it to the southwest corner of Grand Master Zhiyi's tomb precinct. The inner-chamber disciple Yuanhao of Wumen could truly be said to have drawn close to his person and entered his chamber. As for his lifelong compilation of the doctrinal teachings, clarifying former doubts, and opening up subsequent obstructions, there were the Fahua shiqian and the Fahua shuji, each in ten fascicles; the Zhiguan fuxing chuanhong jue in ten fascicles; the Fahua sanmei buzhu yi in one fascicle; the Fangdeng chan buque yi in two fascicles; the Lue Weimo shu in ten fascicles; the Weimo shu ji in three fascicles; the Chongzhiding Niepan shu in fifteen fascicles; the Jinbipi lun in one fascicle; as well as the Zhiguan yili, the Zhiguan dayi, the Zhiguan wenju, the Shimiao bu'er men, and others, all of which circulated widely in the world. Considering Master Zhanran in detail: starting in Tianbao and ending in Jianzhong, through his mind of self-realization, he expounded the Dharma not yet heard; does not the scripture say, 'How did he perform great Buddhist works in a short time?' Master Zhanran indeed had this! Among court officials, the only one who attained his Way was Academician Liang Su, who therefore wielded his grand brush to compose exquisite prose. His title stated: 'I have tried to argue that when sages do not arise, there must emerge those of outstanding destiny between times. Since Zhiyi transmitted the Dharma to Guanding, and Guanding through two generations reached Zuoxi, the illuminating Way seemed obscured, waiting for this Venerable to blossom forth. Mounting this precious vehicle, it shone in glorious revival. There were thirty-nine monks who received his teaching and attained realization in their own bodies, and several tens of officials of high rank and elevated fame who bowed themselves to receive instruction. The master was revered and the Way esteemed; far and near turned to benevolence. If he had not been born by outstanding destiny, how could this have been achieved!' Looking at Academician Liang's treatise, the balance of discussion is matched and equal. If not for such a person, how could he have moved a great scholar? If not for such a brush, how could he have commemorated a sagacious master? Only by entering deeply into the chamber and seeing the splendor of the ancestral temple could he have investigated and argued in this way. Alas, among our cohort there are often those who do not understand Zhanran's Way! The Book of Songs says: 'The magpie has a nest; the turtledove resides in it.' Does this not refer to Lord Liang's profound penetration into the lair of the Buddha's principle? Shenyong of Mount Fahua in Kuaiji made a portrait eulogy for him, and during the Kaibao era of the Great Song, King Qian of the Wuyue kingdom posthumously honoured him with a funeral elegy, titling him the Venerable Yuantong. Could it not be so! > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 6.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.6.13) - [Next: 6.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.6.15) - [Up: 6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.6) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061~en-mt.6.14) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (1) - [佛祖歷代通載](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.14.33) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.6.14](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.6.14) · Pramāṇa