宋高僧傳 9.13

9.13

釋玄素，字道清，俗緣馬氏，潤州延陵人也。生有異度，幼而深仁，乳育安靜。髫齓希尚，求歸釋門，父母從之，出依淨域。以如意年中，始奉制度，隷名于江寧長壽寺。進具已後，戒光騰燭，定水澄漣，思入玄微，行逾人表。既解色空，常慕宗匠。晚年乃南入青山幽棲寺，因事威禪師，躬歷彌載，撞鐘大鳴。威誨以勝法，得其不刊之旨。從是伏形苦節，交養恬和，敗納襯身，寒暑不易，貴賤怨親，曾無喜慍，時目之為嬰兒行菩薩。道業既高，人希瞻禮。開元年中，僧汪密請至京口，郡牧韋銑屈居鶴林，四部歸誠，充塞寺宇。素納衣空床，未甞出戶，王侯稽首，不為動搖。顧世名利，猶如幻焉。忽於一日，有屠者來禮謁，自生感悟，懺悔先罪，求請素明中應供，乃欣然受之，降詣其舍。士庶驚駭，咸稱「異哉」。素曰：「佛性是同，無生豈別？但可度者，吾其度之，何異之有？」天寶之初，吳、越瞻仰如想下生。楊州僧希玄請至江北，竊而宵遁。黑月難濟，江波淼然，持舟擬風。俄頃有白光一道，引棹直渡，通波獲全。楚人相慶佛日再耀。傾州奔赴，會於津所。人物拒道，間無立位，解衣投施，積若山丘。略不干其懷抱，令悉充悲田之費。禮部尚書李憕為楊州牧，齋心虔虔，二時瞻近。未幾而京口道俗思渴法音，仍移牒渡江，再請還郡。二處紛諍，莫決所從。李時謂人曰：「本期奉道，反成愛憎。」因任從所請，却歸南郡，其感物慕德，罕有與倫。以天寶十一載十一月十一日中夜，無疾而化，春秋八十有五。哀感人倫，慟徹城市。以其月二十一日奉全身建塔于黃鶴山西所住之地。方伯、邑宰盡執喪師之禮，率眾申哀，江湖震響。素往於寺內坐禪之所，高松偃覆如蓋，及移他樹，還互如前。又當捨壽之夕，房前雙桐無故自枯。識者以為雙林之變。但真乘妙理，絕相難思；嘉瑞靈祥，應感必有。《經》云：「隨緣赴感」，即其事也。有門弟子法鑑及吳中法欽，此二大士重光道原，僉具別傳。受菩薩戒弟子吏部侍郎齊澣、廣州都督粱卿、潤州刺史徐嶠、京兆韋昭理、給事中韓賞、御史中丞李丹、禮部崔令欽，　並道流人望，咸欵師資，亦甞問道於徑山，猶樂正子春於夫子。洗心瞻仰，天漢彌高；水鑑明心，悟深者眾矣。洎太和中，遠慕遺風，高其令德，追諡大律禪師，太和大寶杭之塔。後人多以俗氏召之曰馬祖，或以姓名兼稱曰馬素是也。

Shi Xuansu, courtesy name Daoqing, whose secular ties were with the Ma clan, was a native of Yanling in Runzhou. Born with an unusual manner, he was profoundly benevolent from youth, quiet and calm while being nursed. In his childhood, he aspired upward, seeking refuge in the Buddhist fold; his parents complied, and he departed to rely on the pure precinct. During the Ruyi era, he first complied with the institutional system and was registered at Changshou Temple in Jiangning. After advancing to full ordination, his precept light shone brightly, his concentration water settled into clear ripples, his thoughts penetrated the dark and subtle, and his conduct surpassed the human standard. Having already understood form and emptiness, he constantly admired masters of the school. In his later years, he went south into Youqi Temple on Mount Qingshan, where he served Chan Master Wei. Personally experiencing it for whole years, he struck the bell and it sounded loudly. Wei instructed him in the superior Dharma, and he grasped its indelible purport. From then on, he concealed his form in bitter austerity, mutually nurturing peace and harmony, wearing a tattered patch-robe against his body without changing for cold or heat; toward the noble, base, hostile, or close, he never showed joy or wrath, so that people of the time regarded him as a bodhisattva of infant practice. As his cultivation of the Way was lofty, people hoped to gaze upon him and pay homage. In the Kaiyuan era, the monk Wangmi invited him to Jingkou, and the Commandery Governor Wei Xian urged him to reside at Helin [Temple]. The four assemblies took refuge in sincerity, filling the temple buildings. Su kept to his patch-robe and empty bed, never going out the door; princes and marquises bowed their heads, yet he was not swayed. Looking upon worldly fame and profit, he saw them as illusions. Suddenly one day, a butcher came to pay homage, gave rise to a spiritual awakening on his own, repented of past sins, and requested that Su accept an offering at noon the next day. He joyfully accepted it and went down to his house. Gentry and commoners were shocked and all exclaimed, "How extraordinary!" Su said: "The Buddha-nature is identical; how could the unproduced be different? If one can be liberated, I will liberate him; what difference is there?" At the beginning of Tianbao, Wu and Yue gazed upon him as if longing for the descent of a Buddha to be born. The Yangzhou monk Xixuan invited him to the north of the river, stealing away with him by night. In the dark of the moon, it was difficult to cross; the river waves were vast and billowy, and they held the boat against the wind. In an instant, a ray of white light guided their oars to cross straight over, traversing the waves safely. The people of Chu congratulated each other that the Buddha sun shone once more. The entire prefecture rushed forth to gather at the ferry. People and mounts obstructed the road, with no room left to stand; they took off their clothes to cast them as offerings, piling them up like hills. He paid no heed to them in his mind, ordering that all be used to supply the expenses of the field of compassion. Minister of the Ministry of Rites Li Deng served as the Governor of Yangzhou; purifying his mind with great devotion, he gazed upon him and attended him at the two times. Before long, the clerics and laity of Jingkou thirsted for the sound of the Dharma, and sending a dispatch across the river, repeatedly requested his return to their commandery. The two places disputed, unable to decide whom he should follow. Li at that time said to the people: "We originally hoped to serve the Way, but instead it has become attachment and aversion." Thereupon, allowing what was requested, he returned to the southern commandery; his inspiring of beings and their admiration of his virtue had few equals. In the middle of the night on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the eleventh year of Tianbao, he passed away without illness at the age of eighty-five. The sorrow touched human relationships and pierced through the cities with grief. On the twenty-first day of that month, his whole body was enshrined and a stūpa was erected on the ground where he had lived west of Mount Huanghe. The regional governors and county magistrates all observed the mourning rituals of disciples for a teacher, leading the multitudes to express their grief, so that the rivers and lakes reverberated. In the place where Su had formerly sat in meditation within the temple, tall pines had arched over like canopies; when other trees were substituted, they also interlaced as before. Furthermore, on the evening he renounced his lifespan, the twin paulownia trees in front of his room withered by themselves without cause. Those with discernment took it as the transformation of the Twin Trees. Yet the wondrous principle of the True Vehicle is free of marks and hard to conceive; auspicious omens and numinous portents inevitably arise in response. The sūtra says: "Responding to conditions and according with resonance"—it is precisely this matter. He had disciples Fajian and Fachin of Wu; these two great beings illuminated once more the source of the Way, each fully documented in separate biographies. The disciples who received the bodhisattva precepts—Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel Qi Huan, Commander-in-Chief of Guangzhou Liang Qing, Prefect of Runzhou Xu Qiao, Metropolitan Governor Wei Zhaoli, Supervising Secretary Han Shang, Vice Censor-in-Chief Li Dan, and Vice Minister of Rites Cui Lingqin—were all esteemed figures among followers of the Way and all earnestly offered discipleship; they also once inquired about the Way at Mount Jingshan, like Yuezheng Zichun toward the Master. Washing their minds and gazing upward, the Milky Way seemed ever higher; looking into the water mirror to clarify their minds, many had deep awakening. Reaching the Taihe era, admiring his lingering style from afar and exalting his fine virtue, they posthumously bestowed the title Chan Master Dali, and his stūpa was named the Taihe Great Treasure Stūpa. Later people mostly called him Mazu using his secular surname, or called him Ma Su using both surname and name.