宋高僧傳 2.6

2.6

Śubhakara had an open and handsome bearing, and his brilliance surpassed the crowd. His understanding thoroughly probed the five vehicles, and his practice encompassed the three disciplines; in dhāraṇī and dhyāna-contemplation, he wonderfully reached their source. In artistic skills and technical crafts, he was heard to be refined in all. At first he went to Nālandā Temple—translated as "Giving without Satiation"—the headwaters of the Semblance Dharma and the assembly hall of all sages. Śubhakara gave the state-transmitting jewel to adorn the forehead of the great image, shining like the moon by day and the sun by night. At the temple was Dharmagupta, who held the secret key of the gate of concentration and carried the secret seal of the Tathāgata; his countenance was about forty, but his actual age was eight hundred years, and Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang had once seen him. Śubhakara cast down his body and touched his feet, honoring him as his root master. One day while attending him at a meal, nearby was a monk from China; Śubhakara looked into his bowl and saw that the fried pastries were still warm and the millet rice still hot. Astounded, he sighed: "The Eastern Country is more than a hundred thousand li from here; did he cook this in the morning and return?" Dharmagupta said: "If you can refrain from speaking, you can truly study." Afterward, he transmitted to Śubhakara the dhāraṇī, yoga, and three secrets teaching; dragons and spirits encircled them, standing densely before their eyes, and he received all the seals and mudrās at once. On that very day he underwent abhiṣeka, becoming a teacher of gods and humans, styled "Tripiṭaka." Now, the meaning of "Tripiṭaka" is internally the precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and externally the sūtras, vinaya, and treatises, all of which are encompassed by dhāraṇīs. A dhāraṇī is the swift wheel of bodhi and the auspicious ocean of liberation; the Buddhas of the three periods of time are born from this gate, and what the light of wisdom transmits is but a single lamp. Because faculties differ and natures are distinct, the lamps are also boundless. Therefore, there are a hundred billion Śākyamunis and samādhis as numerous as fine dust; a bodhisattva uses the overarching net to encompass all concentrations, abruptly ascending the stages to border on Great Awakening—this is its essential import.