宋高僧傳 25.8

25.8

Śramaṇa Shaokang, secular surname Zhou, was a native of Mount Xiandu in Jinyun. His mother, Lady Luo, once dreamed that she roamed Dinghu Peak, where a jade maiden holding a blue lotus in her hands offered it to her, saying: 'This flower is auspicious. I entrust it to your keeping; later you will bear a noble son, whom you must cherish and protect!' On the day Kang was born, a blue-green light filled the chamber, with a fragrance like that of lotuses. When he reached infancy, his eyes were jade-blue and his lips vermilion; his teeth possessed one of the bodily marks of a Buddha, and he would constantly sit upright with a smile. At that time, a skilled physiognomist of the village looked at him and said: 'This boy possesses the talent of a general or minister, yet he does not speak, so I cannot tell.' When he was just seven years old, he was carried into Lingshan Temple. On the Buddha's birthday, as they paid homage to the sacred image, his mother asked Kang, 'Do you recognise him?' He suddenly spoke, saying, 'Śākyamuni Buddha.' All who heard were astonished, for he had never spoken since birth. Because of this, his parents permitted him to leave home. At the age of fifteen, the scriptures he had recited already numbered five divisions. He received upasampadā at Jiaxiang Temple in Yuezhou, and straightaway studied the vinaya at that monastery. After five summer retreats, he went to Longxing Temple in Shangyuan to listen to the Avataṃsaka-sūtra and the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra. At the beginning of the Zhenyuan era, he arrived at the hall of Baima Temple in the eastern capital, Luoyang, where he saw an object radiating light. Reaching for it to see what scripture or teaching it was, he found it was Shan Dao's 'Text on Guiding and Transforming Beings to Proceed to the Western Land'. Kang saw it with joy and made a vow, saying: 'If I have an affinity with the Pure Land, may this scroll of text re-emit this light!' No sooner had his vow ended than it truly flashed anew, with countless transformation Buddhas and bodhisattvas within it. He then went into Shan Dao's memorial hall in Chang'an to make a prayer. He saw the true portrait of Shan Dao transform into the body of a Buddha, which addressed Kang, saying: 'If you rely on my expedients to benefit and gladden sentient beings, together you will be born in the Land of Peaceful Nurture.' Feeling as if he had attained realization, Kang traveled south to Guoyuan Temple in Jiangling, where he met a Dharma master who said to him: 'If you wish to convert people, go directly to Xinding; your affinity lies there.' Having spoken, he vanished, leaving only fragrance and light heading westward. When Kang reached Mu prefecture, he entered the city to beg for food and obtained copper coins; he induced and encouraged little children, giving them one coin whenever they could recite 'Amitābha Buddha' once. After more than a month, children flocked to him like ants, and he gave coins to those who recited the Buddha's name most often. After one year like this, whenever any man or woman saw Kang, they would say, 'Amitābha Buddha.' He then built a Pure Land bodhimanda on Mount Wulong, constructing a three-tiered altar. He gathered people at midnight to practice the Path, singing twenty-four rounds of praises to extol the Pure Land. Every fasting day they gathered like clouds, those he converted numbering about three thousand. Ascending the seat, he would instruct the male and female disciples to gaze at his face; as he then chanted 'Amitābha Buddha' in a loud voice, a Buddha would emerge from his mouth. Reciting ten times in succession, ten Buddhas appeared like a string of pearls, and he told them: 'If you see the Buddha's body, you will immediately attain rebirth.' In the tenth month of the twenty-first year of Zhenyuan, he gave his final instructions to the assembly, urging them solely to cultivate the Pure Land with urgency. Having spoken, he sat cross-legged, radiated light from his body, and passed away. The sky abruptly changed, violent winds arose on all sides, and hundreds of birds cried sorrowfully. Mount Wulong suddenly turned white. Today his funerary stūpa remains at Taiziyan to the east of the prefecture; with the passing of years, only a square stone is left. The earth beside the stone is said to cure diseases; whenever the prefectural people suffer from various ailments, they burn incense and take the earth, and upon ingesting it most are cured. The four corners of the stone are grooved like cart ruts. In the third year of the Qianyou era of the Han, Chan Master Deshao of Mount Tiantai rebuilt his stūpa, which remains tall and spacious to this day; at that time he was called the Latter Shan Dao.