宋高僧傳 3.26

3.26

Śramaṇa Zilin, surnamed Fan, was a native of Dafan Village in Qianfeng, Yanzhou. His father, Junzhao, took no delight in the Three Jewels; whenever he saw a śramaṇa, he would invariably scold and spit at him. If anyone asked him why, he would immediately want to strike them. When Lin was several years old, his childhood name being Lin'er, whenever he saw anyone wearing a kāṣāya, feelings of admiration arose in him. Early in the Kaiyuan era, Vinaya Master Qingxiu of Guang'ai Temple in the Eastern Capital was travelling to Mount Tai and passed by the Fan family residence. As soon as Lin saw him, joy flushed across his countenance, and he bowed, begging to leave home. [Qingxiu] asked, "What of your parents?" He replied, "I must not let my mother know; if she knew, I would be beaten. Master, simply go ahead; I will follow like a shadow." When the vinaya master had gone five li, Lin had already arrived. Upon reaching the temple in Luoyang, his receptive ease to teaching was like sweetness blending with seasoning. After he shaved his head and donned the robes, some called him Zhilin. In the eleventh year, he suddenly thought of his parents and took leave to return and visit them. His father had lost his sight, and his mother had passed away three years prior. He then went to the shrine of Mount Tai, seeking to know his mother's rebirth in the underworld; he spread out his sitting mat, recited the Lotus Sūtra, and vowed to meet King Tianqi. That night, the mountain god indeed summoned Lin and asked, "Why are you so earnestly aggrieved?" Lin said, "Since my mother, née Wang, passed away, the mourning period has already ended. May I ask the Great King, where is my mother now?" The king looked to the clerk holding the registers, who replied, "The woman Wang is currently bound in hell, suffering torment." Lin said, "What crime did my mother commit?" The king said, "When she gave birth to the monk, she ate chicken eggs, and also took egg whites to apply to scalp sores. Because of these acts, she is punished on your account." Lin wept aloud in anguish and begged the king for a remission. [The king] said, "Binding and fettering have their causes; there is no way for release. However, as a plan for the Dharma master, please go to Mount Mao to worship the Aśoka Stūpa; perhaps she may be pardoned." At dawn the next day, Lin set out, arriving at the temple on Mount Gouchang. Kowtowing in lamentation, with all five limbs touching the ground, after completing his prostrations he cast divining sticks. When they numbered forty thousand, he suddenly heard a voice calling "Lin!", like the response to Cai Shun. Looking into the air, he saw his mother amid clouds and mist thanking him: "Relying on your power, I have attained rebirth in Trāyastriṃśa Heaven; therefore I came to tell you." In an instant, she was seen no more. Later, Lin sought understanding of scriptures and treatises, travelling to the Guanfu region. Comprehending non-Buddhist learning as well, his fine reputation was renowned. Chosen as a famous monk, he frequently entered the inner halls of Emperor Suzong to attend imperial audiences. Noted for his eloquence and skilled in swift replies, he improvised in the imperial presence, expounding the imperial way such that his contemporaries could not match him. By imperial decree, he was granted a purple square-cut robe and served as an attending monk of the court. When Emperor Daizong ascended the throne, he venerated Buddhism even more. During the Yongtai era, Amoghavajra retranslated the Renwang huguo jing, the Mixian jing, and other scriptures; Lin, along with Fachong of Qianfu Temple, Huijing of Ximing Temple, and Yuanji of Baoshou Temple, shared the duties of certifying meaning, with Liangben polishing the phrasing. No one knew how Lin met his end. The stūpa he had earlier worshipped is where the foundations of the thatched hermitage and the well at Cuizhi, on the peak behind Yuwang Temple on Mount Mao, still exist today. The well is actually a square pool whose water is emerald-green, with green moss floating gently upon it; literati and travellers have composed exceedingly many poems about it.