宋高僧傳 7.14

7.14

Shi Lingyin was surnamed Yang and was a native of Wenshang in Shan Prefecture. In his youth he maintained moral conduct and turned his mind to seeking renunciation of the world; he found a master in his native town who taught him the *Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra*. When he reached the lawful age, he accepted the precepts and studied both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna teachings. In the Dharma doors of doctrinal categories, he attained pure refinement. Regarding the *Amitābha* and *Madhyamaka*, he grasped their richness; his renown burst forth, and none could rival him. Later, while traveling through Changshui south of Luoyang, he met devoted donors who constructed a monastery, and he lectured and studied within it. Expounding one treatise and one scripture over thirty years, he delivered each of them more than fifty times. Every day he recited the *Vimalakīrti* and the *Rebirth [in Tuṣita]* as his regular daily practice. In maintaining conduct and upholding his mind he was free of any blemish, so that people from near and far turned to him as their authority, just like those longing for plums who finally get a drink. In the second year of Qingtai, the year yihai, he died at the district temple, at the age of seventy-one, with a dharma age of fifty-one. In that year, he was moved to the foot of the mountain and cremated according to the custom of the Western Regions; śarīra relics were obtained, and disciples and donors jointly erected a stūpa.