大明高僧傳 5.6

5.6

釋教亨字虛明。濟州任城王氏子也。先有汴京慈濟寺僧福安。居任城有年。精修白業緇素仰重。一日赴齋于芒山村。乃倚樹化去。是夕示夢于女弟馮自彭村。見其乘白馬而下曰。我生于西陳村王光道家。馮覺語母。及其子三人夢皆同。詰旦至光道家詢之。其母劉氏先夕亦夢。安公求寄宿焉。是日果誕亨。乃拳右拇指似不能伸。但瞬而未笑。次日有同業僧福廣福堅。聞而來謁見即呼云。安兄無恙耶。亨熟視舉手伸指而笑。其母甞臥師于室中。若有人誦摩訶般若之聲。及睟或以佛經酒杯試之。竟取經卷。素不茹葷血。見僧喜從之遊。人皆呼為安山主。故芒山村乃以師事碑於石紀其異。年七歲出家依州之崇覺寺圓和尚薙染。十三受大戒。遇苦瓜先生相之曰。此兒他日坐道場。必領僧萬指。年十五遊方。聞鄭州普照寶和尚法席之盛。於是荷錫自汴發足。寶公夜夢。慶雲如金芙蕖繽紛亂墜。因語眾曰。吾十年無夢矣。今有此。是何祥也。翌日亨至。寶獨異之。師朝夕參叩。寶亦痛劄之。一日往睢陽。忽馬上憶擊竹因緣。凝情不散。如入禪定。將抵河津渾無知覺。同行德滿呼曰。此河津也。亨驚遂下馬悲喜交集。及歸涕以語寶公。寶曰。此僵人耳。切須更甦轉動始得。曾看日面佛公案。否曰。兒時已念得。寶公笑曰。我只教爾參諸方掉下底禪。但再參去。自有得力處。一日亨於雲堂靜坐。忽聞打板聲霍然證入。遂呈偈曰。日面月面。流星閃電。若更遲疑。面門著箭。咄寶公曰。我謾汝不得也。師後出世乃五坐道場。若嵩山之戒壇韶山之雲門鄭州之普照林溪之大覺嵩山之法王。次因金國丞相夾谷清臣請主中都潭柘。遷濟州普照。未幾忽方丈後叢樹中有一株。亭亭高丈餘。而群鴉以次來巢。狀若浮圖。上下十二級。眾賀曰。和尚佛法愈大振乎。不十日詔住慶壽寺。眾常萬人。三年繼主少林。法席大盛。無何師引去乃徜徉於嵩少之間。或放歌或長嘯。如是數年。一日忽覺四大絃緩。杜門堅坐謝絕賓客。至金興定已卯七月十日誡其眾曰。汝輩各自勤修。索浴說偈端坐而逝。享年七十。坐夏五十有八。闍維焰如蓮華開合。牙齒目睛不壞。舍利無算。師自兒時額有圓珠涌現於皮間。至是爆然飛去。弟子分設利羅以建塔焉。

Śramaṇa Jiaocheng, courtesy name Xuming, was a son of the Wang family of Rencheng in Jizhou. Earlier, there was the monk Fu'an of Ciji Monastery in the capital of Bianjing, who had lived in Rencheng for years, diligently cultivating pure deeds, revered by both monastics and laity. One day, after attending a vegetarian feast in Mangshan village, he leaned against a tree and was transformed. That evening, he appeared in a dream to his younger sister, Lady Feng, from Peng village. She saw him riding down on a white horse, saying, 'I have been born into the household of Wang Guangdao in West Chen village.' When Feng awoke, she told her mother; both she and her son, three people in all, had had the identical dream. At dawn they went to Guangdao's house to inquire. His mother, Lady Liu, had also dreamed the night before that Master An came asking for a place to lodge. On that very day, Heng was indeed born. His right thumb was clenched and seemingly unable to stretch out, and though he blinked, he did not smile. The next day, the fellow monks Fuguang and Fujian heard of it and came to visit. As soon as they saw him, they called out, 'Brother An, are you well?' Heng gazed intently at them, raised his hand, extended his thumb, and smiled. His mother once laid the master to sleep in the room, where it sounded as if someone were reciting the Mahāprajñā[pāramitā]. When he reached his first birthday, they tested him with a Buddhist sutra and a wine cup; he straightaway took the sutra scroll. By nature he did not eat meat or blood, and upon seeing monks he joyfully followed them to wander about. People all called him 'Mountain Master An'. Therefore, Mangshan village inscribed an account of the master's deeds upon stone to record these wonders. At age seven, he left home, relying on Preceptor Yuan of Chongjue Monastery in the prefecture for his tonsure and dyeing of robes. At thirteen, he received the full precepts. He met Master Kugua, who physiognomised him and said, 'When this child sits in an awakening-bodhimaṇḍa in the future, he will surely lead ten thousand monks.' At fifteen, he went on pilgrimage. Hearing of the flourishing of the Dharma assembly of Preceptor Bao of Puzhao in Zhengzhou, he shouldered his tin staff and set out on foot from Bian. Master Bao had a dream that night of auspicious clouds like golden lotus blossoms tumbling down in profusion. He therefore told the assembly, 'I have not dreamed for ten years. Now having had this, what omen could it be?' The next day Heng arrived, and Bao alone found him extraordinary. The master inquired and practiced morning and evening, and Bao also spurred him on severely. One day, while traveling to Suiyang, he suddenly recalled on horseback the case of striking the bamboo; his thoughts congealed without dispersing, as though he had entered meditative absorption. Reaching the river ford, he was utterly oblivious. His traveling companion Deman called out, 'This is the river ford!' Heng was startled, dismounted, and felt sorrow and joy intermingle. Upon returning, he told Master Bao with tears. Bao said, 'This is merely a stiff corpse! You must absolutely revive and turn around before you can succeed. Have you ever contemplated the gongan of the Sun-Faced Buddha?' Heng replied, 'I could already recite it in my childhood.' Master Bao smiled and said, 'I only teach you to investigate the Chan that has been cast aside in all quarters; just investigate further, and you will naturally attain a place of strength.' One day, as Heng was sitting quietly in the Cloud Hall, he suddenly heard the sound of the wooden clapper being struck and had an instantaneous awakening. He then presented a verse: 'Sun face, moon face, / A shooting star, a flash of lightning. / If you hesitate any longer, / An arrow hits you straight between the eyes. Bah!' Master Bao said, 'I cannot deceive you.' Later, the master appeared in the world and presided over five bodhimaṇḍas: the Ordination Platform of Mount Song, Yunmen of Mount Shao, Puzhao of Zhengzhou, Dajue of Linxi, and Fawang of Mount Song. Next, because the prime minister of the Jin state, Jiagu Qingchen, invited him to preside over Tanzhe in the Central Capital, he was transferred to Puzhao in Jizhou. Shortly after, in the groves behind the abbot's quarters, there was suddenly a single tree standing loftily over ten feet high, and flocks of crows came one after another to nest in it, shaped like a pagoda of twelve tiers above and below. The assembly congratulated him, saying, 'Will the Venerable's Buddhadharma flourish all the more greatly?' In less than ten days, an imperial decree ordered him to reside at Qingshou Monastery, where the assembly regularly numbered ten thousand. Three years later, he succeeded to the abbacy of Shaolin, and the Dharma assembly flourished greatly. Before long, the master retired and wandered between Song and Shao, sometimes singing aloud, sometimes whistling long; so it was for several years. One day, he suddenly felt the four great elements loosen like slack strings. He barred his door, sat firmly, and declined all guests. Reaching the tenth day of the seventh month of the yimao year of the Xingding era of the Jin, he admonished his assembly, saying, 'Each of you, cultivate diligently!' He called for a bath, recited a verse, sat upright, and passed away. He lived to seventy years of age and sat fifty-eight summer retreats. At the jhāpita, the flames opened and closed like lotus blossoms. His teeth and eyeballs did not decay, and the śarīra were countless. Since childhood, a round pearl had appeared under the skin of the master's forehead; at this point, it burst forth and flew away with a pop. His disciples divided the relics to erect stupas for him.