大明高僧傳 7.4

7.4

Śramaṇa Huicai, styled Foxin, was a son of the Yao family of Fuzhou. In his youth he served as a novice who drives away crows, and at the age of twenty he received ordination. He thoroughly sought the Vinaya collection, his adherence and violation like the majesty of frost. Aspiring to the Supreme Vehicle, he did not shrink from inquiring far and wide. Without concern for toil or ease, he investigated with utmost effort in single-minded concentration. He first visited Master Haiyin Long at Dazhong. He happened to see an elder adept, Dadao, reading a sūtra; coming to the point where “the lion on the tip of a single hair, one hundred billion hair-tips manifest simultaneously,” Cai asked: “How can the lion on the tip of a single hair make one hundred billion hair-tips manifest simultaneously?” Dao said: “You have just entered the monastery; you must not yet attend to such matters.” Cai doubted it. It coincided that Haiyin held an evening gathering; arriving at the conclusion of his seat, he threw down his staff and said: “When realized, the tip of a hair swallows the vast ocean; / Only then does one know that the great earth is a single speck of dust.” Cai had a sudden awakening. Next, he visited Sixin of Huanglong, but there was no accord; thereupon he called on Lingyuan. Whenever he emerged from entering the room, he would weep and say: “I see this matter very clearly; only when facing the circumstance, I cannot spit it out—what can be done?” Yuan said: “You must have a great breakthrough before you can attain ease.” One day, he secretly watched a neighboring monk reading the Extended Record of Caodong. Coming to Yaoshan returning from gathering firewood, where a monk asked, “Where have you come from?” and Yaoshan said, “I come carrying firewood,” the monk pointed to the knife at his waist and said, “What is this rattling sound?” and Yaoshan drew the knife making a chopping motion, Cai suddenly had a great awakening. He slapped the neighboring monk, raised the screen, dashed out, and recited a verse: “Thorough, thorough! The vast ocean is dried up, / Empty space bursts open. / The four directions and eight dimensions are utterly without barrier; / The myriad forms and dense array are completely laid bare!” First dwelling at Shangfeng, he was repeatedly transferred to famous monasteries. The river of his words and the ocean of his eloquence surged like tides and billowed like waves; students could find no way to anchor at its shores.