神僧傳 6.12

6.12

Shi Huixuan, whose lay surname was Dong, renounced household life at a young age in Xiangchuan. After the Zhou persecution of Buddhism, he went south to the Chen dynasty and entered Mount Mao to hear the Three Treatises from Master Ming. He also entered Qixia to hear the Four Treatises, Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Large Perfection of Wisdom), and Nirvāṇa Sūtra from Dharma Master Xuanbu. Later in life, he went to Dalin Monastery in Anzhou to listen to Master Yuan's commentary on the Treatises. Wherever his blade moved, he penetrated the profound depths. Returning to his home district, he dwelt at Guangfu Monastery on a mountain summit. Since drawing water was laborious, he was about to move to another monastery. At night, he saw a divine man ten feet tall, clad in purple robes, who made prostrations to Xuan and said: “I entreat you to stay here and constantly expound the Mahāyāna; do not worry about the Hīnayāna. The Hīnayāna is like a high mountain without water, unable to benefit people; the Mahāyāna sūtras are like a great ocean. Many Buddhas appear in the world on this mountain. If one person reads, recites, expounds, and teaches the Mahāyāna, it can cause their dwelling place to have bright jewels, flourishing retinues, and abundant food and drink. If there were Hīnayāna, the former benefits would all be lost. I only wish you would propagate and uphold it, not disappointing our hopes. As for water, Dharma Master, this is easily obtained. On the eighth day of next month, you shall certainly obtain it. I will personally go to the Great Spring of Mount Cimu in Jiannan to invite a dragon king.” Having spoken, he disappeared. Exactly at nightfall on the seventh day of the next month, a fierce wind suddenly arose from the southwest, accompanied by thunder and pouring rain, about a hundred paces behind the Buddha hall below the Han Emperor Gao Temple north of the monastery. It continued through the night and stopped only at dawn. There appeared only a clear spring, fragrant and delicious, to the joy of the entire assembly. When [Xuan later] ceased [his lectures], the dragon spring gradually dried up. In the twenty-third year of the Zhenguan era, while he was expounding the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, on the night of the eighth day of the fourth month, the mountain deity told him: “Dharma Master, quickly build rooms and buildings; you will soon be born in the Western Realm.” On the fourteenth day of the seventh month, having finished expounding the Ullambana-sūtra, he folded his hands and said: “The offerings made in faith throughout my life must now be distributed entirely: anything above a single hair is to be given to the sangha of the ten directions, to the destitute and solitary beggars, and to various heterodox followers.” Having spoken, he passed away upon the Dharma seat. His age was seventy-nine.