神僧傳 6.30

6.30

Śramaṇa Zhiqin had the secular surname Zhu. In the Renshou era of the Sui, because of [the distribution of] relics, Daxingguo Monastery was established in each prefecture. From his youth, Qin took safeguarding [the Dharma] as his purpose; whenever he dwelt in an assembly and spoke, all was in harmony and concord. In sincere and heroic effort, everything received unseen assistance. Initially, when his mother was seriously ill and exhausted, he recited [the name of] Avalokiteśvara on her behalf; upon the tree leaves in the house, transformed Buddhas appeared, and the whole family saw them together. His mother's illness was thereupon eliminated. Furthermore, when the late Sui fell into famine and disorder and various bandits arose in competition, Qin alone guarded this monastery, and the bandits dared not encroach upon it; thus the monastery buildings, scriptures, and images suffered no damage at all, whereas other monasteries were annihilated beyond recognition. In addition, once he temporarily put on secular clothes to avoid weapons; surrounded by bandits who wished to kill him, he suddenly heard a voice in the air say: "Master, you may remove your secular clothes." He thereupon took off the outer garments. Seeing this, the bandits made prostrations, invited him, and made offerings to him for several months. Later he went to Shu to listen to Master of Dharma Hao's lectures. The assembly reached three thousand; the Master of Dharma entrusted everything to him for inspection and regulation, so that inner and outer affairs became peaceful and free of disturbance through the effort of this single man. Furthermore, at the beginning of the Tang, he returned to Dengzhou and lectured on the Vimalakīrti and Three Treatises more than ten times. Later he went into seclusion at the northern mountain, standing leaning for more than ten years; the three sites where he dwelt still exist today. He constantly heard the sound of a bell in the valley; later, seeking along the cliffs and ridges, he suddenly saw a monastery, wonderfully beautiful and extraordinarily rare. Entering within, he paid homage; it seemed as though someone lived there. This happened several times; when he later searched for it again, no one knew where it was. Furthermore, while dwelling in the mountain, when his provisions were about to be exhausted, the earth where he practiced circumambulation naturally welled up; he removed and discarded it, but the next day it was so again. After this happened repeatedly, grain appeared; digging deep, he obtained more than twenty dan of millet. The grains of this millet were large and red in color, slightly different from ordinary grain. At that time, the Buddhadharma in Dengzhou had declined; monastics and laypeople of the whole prefecture went to the mountain to pay homage and invite him, wishing for him to come out and serve as abbot. Thereupon, moved by a dream, he came out; the details of the dream are not known. Later, when he carried an image out of the mountain, it suddenly grew dark along the way; not knowing the path, he could not advance. Presently, two torches of extraordinary fire illuminated the path with extreme brightness, enabling him to see the road; after escorting him into the village, the fire turned back and was extinguished. The villagers all saw it and were without exception amazed. In the early Yonghui era, seeing that worldly affairs were complicated and disordered, he kept to his room and did not come out. For nearly three years he read the entire canon twice; whenever he read the scriptures, he constantly saw a spirit come to listen, and in the first, middle, and late watches of the night he often heard the sounds of snapping fingers and clearing of throats. In the fifth month of the fourth year of Xianqing, before he was about to pass away, he worked day and night to complete all places where meritorious deeds were not yet finished. When people asked why he was so hasty, he answered: "How can the law of impermanence be guaranteed?" On the fifteenth day, the branches and leaves of the trees in the monastery withered and naturally split apart; birds wailed sorrowfully throughout the monastery, and the monks each asked in alarm, not knowing the cause. At dawn on the sixteenth day, he suddenly saw the spirit who had formerly listened to the scriptures come to pay homage; he said: "Do not pay homage," though the people beside him saw nothing. He then shaved his hair, put on his robes, sat on a rope bed holding an incense burner, and sat cross-legged. He told his disciples: "You may take the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra and chant it." When they reached the end of the chapter on Rebirth, he joined his palms, sat, and passed away. After several days, his facial color was as before, and an extraordinary fragrance was constantly smelled in the monastery. His worldly age was seventy-four.