神僧傳 8.54

8.54

Chan Master Wuzhuo Wenxi entered Mount Wutai seeking to see Mañjuśrī. Suddenly he saw an old mountain man. Zhuo bowed with hands clasped and said, "I wish to see the Great Being Mañjuśrī." The old man said, "The Great Being cannot be seen yet. Have you eaten?" Zhuo said, "Not yet." The old man led him into a monastery, guided Zhuo up into the hall, and bade him sit. A boy presented a tortoiseshell cup containing something like curdled milk. Zhuo drank it and felt his mind become clear and lucid. The old man said, "How is the Buddha-dharma maintained in the south?" Zhuo said, "Monks in the final age seldom uphold the monastic precepts." [The old man] asked, "How large are the assemblies?" [Zhuo] said, "Three hundred or five hundred." Zhuo asked, "How is the Buddha-dharma maintained here?" [The old man] said, "Dragons and snakes are intermingled; commoners and sages dwell together." [Zhuo] asked, "How large is the assembly?" [The old man] said, "The front three-three, the back three-three." They then conversed until dusk. The old man instructed the boy to guide Zhuo out. Before he had gone far, he realized with sorrow that the old man was none other than Mañjuśrī, whom he could not see again. He bowed to the boy and begged for a word of parting. The boy spoke the words: "Free from defilement and pollution is the truly eternal." When he finished speaking, the boy and the monastery vanished together. He saw only Mañjuśrī riding a golden-haired lion back and forth amidst five-colored clouds, until white clouds suddenly covered him and he could no longer be seen.