神僧傳 9.31

9.31

The monk Yanshou, courtesy name Chongxuan, recited the Lotus Sūtra when he was a boy with his hair in tufts, reading five lines at a glance, completing it in sixty days. He went to Chan Master Cuiyan of Siming to renounce household life. His robes had no silk or floss, and his food had no second flavor. Later he went to consult State Preceptor Shao, who illuminated the essentials of mind for him, and once said to him: "You have a karmic bond with the Commander-in-chief. Someday you will perform great Buddhist deeds. Sadly, I shall not live to see it." He first resided at Zhizhe Rock on Mount Tiantai. For ninety days he practiced meditation; a wren nested in the sleeve of his robe. Later, at Guoqing Monastery, he practiced the Lotus Repentance. At night he saw a divine being holding a halberd enter. The Master rebuked him: "How dare you enter unauthorized?" He replied: "Only because I have long accumulated good deeds have I reached this place." At midnight, while circumambulating the image, he saw a lotus flower in front of Samantabhadra come into his hand. Thereupon he went up to Zhizhe Rock and drew two lots: one was "A lifetime of Chan meditation," and the other was "Reciting scriptures, practicing all ten thousand goods, and adorning the Pure Land." Concentrating his mind in earnest prayer, he drew "Reciting scriptures and practicing all ten thousand goods," doing so up to seven times. Thereupon he wholeheartedly devoted himself to practicing the pure karma. Shaking his ringed staff, he went to Tianzhu Peak in Jinhua to recite scriptures for three years. In Chan contemplation, he saw Avalokiteśvara pouring sweet dew into his mouth, whereupon he attained eloquence. He first expounded the Dharma at Xuedou. In the first year of Jianlong, King Zhongyi invited him to reside at Lingyin. In the second year, he moved to Yongming. His daily regimen comprised one hundred and eight practices, never neglected for a moment. When students came to consult him, he pointed to the mind as the fundamental tenet and took awakening as the standard. At sunset he went to another peak to practice circumambulation and mindfulness of the Buddha. People nearby heard the sounds of conch shells and heavenly music. King Zhongyi sighed: "Since ancient times, among those who seek the Western paradise, there has never been one with such concentrated effort!" He therefore erected the Western Xiangyan Hall for him to fulfill his aspiration. Residing at Yongming for fifteen years, he had one thousand seven hundred disciples. He frequently administered the bodhisattva precepts to the assembly, gave food to ghosts by night, and released living beings by day, dedicating all of it to adorning the Pure Land. People of the time called him an incarnation of Maitreya. On the twenty-sixth day of the second month in the eighth year of Kaibao, he rose in the morning, burned incense, announced his departure to the assembly, sat cross-legged, and passed away.