神僧傳 9.8

9.8

Śramaṇa Congjian, whose secular surname was Zhang, was a native of Nanyang. His family moved to Guangling and became settled residents there. He was eight spans tall, with striking and extraordinary facial features. Past the prime of life, he suddenly had an awakening to the true principle; he thereupon renounced his wife and children to follow the tonsure and shaving of his head. Thereupon he investigated the essentials of chan contemplation, and his mental sphere became clear and distinct. In not more than ten years, seniors and venerable elders all deferentially submitted to him. When he came to the eastern capital, Luoyang, he took up residence at Jing'ai Monastery. As both his years and virtue matured, he became an authority revered by both Buddhist monastics and Daoists. Whenever he went to receive meal offerings, he would always eat facing the Venerable Piṇḍola. Such was the reverence and respect shown to him by humans and devas. When Emperor Wuzong of the Tang succeeded to the throne and changed the reign title to Huichang, he was fond of the ceremonies of riding the phoenix and driving the crane, and he looked down upon the teaching of black robes and subduing dragons. He thereupon issued an edict to the commanderies and principalities to demolish monasteries and pagodas, ordering the śramaṇas to return to lay life. At first, Master Congjian wore a black cap and hempen clothes, concealing himself at Huangfu Mei's Hot Springs villa. On the ridge behind, tall trees stood crowded and lush, and a massive boulder was as flat as a whetstone. During summer days, Master Congjian would often enter quiescence there, or mend patchwork robes. Suddenly one day, lowering clouds and driving rain arrived, and lightning struck beside the rock. The various brethren ran into the woods, but Master Congjian sat cross-legged with equanimity, as if he had heard nothing. When the brethren questioned him, he slowly said, 'It is only a wicked brute.' In the beginning of the Dazhong era, Emperor Xuanzong revived the Inner Teaching. Master Congjian returned to his old dwelling in the Eastern Capital. His son came from Guangling to visit him, and happened to meet Congjian at the courtyard gate. His dignified appearance was so awe-inspiring and solemn that he was no longer recognizable. [The son] bowed and asked where Congjian lived. Master Congjian pointed and said, 'Near the east end.' After his son left, he closed his door and did not come out. Such was his severance of the nets of affection. In the fifth month of the summer of the bingxu year of the Xiantong era, he suddenly made visits everywhere to the homes of the faithful he had frequented, and said to them all, 'Establish wholesome fields of merit. At the beginning of autumn, this poor monk must take a distant journey; hence I come to bid farewell.' On the first day of the seventh autumn month, at dawn, he washed his hands, burned incense, and recollected the Tathāgata Maitreya. Then he lay down on his right side, summoned disciples such as Xuanzhang, and admonished them, saying, 'A human life is difficult to obtain; the evil realms are easy to fall into. One can only take refuge in the Śākya Honoured One and vigorously refine one's pure conduct. We shall meet again at the Dragon Flower Assembly. Life has its end, and I part with you for a short while.' On that day, without illness, he suddenly passed away. His age was more than eighty. Xuanzhang and the others respectfully carried out his bequeathed instructions and took the corpse outside the Jianchun Gate into the Śītavana charnel ground to give it as an offering to the birds and beasts. Three days later, they looked at it again: his face, though starved, was as if alive, and no creature dared approach. They then covered it with cakes and pastries. Overnight, there were tracks of wolves and foxes; they had only eaten the cakes and pastries, while his plump flesh remained completely intact. They then cremated him in accordance with the Indian ritual. After gathering the remaining ashes, they raised a white pagoda by the roadside, and in spring and autumn offered incense and lamps in memorial to him.