弘贊法華傳 4.5

4.5

釋智顗。字德安。姓陳氏。頴川人也。有晉遷都。寓居荊州之花容焉。即梁散騎益陽公起祖之第二子也。母徐氏。夢香煙五彩。縈迴在懷。欲拂去之。聞人語曰。宿世因緣。寄託弘道。福德自至。何以去之。又夢吞白鼠。如是再三。怪而卜之。師曰。白龍之兆也。及誕育之夜。室內洞明。信宿之間。其光乃止。內外胥悅。盛陳鼎爼。遂火滅湯冷。為事不成。忽有二僧。扣門曰。善哉兒德所熏。必出家也。言訖而隱。賓客異焉。兼以臥便合掌。坐必面西。年大已來。口不忘噉。見像便禮。逢僧必敬。七歲。憙往伽藍。諸僧訝其情志。口授普門品。初契一遍即得。年十有八。投湘州果願寺沙門法緒。而出家焉。因潛大賢山。誦法花經。及無量義普賢觀等。二旬未浹。三部究竟。又詣光州大蘇山慧思禪師。受業止觀。思又從道於就師。就又受法於最師。此三人者。皆不測其位也。思每歎曰。昔在靈山。同聽法花。宿緣所追。今復來矣。即示普賢道場。為說四安樂行。顗乃於此山。行法花三昧。始經三夕。誦至藥王品。心緣苦行。至是真精進句。解悟便發。見共思師處靈鷲山七寶淨土。聽佛說法。故思云。非爾不感。非我莫識。此法花三昧前方便也。又入𭰝州白沙山。如前入觀。於經有疑。輒見思來冥為披釋。爾後常令代講。聞者伏之。即往天台。於寺北花頂峯。獨靜頭陀。忽大風拔木。雷霆震吼。魅千群。一形百杖。吐大聲叫。駭畏難陳。乃抑心安忍。湛然自失。又患身心煩痛。如被火燒。又見亡歿二親。枕顗膝上。陳苦求哀。顗又依止法忍。不動如山。故使強輕兩緣所感便滅。忽致西域神僧告曰。制敵勝怨。乃可為勇。文多不載。自後廣流禪慧。學者如林。當時名匠。伏膺相繁。陳隋二代帝主后妃。咸受歸戒。供施殷積。後往石城寺。於佛前。將就來報。施床東壁。面向西方。稱阿彌陀佛。波若觀音。時有欲進藥者。答曰。藥能遣病。以留殘年乎。病不與身合。藥何所遣。年不與心合。藥何所留。智晞往日。復何所聞。觀心論內。復何所道。紛紜醫藥。累擾於他。吾生勞毒器。死悅休歸。世相如是。不足多歎。便令唱法花經題。顗贊引曰。法門父母。慧解由生。本迹弘大。微妙難測。輟斧絕絃於今日矣。又索香湯漱口。說十如。四不生。十法界。三觀。四教。四無量。六度等。有問其位者。答曰。汝等嬾種善根。問他功德。如旨問孔蹶者訪路（云云）吾不領眾。必淨六根。為他損己。只是五品內位耳。又勅維那。人命將終。聞鍾磬聲。增其正念。唯長久氣盡為期。云何身冷。方復響磬。世間哭泣著服。皆不應作。且各默然。吾將去矣。言訖。端坐如入定。而卒於天台山大石像前春秋六十有七。即開皇十七年十一月二十二日也。滅後依於遺教而殮焉。至仁壽末年已前。忽振錫披衣。猶如平昔。凡經七現。重降山寺。一還佛壟。語弟子曰。案行故業。各安隱耶。舉眾皆見。悲敬言問。良久而隱。所著。法花疏。止觀門。修禪法等。各數十卷。顗。東西垂範。化通萬里。所造大寺。三十五所手度僧眾。四千餘人。寫經一十五藏。金檀畫像。十萬許軀。五十餘州道俗。受菩薩戒者。不可稱紀。傳業學士。三十二人。習禪學士。散流江漢。莫限其數。沙門灌頂。侍奉多年。歷其景行。可二十餘紙。

Shi Zhiyi, whose courtesy name was De'an, was of the Chen clan and a native of Yingchuan. When the Jin moved its capital, his family settled in Huarong of Jingzhou. He was the second son of Qizu, Duke of Yiyang and Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary under the Liang. His mother, Lady Xu, dreamed of fragrant smoke in five colours swirling into her bosom. When she wished to brush it away, she heard someone say, 'A karmic condition from past lives entrusts the propagation of the Dharma; blessings and virtue come naturally—why cast it off?' She also dreamed of swallowing a white mouse, and this occurred repeatedly. Finding it strange, she divined it, and the diviner said, 'It is an omen of a white dragon.' On the night he was born, the chamber was brilliantly illuminated; only after two nights did the light cease. Within the family and without, all were overjoyed, and they set out abundant cauldrons and butchering boards. However, the fires were extinguished, the boiling water grew cold, and the preparations could not be completed. Suddenly two monks knocked at the door and said, 'Excellent! Perfumed by the child's virtue, he will surely renounce worldly life.' Having spoken, they vanished, leaving the guests astonished. Furthermore, whenever he lay down, he would join his palms, and whenever he sat, he always faced west. As he grew older, he did not crave food; whenever he saw an image he would bow, and whenever he met a monk he always showed respect. At the age of seven, he delighted in going to saṅghārāmas. The monks marveled at his aspiration and orally taught him the Universal Gateway Chapter; at the very first attempt, he mastered it in a single reading. At the age of eighteen, he turned to the śramaṇa Faxu of Guoyuan Temple in Xiangzhou and renounced worldly life. Thereupon he secluded himself on Mount Daxian, reciting the Lotus Sūtra as well as the Immeasurable Meanings Sūtra and the Sūtra of the Contemplation of Samantabhadra; within less than twenty days, he thoroughly mastered all three texts. He then went to Mount Dasu in Guangzhou to attend Chan Master Huisi and receive instruction in cessation and contemplation (śamatha-vipaśyanā). Huisi had followed the Way under Master Jiu, and Jiu had received the Dharma from Master Zui; the spiritual stages of these three men were all unfathomable. Huisi would often sigh and say, 'Formerly on Vulture Peak, we listened together to the Lotus. Pursued by past conditions, you have now come again!' He immediately showed him the Samantabhadra ritual site and expounded for him the four comfortable practices. Zhiyi then practiced the Lotus Samādhi on this mountain. After only three nights had passed, while reciting to the Bhaiṣajyarāja Chapter, his mind focused on ascetic practice, and reaching the phrase 'This is true vigor,' understanding and awakening burst forth. He saw himself together with Master Huisi in the seven-jeweled pure land on Gṛdhrakūṭa, listening to the Buddha preach the Dharma. Therefore Huisi said, 'None but you could have such an induction; none but I could recognise it. This is the preliminary expedient of the Lotus Samādhi.' Later he entered Mount Baisha in Danzhou and entered contemplation as before. Whenever he had doubts about the scripture, he would see Huisi arrive invisibly to explain and resolve them. From then on, Huisi often had him lecture in his stead, and all who heard him submitted with respect. Zhiyi then went to Tiantai, dwelling in solitary quiet and dhūta practice on Huading Peak north of the monastery. Suddenly a great wind uprooted trees, and thunder roared and shook; thousands of packs of demons appeared, each form with a hundred faces, shouting in great voices, so frightening that it was hard to describe. He curbed his mind and practiced patient endurance, resting serene and selfless. He then suffered anguish and pain in body and mind, as though being burned by fire. He also saw his deceased parents resting their heads on his knees, weeping of their suffering and begging for mercy. Zhiyi again relied on the forbearance of phenomena, remaining motionless as a mountain. Thus both the harsh and soft conditions induced were immediately extinguished. Suddenly a divine monk from the Western Regions appeared and told him, 'Subduing enemies and conquering adversaries—this alone may be called courage.' The account is long and not fully recorded here. From then on, his dhyāna and wisdom flowed widely, and students gathered like a forest. Renowned masters of the time submitted to him in great numbers. The emperors, empresses, and consorts of both the Chen and Sui dynasties all received the refuges and precepts from him, and their offerings accumulated abundantly. Later he went to Shicheng Temple. Before the Buddha, on the verge of meeting his future retribution, he arranged his couch by the eastern wall, faced westward, and invoked Amitābha Buddha, Prajñā, and Avalokiteśvara. At that time, someone wished to offer medicine, but he replied, 'Can medicine banish illness so as to retain one's remaining years? Illness is not joined with the body; what can medicine banish? Years are not joined with the mind; what can medicine retain? What did Zhixi hear in the past? What was stated in the Treatise on Contemplating the Mind? Complicated medicines only burden and trouble others. In life, I labored in a vessel of poison; in death, I delight in resting and returning home. Such are worldly marks; they do not warrant much sighing.' He then ordered that the title of the Lotus Sūtra be chanted, and Zhiyi praised it, saying, 'It is the father and mother of the Dharma gates, from which wisdom and understanding arise. Its origin and traces are vast and great, subtle and hard to fathom. The axe is laid down and the strings are severed today!' He also requested fragrant water to rinse his mouth, and expounded the ten suchnesses, the four unproduced, the ten dharma-realms, the three contemplations, the four teachings, the four immeasurables, the six perfections, and so forth. Someone asked about his attainment, and he replied, 'You are lazy in planting good roots, yet you inquire into the merits of others, like a blind man asking about the sun or a cripple inquiring about the road […] Had I not led the assembly, I would surely have purified the six sense faculties. By diminishing myself for the sake of others, I remain only at the inner rank of the five stages.' He also instructed the karmadāna, 'When a person's life is about to end, hearing the sound of bells and chimes enhances their right mindfulness; it should continue until their breath has long ceased. Why strike the chimes only after the body has already turned cold? Weeping and wearing mourning clothes in worldly fashion must not be done. Let everyone remain silent; I am about to depart.' Having spoken, he sat upright as if entering absorption and passed away before the Great Stone Statue on Mount Tiantai at the age of sixty-seven, on the twenty-second day of the eleventh month in the seventeenth year of Kaihuang. After his passing, he was encoffined in accordance with his bequeathed teachings. Before the end of the Renshou era, he suddenly shook his monk's staff and donned his robes just as in the past, appearing a total of seven times. He descended again to the mountain monastery and once returned to the Buddha Ridge, saying to his disciples, 'I am inspecting our former undertakings. Is everyone peaceful and secure?' The entire assembly saw him, wept, bowed, and inquired after him; after a long while, he vanished. He authored commentaries on the Lotus Sūtra, manuals of cessation and contemplation, methods of cultivating dhyāna, and so forth, each comprising tens of fascicles. Zhiyi set a model in the east and west, his transformative teaching reaching ten thousand li. He founded thirty-five great monasteries, personally ordained more than four thousand monks, produced fifteen sets of the tripiṭaka, and made some one hundred thousand gilded, sandalwood, and painted statues. The monastics and laypeople in more than fifty prefectures who received the bodhisattva precepts were beyond count. There were thirty-two scholars who transmitted his teachings, and scholars who practiced dhyāna spread across the Changjiang and Han River basins in limitless numbers. The śramaṇa Guanding served him for many years, recording his illustrious conduct over some twenty-odd sheets of paper.