法華傳記 3.38

3.38

Shi Zhitong's secular surname was Cheng; he was a native of Yishi in Hedong. Born with innate knowledge, sincere faith, and a love for honouring the wisdom of the Way, when he was about to study writing and reckoning, he wished to leave home. His parents found this extraordinary and permitted him. At ten years of age he was already tonsured, cultivating and upholding the precept conduct, chanting the holy words of the Dharma, and reciting through the Lotus Sūtra day and night without ceasing. He recited more than three thousand essential verses praising the Buddha from various sūtras for some fifty years, never professing weariness. On the twenty-fourth day of the tenth month in the seventh year of the Daye era, he passed away from illness at the mountain temple, at the age of sixty-four. At first, several days before his demise, he was indisposed. When the karmadāna struck the bell, the mallet broke of itself; commentators took this to mean that [his life] would not extend further. When Tong heard of it, he ordered an attendant to invoke the names of Amitābha Buddha and the Lotus Sūtra, turning his mind and collecting his thoughts, vowing to be born in that Western realm. Toward evening he opened his eyes, gazed straight ahead for a long while without blinking, as if seeing something. The side attendants added incense and stood respectfully in silence for about the time of a meal before stopping. He then snapped his fingers and said, "Inconceivable!" When asked the reason, he said, "I see jeweled banners, flower canopies, and the adornments of stūpas and shrines." In the first watch of the night he again turned his head, looked around, and said, "I just saw a bright pearl; where is it now?" He also said, "What matter is there that requires such brightly lit lamps and candles?" They then covered the lamps to make it dark. After a short while he spoke again: "Why has the firelight grown ever brighter?" The chamber was actually completely dark. He then joined his palms, and by dawn said, "I am born in the Pure Land!" Thereupon his breathing ceased; the mountain and earth shook, doors and windows rattled and cracked, and flocks of pheasants cried in alarm, which was not normally heard. The temple monk Daohui had dozed off before dawn, and at this point awoke in alarm, went out to lean under the corridor, and said, "If the Dhyāna Master passes away, he will certainly be born in the Pure Land. How do I know this? Just now in my sleep I saw that atop the western ridge were multistoried pavilions and palaces, ascending into the sky and departing." As he finished speaking, Zhitong had already passed away. Furthermore, Gai's mother, Lady Wang, had long cherished earnest faith, reading and reciting various sūtras, paying homage and repenting, giving rise to the aspiration [for awakening], and making rebirth [in the Pure Land] her duty. In the second month of the eleventh year of the Zhenguan era, when she was approaching the end of her life, she grew ever more diligent. She saw before her bed a red lotus flower, about the size of a five-hú vat, and also saw blue lotus flowers filling the residence. Amitābha Buddha, Avalokiteśvara, and Mahāsthāmaprāpta arrived all at once. Gai and his nephew Kuang Daxing personally heard and recounted this; Xing saw that there was a Buddha whose bodily form was exceedingly large, along with bodhisattvas, who naturally disappeared after a long while. These are all recent events, and thus a true record is transmitted (Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, fascicle 18).