往生西方淨土瑞應傳 1.25

1.25

Dhyāna Master Shandao of the Tang dynasty had the surname Zhu and was a native of Sizhou. He left home while young. Seeing at that time a tableau of the Western Pure Land, he sighed and said, “When shall I entrust my form to a lotus pedestal and rest my spirit in the Pure Land?” When he received the full precepts, he examined the Guan Wuliangshou jing together with Vinaya Master Miaokai. Overjoyed, they sighed in agreement and said, “Practicing other conduct and karmic practices is circuitous, deviated, and difficult to accomplish; only this gate of contemplation certainly transcends birth and death.” He then went to the place of Dhyāna Master Daochuo and asked, “Does buddhamanasikāra truly result in rebirth?” The master said, “Let each identify one lotus flower and circumambulate the path for seven days; if it does not wither, you will attain rebirth.” Furthermore, Dharma Master Ying of the Eastern Capital had lectured on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra forty times. Entering Dhyāna Master Daochuo’s bodhimanda and wandering in samādhi, he sighed and said, “I lament that for many years I vainly searched through commentaries, merely toiling body and mind. How could I have expected that buddhamanasikāra would be inconceivable?” The Dhyāna Master said, “The sūtras contain sincere words; how could the Buddha speak falsely?” The Dhyāna Master Shandao always took delight in begging for food throughout his life. He would constantly reproach himself, saying, “Even Śākyamuni practiced piṇḍapāta; what sort of man is Shandao to sit upright and demand offerings?” Even from śrāmaṇeras he would not accept prostrations. He copied ten myriad fascicles of the Amitābha Sūtra and painted two hundred tableaux of the Pure Land. Whatever stūpas and monasteries he saw, he never failed to repair them. Since the Buddha's Dharma traveled east, none have flourished like this Dhyāna Master.