往生西方淨土瑞應傳 1.37

1.37

Dhyāna Master Huaiyu had the surname Gao and lived at Yongquan Monastery in Taizhou. Eating one meal a day, he would not eat domesticated crops nor wear silkworm silk. He constantly repented his karma over tens of thousands of times. He recited the Guan Wuliangshou jing three hundred thousand times. His daily quota was fifty thousand recitations of the Buddha’s name. He released fleas and lice, and constantly sat without lying down. On the ninth day of the sixth month in the sixth year of Tianbao, he saw the noble assembly of the Western Pure Land, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. He saw a person holding a white silver pedestal enter directly facing the window. The Dhyāna Master said, “My cultivation warrants attaining a golden pedestal!” and immediately applied greater effort to buddhamanasikāra. A voice in the sky said that there was a circular halo above his crown, and light filled the sky. He said to his disciples, “Step back, do not touch the light.” When his end was near, the color of the light grew even more magnificent. Thereupon he spoke a verse, saying: