淨土往生傳 1.22

1.22

釋曇鸞。雁門人也。少遊五臺。感其靈異。誓而出俗。三乘頓漸。具陶文理。甞讀大集經。苦其辭義。深密難以開悟。大下辭筆。以形注解。又甞抱疾。行至汾川。俄見雲陰斗盡。天門洞開。六欲階位。上下重複。鸞方瞬目。疾乃隨愈。鸞於是後用心佛道。常如不及。開蒙誘俗。無間遠邇。初鸞好為術學。聞江南有陶隱居。得道家長生法。千里就之以卒其業。陶以所學仙經十卷授鸞。鸞躍然自得。以為神仙之術。其必然也。後還洛下。遇菩提留支。意頗德之。問支曰。佛道有為長生乎。其能却老為不死乎。支笑而對曰。長生不死吾佛道也。道家何有焉。旋以觀無量壽經授之曰。汝可誦此。則三界無復生。六道無長往。盈虛消長禍福成敗。無得而眹其為壽也。有劫石焉。有河沙焉。河沙之數有極。壽量之數無期。此吾金仙氏之長生也。鸞承其語。驟起深信。遂焚所學仙經。而專觀經焉。每於觀經。得其理義。修三福業。想像九品。雖夫寒暑之變疾病之來。不懈于始念。魏主憐其志尚。又嘉其自行化他流靡弘廣。號為神鸞。勅住并州大嚴寺。未幾移住汾州壁谷玄中寺。一夕鸞正持誦。見一梵僧掀昂而來。入其室曰。吾龍樹也。其所居者淨土焉。以汝有淨土之心故來見汝。鸞曰。何以教我。樹曰。已去不可及。未來未可追。現在今何在。白駒難與迴。言訖而失。鸞以所見勝異。必知死生之期戒矣。即集弟子數百人。盛陳教誡言。其四生役役。其止無日。地獄諸苦。不可以不懼。九品淨業。不可以不修。因令弟子齊聲。高唱阿彌陀佛。鸞乃西向冥目。頓顙而示滅之。是時道俗。同聞管絃絲竹之聲。由西而來由西而隱。魏主曰。此誠佛子之真修。其所歸也有在矣。勅葬汾西之文谷。仍條其生平所習。以立碑焉。

Shi Tanluan was a native of Yanmen. When young, he traveled to Mount Wutai, and moved by its divine marvels, he vowed to leave secular life. He mastered the texts and tenets of the three vehicles, both sudden and gradual. Once, while reading the Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra, he found its phrases and meaning deeply obscure and difficult to comprehend, so he took up his brush to compose an extensive commentary. He also once fell ill; walking as far as Fenchuan, he suddenly saw the dark clouds abruptly vanish and the gates of heaven open wide, revealing the stages of the six desire realms layered above and below. Just as Tanluan blinked, his illness was cured. From that time on, Tanluan applied his mind to the Buddha's path, always as if he could never catch up, educating the unlearned and guiding the laypeople, whether near or far. Earlier, Tanluan had been fond of the occult arts. Hearing that Tao Hongjing in Jiangnan had obtained the Daoist methods of longevity, he traveled a thousand li to study with him in order to complete his training. Tao bestowed ten fascicles of immortal scriptures upon him. Tanluan was delighted and content, believing that the art of the immortals was certainly true. Later, he returned to Luoyang and met Bodhiruci, whom he held in high esteem. He asked Bodhiruci: "Does the Buddha's path have a way to achieve longevity? Can it stave off old age and bring about immortality?" Bodhiruci laughed and replied: "Immortality and longevity belong to our Buddha's path. What could the Daoists have of them?" He then handed him the Contemplation of Amitāyus Sūtra, saying: "If you recite this, you will never again be reborn in the three realms or wander endlessly through the six destinies. Waxing and waning, growth and decay, misfortune and blessing, success and failure will find no omen [in you], and that is your longevity. There is the kalpa-stone and there are the sands of the Ganges: the sands of the Ganges have an end, but the count of this lifespan has no limit. This is the longevity of our Golden Immortal." Tanluan accepted his words, was suddenly filled with deep faith, burned the immortal scriptures he had studied, and focused exclusively on the Contemplation Sūtra. Whenever he grasped its principles and meaning, he cultivated the threefold meritorious karma and visualized the nine grades; even through changes of cold and heat or the onset of illness, he never slackened in his initial resolve. The ruler of Wei, admiring his aspiration and praising his extensive self-cultivation and transformation of others, named him "Divine Luan" and decreed that he dwell at Dayan Monastery in Bingzhou. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Xuanzhong Monastery in Bigu of Fenzhou. One night, while Tanluan was reciting, he saw an Indian monk approach with an imposing bearing, enter his room, and say: "I am Nāgārjuna. My dwelling place is the Pure Land. Because you have a mind set upon the Pure Land, I have come to see you." Tanluan said: "What instruction do you have for me?" Nāgārjuna said: "What has passed cannot be reached; what is to come cannot be pursued. Where is the present right now? The white colt [of time] cannot be turned back." Having spoken, he disappeared. Tanluan, considering the extraordinary nature of what he had seen, knew that the time of his death had surely arrived. He immediately gathered several hundred disciples and delivered earnest instructions: "Toilsome are the four kinds of birth; their ceasing has no set day. The various sufferings of hell must be feared; the pure karma of the nine grades must be cultivated." He then ordered the disciples to raise their voices in unison and chant "Amitābha." Tanluan turned toward the west, closed his eyes, bowed his head to the ground, and entered extinction. At that time, both monastics and laypeople heard the sounds of flutes and strings coming from the west and fading away to the west. The ruler of Wei said: "This was truly a genuine practitioner among the Buddha's disciples; his destination is certain." He ordered him buried in Wengu, west of Fen, and had a stele erected recording what he had practiced throughout his life.