淨土往生傳 2.12

2.12

釋道綽。俗姓衛并州汶水人。棄家已來。歷訪名師。後聞瓚禪師理行兼著。畢志事之。尋憩壁谷玄中寺。寺即後魏曇鸞法師之舊止也。鸞於其寺。久蘊淨業。至其亡日。疊有祥異。郡人奇之。捃摭其事。刻之于碑。綽臨其文。彌起深信。於是依附靜境。澄寂諸念。念彌陀佛。不知其數。大汎日以七萬遍為度。并汾之間。風俗少事念佛。持數珠者罕。甞有之。綽勉僧俗念佛。無數珠者。以豆記之。如念一聲。即度一豆。或時麻麥記者亦然。已而較之。其所度者數萬斛。唐真觀三年四月八日。道俗集其寺。樂如來之降生也。且見鸞於空中。乘七寶船。由其船上而指綽曰。汝於淨土堂宇已成。但推報命未盡。爾復見化佛與化菩薩飄颻在空。眾乃驚歎。大生信服。雖夫無種闡提之人。亦率服之。以故唐初。并汾諸郡。熏漬淨業。由綽盛焉。綽有同志道撫者。久居輦下。去玄中寺。頗甚疎遠。或時相見。必指淨土為永會。綽亡既三日。撫聞之曰。吾常以行先之。何乃後也。又曰。吾如一息之功。見佛之期可追矣。即日於像前叩頭陳露。退就其座以化。

Shi Daochuo, whose secular surname was Wei, was a native of Wenshui in Bingzhou. After renouncing the household, he traveled around visiting famous teachers. Later, hearing that Chan Master Zan was distinguished in both theoretical understanding and practice, he devoted his whole aspiration to serving him. Soon he rested at Xuanzhong Monastery in Bigu. The monastery was the former dwelling of Dharma Master Tanluan of the Later Wei. In that monastery, Tanluan had long accumulated pure karma, and on the day of his passing, auspicious marvels occurred in succession. The prefectural people marveled at it, gathered the accounts of the events, and carved them on a stele. Daochuo looked upon its inscription and generated an even deeper faith. Thereupon, relying on a quiet setting and calming all thoughts, he recited the name of Amitābha Buddha countless times, making seventy thousand times a day his general norm. In the Bing and Fen regions, the local custom rarely engaged in buddhānusmṛti, and those holding prayer beads were few and far between. Daochuo encouraged both monastics and laypeople to practice buddhānusmṛti; for those without prayer beads, he had them count using beans—whenever one recitation was uttered, one bean was counted. At times, this was also done by counting hemp seeds or wheat grains. Afterward, when they were measured, the amount counted reached several tens of thousands of bushels. On the eighth day of the fourth month in the third year of Tang Zhenguan, monastics and laypeople gathered at the monastery, rejoicing in the descent and birth of the Tathāgata. They then saw Tanluan in the sky, riding a seven-jeweled boat, pointing from aboard the boat to Daochuo and saying, 'Your dwelling hall in the Pure Land is already completed; it is only that your karmic lifespan has not yet run out.' They also saw transformation buddhas and transformation bodhisattvas drifting in the sky. The assembly marveled in admiration and gave rise to great faith and submission; even icchantikas devoid of the spiritual lineage followed and submitted to him. Because of this, in the early Tang, the steeping of the various prefectures of Bing and Fen in pure karma flourished through Daochuo. Daochuo had a companion named Daofu, who long lived in the capital, quite distant from Xuanzhong Monastery. Whenever they met, they would always point to the Pure Land as their eternal reunion. Three days after Daochuo passed away, Daofu heard of it and said, 'I always took practice to be foremost; why am I left behind?' He also said, 'With the effort of just a single breath, the time to see the Buddha can be caught up with!' That very day, bowing his head before the image, he laid bare his confession, then withdrew to his seat and passed away.