淨土往生傳 2.7

2.7

釋真慧。俗姓陳陝之平陸人也。隋開皇中。厭俗以事本州清禪師。次之鄴都。受具于洪律師。續聞衛州詢禪師。深悟佛乘。復從咨訪。開皇之末。杖錫西歸。路出白鹿百家巖。因而憩寓。或告慧曰。擇地幽棲。蒲坂尤嘉焉。慧得其說。乃之蒲坂之麻谷。創開禪宇。蔚為淨坊。大業初甞餌黃精。絕粒百餘日。於其淨土。以繫觀想。旋又坐夏於盤谷。谷有猛虎。為民害者四年。殆慧之至。率皆避焉。十一年十月七日寢疾。終于其谷之南巖。春秋四十七。僧臘三十五。初慧好窮經律。積以成性。及得淨土九品階漸。追而修之。又恐修習未固魔外間擾。且曰。凡夫異念紛紛不一。不憑聖力。吾孰依焉。乃築淨地。為之方壇。壇設高臺。珠玉眾寶中外相表。臺之四面。復設四柱寶幢。幢上網幔。互相映飾。無量壽佛居中焉。觀音勢至侍左右焉。其下間以青碧象琉璃地。金繩分布。用界其道。道下又設七寶金幢。幢分八方。皆如其一。取經所謂七寶金幢擎琉璃地者云也。慧每依像作觀。必先澡身澣衣。而後敢入。既而出之。挺身整念肅肅然。若其諸佛神變而常在前焉。其亡之夕告弟子曰。吾於淨土。稍敦行業。不期今夕。預見蓮華。載開載合。似將乘吾。足履之在空焉。未移頃刻。眾聞鐘聲。又聞天風四來異光驟發。慧遂亡矣。

Shi Zhenhui had the secular surname Chen and was a native of Pinglu in Shan. During the Kaihuang era of the Sui, growing weary of worldly life, he served Meditation Master Qing of his home prefecture. Next he went to the capital of Ye, where he received full ordination from Vinaya Master Hong. Hearing later that Meditation Master Xun of Weizhou had profoundly awakened to the Buddha Vehicle, he went to consult and study under him. At the end of the Kaihuang era, staff in hand, he traveled west, his path leading past the Hundred-Family Cliff of Bailu, where he paused to lodge. Someone told Hui, "If you seek a secluded place to dwell, Puban is particularly excellent." Hui accepted this advice and went to Magu in Puban, where he founded a meditation hermitage that became a flourishing pure precinct. At the beginning of the Daye era, he once ingested sealwort and abstained from grain for over a hundred days, dedicating his contemplations to the Pure Land. Soon afterwards he held the summer retreat at Pangu. In the valley was a fierce tiger that had harmed the people for four years; once Hui arrived, it fled altogether. On the seventh day of the tenth month of the eleventh year, he fell ill and passed away at the south cliff of that valley, at the age of forty-seven, having been a monk for thirty-five years. Earlier, Hui had loved investigating the sūtras and the vinaya until it became second nature to him. Upon learning of the gradual stages of the nine grades of the Pure Land, he set about cultivating them. Fearing that his practice was not yet steadfast and that demons or non-Buddhists might interfere, he remarked, "The disparate thoughts of ordinary beings are tangled and not unified; if I do not rely on the power of the sage, whom can I lean upon?" He then leveled a pure site and constructed a square altar. On the altar he erected a high platform, adorned inside and out with pearls, jade, and various treasures. On the four sides of the platform he set four pillars with jeweled banners, draped with nets and curtains that reflected one another. Amitāyus Buddha sat in the center, flanked by Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta. Below, it was interspersed with blue-green tiles resembling a ground of lapis lazuli, with golden cords laid out to delineate its paths. Beneath the paths were placed jeweled golden banners, their eight directions matching the one pattern, following the sūtra’s words that seven-jeweled golden banners uphold the lapis lazuli ground. Whenever Hui performed contemplations before the images, he always bathed his body and washed his robes before daring to enter. When he emerged, he stood erect and composed his thoughts with solemn reverence, as if the divine transformations of all the Buddhas were constantly before him. On the night of his death, he told his disciples, "I have exerted myself somewhat in the practices for the Pure Land. Unexpectedly, this very night I have seen a lotus blossom beforehand, opening and closing again, as though it were about to carry me aloft, while my feet stand in the void." Before a moment had passed, the assembly heard the sound of a bell and also heard a heavenly wind blowing from all four directions, as an extraordinary light suddenly flared up. Hui then passed away.