淨土往生傳 3.19

3.19

釋晤恩。字修已。姑蘇常熟人。母張氏。甞夢梵僧謂曰。吾欲寄汝為母矣。已而有娠。孩孺之間。不親戲玩。年十三。聞僧誦彌陀經。遂求棄俗。後唐長興中剃落。後依崑山慧聚寺。博訪五部律文。晉天福中。從靈光皓端師。研味諸經。懸解之旨。輒難抗敵。雖天台三觀六即之義。人未之究。率冥解之。晚依錢塘志因師。通法華金光明等諸部大經。一時學者。盛相推伏。號之義虎焉。恩生平潔苦。日惟一食。不留餘財。不蓄長衣。其寺每一布薩。萬眾雲集。方布薩時。常指淨土為勝業。宋雍熙三年八月朔夜。恩見白光數道。由井而出明滅不常。謂門人曰。明滅不常。死生象也。乃絕食禁言。一心念佛。後三日。倏見梵僧一人儀形甚偉。捧鑪三繞其室。恩問之。僧曰。吾灌頂也。陞之淨土其已久矣。以汝所修同我之志故。來相叩。俄而弟子至。僧且失焉。次日升座。言其所見。亦為弟子。敷說止觀及諸經要義。義文將徹。恩曰。瞬息難保。古今常言。吾能以保今日哉。是日坐亡于止觀之講堂。至其夜半。寺僧文偃有興等。聞空中歌唄之音。依俙西去。餘其嘉應自有傳云。

Shi Wu'en, whose courtesy name was Xiuji, was a native of Changshu in Gusu. His mother, Lady Zhang, once dreamed of an Indian monk who said to her, "I wish to lodge with you as my mother." Soon afterward, she was pregnant. During his childhood, he did not take part in games and play. At the age of thirteen, hearing a monk recite the Amitābha Sūtra, he sought to abandon the secular world. During the Changxing reign era of the Later Tang, he had his head shaved. Later, relying on Huiju Monastery in Kunshan, he broadly studied the Vinaya texts of the five schools. During the Tianfu reign era of the Jin, he followed Master Haoduan of Lingguang to investigate the various sūtras. In his spontaneous understanding of the essentials, it was difficult for anyone to match him. Even the Tiantai doctrines of the three contemplations and the six stages of identity, which others had not fully penetrated, he largely understood by quiet insight. In his later years, he relied on Master Zhiyin of Qiantang, thoroughly mastering the major sūtras such as the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka and the Suvarṇaprabhāsa. The scholars of the time greatly deferred to him, calling him the "Tiger of Meaning." Throughout his life, En was pure and austere, eating only one meal a day, keeping no surplus wealth, and storing no extra robes. Each time that monastery held the poṣadha, ten thousand people gathered like clouds. Whenever the poṣadha took place, he would always point to the Pure Land as the supreme practice. On the first night of the eighth month in the third year of the Yongxi reign era of the Song, En saw several beams of white light emerge from a well, flashing intermittently. He said to his disciples, "Flashing intermittently is an emblem of birth and death." He then ceased eating, maintained silence, and single-mindedly practiced buddhānusmṛti. Three days later, he suddenly saw an Indian monk of very imposing stature holding an incense burner, circumambulating his room three times. En questioned him, and the monk said, "I am Guanding. I ascended to the Pure Land long ago. Because your practice accords with my aim, I have come to call upon you." Presently, his disciples arrived, and the monk disappeared. The next day, he ascended the high seat, spoke of what he had seen, and also expounded the essential meanings of śamatha-vipaśyanā and the various sūtras for his disciples. When the doctrinal texts were nearly finished, En said, "An instant is hard to secure; this has always been said from ancient times to the present. How could I secure even today?" On that day, he passed away sitting in the lecture hall for śamatha-vipaśyanā. At midnight, the monastery monks Wenyan, Youxing, and others heard chanting and singing in the sky, fading away toward the west. Other auspicious responses have their own biographies.