淨土往生傳 1.13

1.13

Shi Sengrui was a native of Guantao in Wei. At the age of eighteen, he first served Sengxian as a disciple; outside of washing the robes and sandals, his learning vied with time. By the age of twenty, he had comprehensively mastered Buddhist scriptures and was also versed in Confucian texts. Once, when listening to Senglang lecturing on the Fangguang jing (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā), he repeatedly raised subtle difficulties. Lang said to Xian, “Rui's discernment surpasses ordinary men. The difficulties he recently posed remained unresolved even after my repeated contemplation. He may truly be called a worthy disciple of a worthy master!” Rui, regarding himself as abiding in the stage of learning, had not yet been able to balance wisdom with the practice of samādhi; moreover, the subtleties of dhyāna samādhi were obscure in their stages. He said, “Although the texts of the sūtras are scarce, they suffice to understand cause and effect; yet because the methods of dhyāna have not been transmitted, there is nowhere to place one's mind.” When Kumārajīva later arrived in Guanzhong and translated the three-fascicle Chan yao (Essentials of Dhyāna), Rui was the first to obtain it. Day and night he cultivated and practiced it, eventually mastering the five methods and entering the six states of tranquility with skill. Yao Song, the illegitimate Minister of Works, held his admirable conduct in high esteem and treated him with great deference. The Qin ruler Yao Xing asked Song, “What manner of man is Master Rui?” Song replied, “He is truly a pine and cypress of Ye and Wei.” When Xing met him, he praised and took immense delight in him, saying in turn to Song, “Master Rui is an exemplar of the four seas; why merely a pine and cypress of Ye and Wei?” Thereupon his fair renown spread widely, and both near and far turned to his virtue. Rui assisted in correcting all the sūtras and treatises translated by Master Kumārajīva. Later, when the Chengshi lun (Tattvasiddhi-śāstra) was translated, Kumārajīva had Rui lecture on it. Kumārajīva looked at Rui and said, “In seven places in this treatise, the text refutes the Abhidharma, but the wording is somewhat obscure. If you can understand it without asking, you are truly preeminent.” When Rui expounded it, he indeed did not consult Kumārajīva. Kumārajīva sighed with praise: “In transmitting and translating texts, that I have met with you leaves me without any regrets!” Later, Rui composed prefaces to the Da zhi lun (Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa), the Shi'ermen lun (Dvādaśamukha-śāstra), the Zhong lun (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā), and other works, as well as prefaces to the Larger and Smaller Prajñāpāramitā, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, and the Viśeṣacintibrahmaparipṛcchā sūtras, all of which circulated in the world. Originally, Rui was disciplined in deportment and broadly propagated the scriptural teachings; he constantly dedicated all good deeds with the vow to be reborn in Anyang, so that whether sitting, lying, stepping, or halting, he seldom turned his back to the west. Later, without illness, he assembled the monks and announced, “My lifelong aspiration has resided in Anyang. As I see it, I will certainly attain rebirth there. Yet if my karmas of body, speech, and mind have not reached absolute faultlessness, I pray that you will bestow great compassion and forever be my Dharma friends.” Having thus opened his heart to the monks, he passed away while seated. On the day of Rui's passing, the monastery monks all saw five-colored smoke and vapor emerge from Rui's room, swirling and gradually drifting toward the west.