淨土往生傳 1.23

1.23

Shi Daozhen: his family origins are unknown. During the Tianjian era of the Liang dynasty, he rested his staff at Mount Lu. Hearing that in former times Lord [Hui]yuan, along with Huiduan, Danshun, and others, had fixed their thoughts on the Pure Land, his heart longed for it; yet in his yearning, he would sometimes pursue it and sometimes not, hesitating and unable to concentrate his mindfulness. Later, he saw in a dream several tens of people floating upon the sea, rowing their boat forward. Daozhen asked them [where they were going], and they replied: "We are going to the Land of Amitābha." Daozhen said: "I wish to go with you; would you reject me?" They replied: "With your wish, who would dare reject you? But the cultivation of a single day surpasses kalpas of effort. The sūtra of Amitābha exists, yet you have not recited it; how can you seek to go?" When Daozhen awoke from the dream, he sighed with shame and dread, as if he had fallen short of the supreme Dharma. He then sought out the sūtra and recited it day and night continuously, without the breadth of a hair's interruption. Two years later, on the second day before the summer retreat, when the hall was empty and the doors bolted, someone arrived holding a silver dais and said: "Dharma Master, your retribution is exhausted; you should ascend this dais." He also said: "With your merit, Master, you should have obtained a golden dais. But because your initial mind hesitated, you must stop at this." Daozhen wept and gave thanks: "If I can indeed cross beyond the three realms and escape the five sufferings, then this gradual foundation for seeing the Buddha will suffice for me, Daozhen; why must it be a golden dais?" Daozhen spoke little and disparaged himself; though he attained these matters, he never boasted of them to others, nor did anyone know of them. Daozhen merely recorded several hundred words himself and hid them in a scripture box by the corner of his seat. On the night of his death, the myriad ridges and ravines of the mountain where he lived blazed and shone as if illuminated by a thousand flaming torches. More than a hundred local households saw it and were greatly astonished. At dawn, they all went to the mountain and questioned the monastery monks, who replied that Daozhen had passed away. Only then did they know that what they had seen were all auspicious signs of Daozhen's rebirth in the Pure Land. Later, his record was found in Daozhen's scripture box, and it was thus made widely known to awaken future generations.