淨土往生傳 1.8

1.8

Shi Huiyuan, whose secular surname was Jia, was a man of Loufan in Yanmen. In his youth, he relied on his maternal uncle and studied as an itinerant scholar in Xu and Luo. He had a comprehensive grasp of the classics and histories, and was especially versed in Zhuangzi and Laozi. At the age of twenty-one, wishing to cross east of the Yangtze River to confirm an agreement with Fan Xuanzi, the southern route was blocked, and his intention could not be carried out. At that time, Dao'an was at the Taihang Mountains propagating and extolling the Semblance Dharma, and his renown was widely known. Huiyuan went to take refuge with him, and upon meeting him once, offered his utmost reverence. Later, listening to Dao'an lecture on the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, he was suddenly awakened, whereupon he said: "The divergent views of the Nine Schools are merely chaff and bran!" He and his maternal younger brother Huichi discarded their hairpins [and renounced secular life] to serve him. Yet his demeanour was solemn and stern, and his comportment was upright and dignified. Dao'an often sighed: "If the teaching is to spread to the Eastern Land, will it not rest upon Yuan?" When he reached the age of twenty-four, he excelled in lecturing and expounding. A visitor once raised difficult questions about the meaning of the true mark (dharmatā); though they debated and analysed it back and forth, the visitor grew only more doubtful and obscure. Huiyuan cited the text of Zhuangzi to draw an analogy, and the visitor was then illuminated. From then on, Master Dao'an permitted Huiyuan not to abandon secular texts. During the Jianyuan era of the illegitimate Qin, Xiangyang suffered turmoil from bandits. Dao'an was detained by Zhu Xu and his assembly dispersed, the disciples each going where they might. Huiyuan, together with Huichi and several dozen others, went together to Jingzhou. Before long, he wished again to go south to Luofu. His route passed through Xunyang, and seeing the green peaks of Mount Lu, his mind was quite pleased with them. However, the place where he rested was still far from water. Huiyuan struck the ground with his staff and said: "If this place may be inhabited, let a spring burst forth from the barren earth!" When he finished speaking, a spring welled up. Later, Xunyang suffered a severe drought. Huiyuan went to the side of that water and recited the Dragon King Sūtra. Soon a giant snake rose from the water into the sky, and in an instant, torrential rain fell. For this reason, the place was named Dragon Spring. At that time, the monk Huiyong was already living at Xilin Monastery; he invited Huiyuan to dwell together, yet was ashamed that his own dwelling was cramped and insufficient to lodge him, so he informed the Inspector Huan Yi. Huan Yi approved his intention and built Donglin Monastery for Huiyuan to dwell in. In the past, when Tao Kan went out to govern Guangzhou, a fisherman found an image made by King Aśoka at sea; the image was exceedingly wondrous. Tao Kan reverently brought it back to Hanxi Monastery in Wuchang. Once the monastery suffered a fire, but the image alone survived. Later, when Tao Kan moved to govern another commandery, because the image repeatedly showed miraculous phenomena, he dispatched envoys to welcome it, but in the end they could not lift it. When Huiyuan's monastery was completed, he made a sincere prayer and entreaty, and it arrived of itself, floating along. From this it was known that Huiyuan's cultivation and realization moved things with auspicious responses. When Yin Zhongkan went to Jingzhou, his path passed through Mount Lu; he discussed the Book of Changes with Huiyuan, and spent hours untired. Zhongkan said: "His depth of understanding and brightness of wisdom are indeed hard to match." The Minister over the Masses Wang Mi and the Protector of the Army Wang Mo both admired his noble demeanor and virtue, paying him respects as a master from afar. Wang Mi sent a letter saying: "I am not yet forty, but my decline is like someone at sixty. How could I not grieve at my own falling away?" Huiyuan said: "The ancients did not prize a foot of jade, but valued an inch of time. Reflecting on what is preserved, it does not lie in long years." When Emperor Wu of the Song pursued and attacked Lu Xun, he pitched his tent at Sangwei. His attendants said: "Master Yuan is the uncrowned king of Mount Lu and has a close friendship with Xun." Emperor Wu of the Song said: "Master Yuan is a man beyond this world; how could he take sides?" Thereupon he sent an envoy carrying a letter, presenting him with money and rice. The ruler of the Qin, Yao Xing, admired Huiyuan's talent and thought, repeatedly sending tokens and provisions. When the newly translated Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa appeared, Xing sent the original treatise to Huiyuan, and in a letter wrote: "This treatise was composed by Nāgārjuna and is moreover the ultimate resort of the vaipulya. Without a great being, who could write a preface and introduction to it?" When Huan Xuan punished the crimes of Zhongkan, he went directly to the foot of the mountain and invited Huiyuan to come out past Tiger Creek, but Huiyuan declined. Huan Xuan entered the mountain himself. His attendants said: "Zhongkan was a guilty man, yet he made great efforts to revere Yuan. May Your Excellency not revere him." Huan Xuan said: "Zhongkan was merely an ordinary mortal; to whom can I compare him?" Yet when they met, he unconsciously displayed his reverence; thus, although he inwardly harboured doubts and challenges, he did not dare bring them up again. He then asked about military strategies for campaigns. Huiyuan did not answer, and when asked the reason, replied: "I have not studied the affairs of military forces." Huan Xuan said: "What is your wish for me?" Huiyuan said: "I wish that the dānapati be at ease and well, and that others likewise suffer no harm." Huan Xuan came out of the mountain and said to his attendants: "This man is truly one I have never seen in my life. How could I treat him with negligence?" Later, Huan Xuan, relying on his awe-inspiring power that shook the sovereign, made subtle advances to summon him, and also instituted an order that monks must revere the king. The President of the Department of State Affairs He Chong, the Vice-Director Chu Yi, Zhuge Hui, and others all submitted memorials and deliberations, while the Imperial Secretariat also presented rebuttals; agreements and disagreements were in turmoil, and the principle could not be decided. Huiyuan composed five treatises On Why Monks Do Not Revere Kings and presented them to Huan Xuan, who thereupon stopped the matter. When Huan Xuan fled west, Emperor An returned from Jiangling to the capital, and the Auxiliary General He Wuji urged Huiyuan to welcome the imperial carriage. Huiyuan pleaded illness. The emperor sent a letter of inquiry, and the court rituals exceeded ordinary standards. Huiyuan submitted a memorial of thanks, saying: "Shi Huiyuan bows his head. The warmth of the tenth month is mild; may the imperial diet be harmonious and fitting. This poor monk is afflicted by chronic illness, and my decline with age grows worse. Receiving the gracious edict unexpectedly, which bestowed radiant consolation, my feelings of deep gratitude and trepidation are indeed tenfold in my heart." The emperor read the memorial and replied again with a gracious edict. Xie Lingyun of Chenliu was proud of his talent and arrogant toward others, seldom praising anyone; yet once he met Huiyuan, he submitted with awe and sincere heart. Moreover, Huiyuan thoroughly understood the Buddhist teachings inwardly and was skilled in Confucian texts outwardly. During his thirty years residing at Mount Lu, his shadow never left the mountain and his footprints never entered the secular world. Liu Yimin of Pengcheng, Lei Cizong of Yuzhang, Zhou Xuzhi of Yanmen, Bi Yingzhi of Xincai, Zong Bing of Nanyang, and Zhang Ye of Qinghe all abandoned the world and cast off glory, relying on Huiyuan to roam and dwell. Huiyuan, together with Liu Yimin and the others, comprising one hundred and twenty-three monks and laymen, formed the Pure Society. In front of the image of Amitābha, they established their sincerity and made a vow, hoping to ascend to Anyang. He then ordered Liu Yimin to compose a text and carve it on stone. At that time, some called it the Lotus Society, which referred to the place where their minds vowed to be reborn. Huiyuan broadly promoted the good and supported the capable, dedicating himself to the propagation of the Dharma. Whenever he heard that monks had arrived from the Western Regions, he would invariably consult and inquire thoroughly into the subtleties of the doctrine. When the Kaśmīran monk Saṃghanandi arrived in Xunyang during the Taiyuan era, Huiyuan requested him to re-translate the Abhidharmahṛdaya and the Tridharmaka-śāstra. Later, hearing that Kumārajīva had entered the Pass, he burned incense and directed his thoughts afar, sending letters to inquire of him. Kumārajīva also had long known of his reputation, and replied with a letter to establish friendship, moreover praising and admiring him greatly with five gāthās. From this time on, across a thousand li between north and south, letters and inquiries never ceased. On the first day of the eighth month of the twelfth year of the Yixi era, his bodily humours became disordered. By the sixth day, his illness grew severely critical. The venerable elders all kowtowed and begged him to drink fermented soybean wine. Huiyuan said: "Using wine to treat illness has no permissive text in the Vinaya." They begged him to drink rice congee. He replied again: "The sun has passed noon." Then they begged him to drink honey water; he then ordered the Vinaya master to unfold the Vinaya and search for the text. Before half the text was read, Huiyuan had already passed away, at the age of eighty-three. Monks and laymen gathered like clouds, and carriage ruts choked the roads. Ruan Bao, the Governor of Xunyang, together with the disciple Fajing and others, excavated a vault to bury him on the west side of the mountain. Renowned worthies of the day, such as Xie Lingyun and Zong Bing, mourning his departed virtue, took turns composing commemorative inscriptions. More than a hundred years after Huiyuan, the Liang monk Huijiao obtained the true facts and also composed a biography for him. According to the Separate Biography of Huiyuan, Huiyuan, in his cultivation of the Pure Land, was assiduous in mindfulness. In the first eleven years after he rested at Mount Lu, he clarified his mind and focused his contemplation, beholding auspicious signs three times; but Huiyuan was reserved and deep, and in the end spoke nothing of it. Nineteen years later, on the evening of the last day of the seventh month, as Huiyuan was just arising from samādhi in the eastern niche of the Prajñā Platform, he saw Amitābha Buddha, his body filling empty space. Within the circular halo there were transformed buddhas, and he also saw Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta standing in attendance to the left and right. Furthermore, he saw radiant light streaming like water divided into fourteen branches, each branch of water flowing up and down, naturally preaching suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. The Buddha said to Huiyuan: "By the power of my fundamental vow, I have come to console you. In seven days, you shall be reborn in my land." He also saw Buddhayasas, Huichi, and Tanshuan by the side of the Buddha, who came forward, bowed to Huiyuan, and said: "The Dharma Master's aspiration preceded ours; why do you arrive so late?" Having seen this clearly with his own eyes, and examining that his mental faculties were unconfused, Huiyuan fully recounted what he had seen to his disciples Fajing, Huibao, and others. He then told Fajing: "Initially, during the first eleven years I lived here, I was fortunate to behold auspicious signs of the Pure Land three times; now I see them again. My rebirth in the Pure Land is certain!" The next day he fell ill, and said again to Fajing: "The period of seven days is gradually approaching. You disciples must exert yourselves; do not be bound by worldly emotional ties!" When the appointed time arrived, he indeed passed away.