淨土往生傳 3.18

3.18

Shi Shouzhen was a native of Wannian in Yongxing. His secular surname was Ji, and he was an illustrious descendant of Ji Xin, who had impersonated the Han emperor. During the Qianfu reign era of the Tang, his great-grandfather Kan served as an official in Shu, and so they became people of Chengdu. In his capping year, Zhen visited Shengshou Monastery, and seeing the Chan Master Xiujin's rigorous and upright conduct, sighed and said, "If I set aside this man, whom should I take as my teacher?" He then cast off his cap and sash to serve him. Soon after, he went to Master Conglang to study the Dacheng qixin lun, and to Master Xingguang to receive the contemplation of the realm of reality, mastering the essentials of both. After that, he propagated the supreme practice for more than forty years, guiding others from beginning to end with undivided earnestness. In total, he lectured on the Dacheng qixin lun and the contemplation of the realm of reality more than seventy times, transmitting the lamp with the lamp and pouring from vessel into vessel; more than twenty people succeeded to his Dharma. He established the abhiṣeka bodhimanda five times and the Water and Land Rite more than twenty times, and more than three thousand monks and nuns came to request the Dharma from him. He regularly formed the secret mudrā of rebirth of Amitāyus at the third watch, and recited the five-tuft dhāraṇī of Mañjuśrī at the fifth watch. On the fifth day of the mid-summer month in the third year of the Kaibao reign era of the Song, while he was forming the mudrā, he felt his body ascend to the Land of Amitāyus. Lifting his eyes, he saw the Buddha. The Buddha pointed to a lotus in the pond and said, "This flower shall be your parents on a future day. You should protect it and not let it wither on that day." In the fourth year, Zhen said to his disciple Yuanyu, "Does not the Tathāgata say that birth and death are impermanent? My years are already old, and your age is already advanced. I wish to follow worldly custom and prepare two stupas in advance; may we?" Yu said, "Whatever the master commands, how could it not be good?" On the fifth day of the first month of winter of that year, work began; on the first day of the second month of winter, the construction was completed. The next day, Zhen summoned the monks of the monastery and his disciples, and instructed them on the suffering of rising and sinking in the six destinies and the causes of revolving through the myriad karmas. He then had them recite the name of Amitābha Buddha in a chorus; when the sound of the Buddha's name stopped, it was followed by praises and verses. Before the image of Amitābha, Zhen bowed low and prayed, "I vow that the Buddha's forty-eight vows will deliver us sentient beings; among those vows, may not a single one be left out!" When the vows were finished, he again held incense and flowers, going through the various halls and shrines to lay out offerings, his vows being just as before. Shortly afterward, he asked, "Is it the third watch?" A disciple said, "It is already the third watch." Zhen then went to his seat, gathered his breath, and calmly returned to quiescence.