淨土往生傳 3.19

3.19

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.