淨土往生傳 3.3

3.3

Shi Sengxuan was a native of Shouyang in Bingzhou. In his youth, he contemplated Maitreya and aspired to be born in the Inner Court. When he reached the age of ninety, he met Chan Master Daochuo, who guided and encouraged him with the Pure Land. Though he had not yet awakened, he then turned his mind [toward it]. Since Sengxuan was pressed by his declining years and had accumulated little merit, he thereafter made a thousand bows before the Buddha and recited the Buddha's name ten thousand times each morning and evening. Awake or asleep, he diligently urged himself on, fearful and vigilant without slackening for three years. In the ninth year of Zhenyuan he fell ill, and when his condition became grave, he said to his disciples: "I am a man of outflows; now that I am afflicted with this illness, who would have thought that Amitābha would confer upon me a fragrant robe, and Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta would show me their jeweled hands? From here westward, all is the realm of the Pure Land. I shall follow the Buddha and depart!" He then passed away. Seven days after his passing, an extraordinary fragrance had not dispersed. Because of this, the people of Bingzhou and Fenzhou developed faith in the Pure Land. At that time, at Wuzhen Monastery west of Fen, there were two Dharma masters, Qifang and Yuanguo. Formerly, they had respected Sengxuan for his old age, and moreover had witnessed these events with their own eyes. They therefore repented and revealed their past transgressions before a statue of Avalokiteśvara, and broke a willow branch, placing it in Avalokiteśvara's hand, vowing: "If we, Qifang and the other, truly have an affinity with the Pure Land, let this willow branch not wither for seven days!" When the time came, the willow branch was even more luxuriant. Qifang and Yuanguo rejoiced and clapped their hands, and joining night to day, did not abandon their contemplation and recitation. Several months later, one night during their contemplation, they suddenly became aware of themselves approaching a great pool of seven jewels. In the pool was a great jeweled canopy, and they entered within it. They also saw Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta seated on jeweled lotus daises, beneath which lotus blossoms fully filled [the space by] tens of thousands. Amitābha came from the west and sat upon the largest lotus blossom, and the blossoms emitted radiance that mutually shone upon one another. Qifang and the other stepped forward, bowed, and asked: "Can the sentient beings of Jambudvīpa be born here by reciting the Buddha's name according to the sūtras?" The Buddha told Qifang: "If they recite my name, all will be born in my land; there is not a single thought [of my name] that does not bring rebirth." They also saw that the ground of that land was as flat as the palm of a hand, with jeweled banners and pearl nets interlinked above and below. They also saw a monk driving a jeweled chariot who came swiftly and said to Qifang and the other: "I am Dharmākara. Because of the cause of past vows, I have come to welcome you." Qifang and the other mounted the chariot and proceeded forward, and felt their bodies sitting upon jeweled lotuses. They also heard Śākyamuni Tathāgata and the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī praising the Pure Land with Brahmā voices. In front of them was a great hall, which had three tiers of jeweled stairs. Upon the first tier were purely laypeople. Upon the second tier, monastics and laypeople were half and half. Upon the third tier, there were only monastics and no laypeople. The Buddha pointed to the monastics and laypeople on the stairs and said to Qifang: "These are all people from Jambudvīpa who practiced buddhānusmṛti and were thereupon born here. Why do you not exert yourselves?" After Qifang and Yuanguo awoke, they related all this to their companions. After five days, neither had any illness, but they suddenly heard the sound of a bell. Asking the nearby monks, all said they did not hear it. Qifang and Yuanguo said: "The sound of the bell is our affair; it is not for you." In no time at all, both passed away together.