往生集 1.106

1.106

唐懷玉。台州人。布衣一食。常坐不臥。誦彌陀經三十萬遍。日課佛號五萬聲。天寶元年。見佛菩薩滿虛空中。一人持銀臺來迎。玉曰。吾一生念佛。誓取金臺。何為不然。聖眾遂隱。玉彌加精進。三七日後。向擎臺者來云。師以精進得升上品。宜趺坐以俟。三日後異光滿室。曰弟子曰。吾生淨土矣。含笑而逝。郡太守叚公。作偈贊曰。我師一念登初地。佛國笙歌兩度來。惟有門前古槐樹。枝低只為罣金臺。

Huaiyu of the Tang was a native of Taizhou. He wore hemp clothes, ate only one meal [a day], and constantly sat without lying down. He recited the Amitābha Sūtra three hundred thousand times and set a daily practice of reciting the Buddha's name fifty thousand times. In the first year of the Tianbao era, he saw buddhas and bodhisattvas filling the empty space, and one person holding a silver dais coming to welcome him. Yu said: 'All my life I have practiced buddhamanasikāra, vowing to attain a golden dais. Why is it not so?' The holy multitude thereupon vanished. Yu added further vigor to his exertion. After three weeks, the one who had held the dais previously came and said: 'Because of your vigor, Master, you have attained ascent to the highest grade. You should sit cross-legged and wait.' Three days later, an extraordinary light filled the room. He said to his disciples: 'I am reborn in the Pure Land.' He passed away with a smile. The commandery governor, Lord Duan, composed a verse in praise, saying: / 'My master, in a single thought, ascended to the First Ground; / From the Buddha-land, pipes and songs came twice over. / Only the old locust tree before the gate remains, / Its branches hanging low merely to hold the golden dais.'