往生集 1.11

1.11

晉慧遠。雁門樓煩人。博綜六經。尤善莊老。聞安法師講般若經。豁然大悟。因剃染事之。太元六年過潯陽。見廬山閒曠。可以息心。遂感山神現夢。一夕雷雨。林木自至。刺史桓伊。乃為建殿。名曰神運。以慧永先住西林。故遠所居號東林焉。遠住東林。三十年跡不入俗。剋志西方。高僧鉅儒。凡百四十人。共為淨社。蓮漏六時禪誦不輟。澄心繫想。三覩聖相而沈厚不言。後十九年七月晦夕。於般若臺。方從定起。見阿彌陀佛身滿虛空。圓光之中。無量化佛。觀音勢至。左右侍立。又見水流光明。分十四支。洄注上下。演說妙法。佛言。我以本願力故。來安慰汝。汝七日後。當生我國。又見佛陀耶舍。慧持。慧永。劉遺民。在佛之側。揖曰。師志在先。何來之晚耶。既知時至。謂門人曰。吾始居此三覩聖相。今復再見。當生淨土必矣。至期端坐入寂。時義熙十二年八月六日也。

Huiyuan of the Jin was a native of Loufan in Yanmen. He broadly mastered the Six Classics and was particularly adept in Zhuangzi and Laozi. Hearing Master An lecture on the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, he had a grand awakening, whereupon he shaved his head, dyed his robes, and served him. In the sixth year of the Taiyuan era, passing through Xunyang, he saw that Mount Lu was tranquil and spacious, a place where one could pacify the mind. Thereupon he moved the mountain deity to appear in a dream; in a single night of thunder and rain, timber arrived of itself. The Inspector Huan Yi then built a hall for him, naming it "Divinely Transported". Because Huiyong had previously dwelled at Xilin, Yuan's residence was called Donglin. Yuan resided at Donglin for thirty years, his footsteps never entering secular society. Directing his resolve toward the Western Direction, eminent monks and great literati, numbering one hundred and twenty-three [or forty] persons in all, formed the Pure Society together. The lotus water-clock kept the six periods, and their meditation and chanting never ceased. With a purified mind and concentrated contemplation, he beheld the holy marks three times, yet in his gravity he did not speak of it. Later, nineteen years after, on the final evening of the seventh month, while at the Prajñā Terrace, just as he arose from samādhi, he saw the body of Amitābha filling empty space. In the midst of the circular nimbus were immeasurable nirmāṇabuddhas, with Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta attending and standing on the left and right. He also saw light flowing like water, dividing into fourteen streams, swirling and pouring up and down, expounding the wondrous Dharma. The Buddha said: "By the power of my pūrvapraṇidhāna, I have come to comfort you. After seven days, you shall be born in my land." He also saw Buddhabhadra, Huichi, Huiyong, and Liu Yimin at the Buddha's side. Bowing with hands clasped, they said: "Master, your aspiration came first; why have you arrived so late?" Knowing that his time had come, he said to his disciples: "When I first resided here, I beheld the holy marks three times. Now that I see them once again, I shall certainly be reborn in the Pure Land." When the time arrived, he sat upright and entered extinction; this was on the sixth day of the eighth month in the twelfth year of the Yixi era.