往生集 2.233

2.233

大明薛氏。武塘世族女也。生時母夢。長庚入懷。後歸周生子五人而寡。秉節自誓。供觀音大士。香煙結蓮花。人異之。專心淨業。好施不倦。念佛十五年如一日。萬曆丁亥五月得疾。醫進乳粥。確乎不許。遂絕粒屏藥石。至九月六日。延僧禮懺。且曰。四日足吾事畢矣。乃西向對彌陀像。晝夜繫念。囑諸子翊贊。禁諸婦女毋入。時正重九。取淨衣。點淨香水。洒禪椅。次早索水灌手。誦甘露真言。著所淨衣。戴誌公帽。長跪佛前念。然香讚佛偈。唱三歸依。禮三拜輪珠。念佛一百八遍。逮午趺坐。結印而化。神氣熙然。較生存。倍更開朗。一時在側者。俱聞蓮花香滿室中。諸子奉命入龕。觀者數千人。歡喜頂禮。其詳載諸本傳志云。

Lady Xue of the Great Ming was the daughter of an eminent family of Wutang. When she was born, her mother dreamed that the morning star entered her bosom. Later, she married into the Zhou family, gave birth to five sons, and became a widow. Maintaining her chastity, she made a vow to worship the Great Being Avalokiteśvara; incense smoke formed lotus flowers, which people marveled at. Focusing her mind on pure karma, she loved giving and never tired. She practiced buddhamanasikāra for fifteen years as if it were a single day. In the fifth month of the dinghai year of the Wanli era, she fell ill. A physician offered milk congee, which she adamantly refused; she then gave up grain and turned away medicines. On the sixth day of the ninth month, she invited monks to perform repentance rituals, and said, "Four days will suffice for my task to be completed." Facing west before an image of Amitābha, she bound her thoughts to it day and night, instructing her sons to assist her and forbidding any women from entering. It was the Chongjiu festival. She took clean clothes, sprinkled pure fragrant water, and cleansed her meditation chair. The next morning, she asked for water to wash her hands, chanted the Amṛta Dhāraṇī, donned the cleansed clothes, put on a Master Zhi cap, knelt before the Buddha, chanted the Verse on Lighting Incense in Praise of the Buddha, sang the Three Refuges, made three prostrations, rolled her beads, and chanted the Buddha's name one hundred and eight times. By noon, she sat in the lotus posture, formed the seal, and transformed. Her spiritual aura was bright and peaceful, even twice as clear and radiant as when she was alive. At that moment, those by her side all smelled the fragrance of lotus flowers filling the room. Her sons followed her instructions and placed her in a niche-shrine. Several thousand onlookers rejoiced and made prostrations. The details are recorded in her principal biography.