往生集 2.279

2.279

大明朱綱。京都人。業儒中鄉舉。三上春官不第。乃就職官二府致仕。專修淨土。日課佛三萬。十五年無少怠倦。臨終坐榻上。兩手擎珠。念佛不輟。異香滿室。乃云佛來也。連聲稱念而逝。

Under the Great Ming, Zhu Gang was a native of the capital. He pursued Confucian studies and passed the provincial examination. Three times he presented himself to the Ministry of Rites but did not pass the metropolitan exam, whereupon he took up an official post in the secondary magistracy and subsequently retired. He dedicated himself exclusively to cultivating the Pure Land, with a daily course of thirty thousand invocations of the Buddha's name, without the slightest fatigue or laxity for fifteen years. As he approached his end, he sat on his couch holding his beads in both hands and practiced buddhamanasikāra without stopping. An extraordinary fragrance filled the room. He then said, 'The Buddha comes!' and, invoking the name repeatedly, he departed.