往生集 1.112

1.112

Daochuo of the Tang was a native of Wenshui in Bingzhou. He went forth from the household at fourteen and studied the sūtras and treatises. Later in life, he served Chan Master Zan to study Chan. He was also devoted to the Pure Land practice of Shenluan. A monk, while in meditative concentration, saw Chuo counting prayer beads that looked like a great mountain of the seven jewels. In his daily life, he lectured on the Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra for the assembly nearly two hundred times. Everyone pinched their beads and orally chanted the Buddha's name. Sometimes when the assembly dispersed, the sound filled the forests and valleys. During the six periods of the day, he bowed and paid reverence, never slacking or missing any. For his buddhamanasikāra, he set a daily limit of seventy thousand times. On the eighth day of the fourth month in the second year of the Zhenguan era, he returned to quiescence. Those who heard of it and rushed there filled the mountain monastery. They saw a nirmāṇabuddha abiding in the sky, and heavenly flowers scattering down.