往生集 1.91

1.91

Fazhao of the Tang dynasty stayed at Yunfeng Temple in Hengzhou in the second year of the Dali era. For his loving-kindness, forbearance, precepts, and concentration, he was revered by his contemporaries. He once saw five-colored clouds inside his alms-bowl, within which was an Indian monastery named the Great Sage Bamboo Grove Temple. Later, he went to Mount Wutai and saw an extraordinary light, and indeed found the Bamboo Grove Temple. Entering the lecture hall, Mañjuśrī was in the west and Samantabhadra was in the east, surrounded by a multitude of ten thousand as they expounded the Dharma. Zhao paid homage and asked, “For ordinary beings of the final age, it is not yet known which Dharma gate should be cultivated?” Mañjuśrī told him, “Among all the gates of practice, none surpasses buddhamanasikāra. Through buddhamanasikāra, I attained the knowledge of all aspects.” He asked again, “How should one practice mindfulness?” [Mañjuśrī] replied, “West of this world, there is Amitābha Buddha. That Buddha’s power of vows is inconceivable. You should maintain continuous mindfulness without letting it be severed, and you are certain to obtain rebirth.” Later, on the first day of the twelfth month, while in the pure karma bodhimaṇḍa of the Huayan Cloister, he had just recalled the prediction of rebirth given to him by the two great beings and was practicing buddhamanasikāra with single-minded devotion. Suddenly he saw the Indian monk Buddhapāla, who said to him, “Your lotus terrace is already prepared; after three years, the flower will open.” When the time arrived, he said to the assembly, “I am departing,” and sitting upright, he passed away. The Master had once established the Five-Assembly Buddhamanasikāra at Hudong Temple, which evoked auspicious clouds and jeweled pavilions, and Amitābha Buddha and the two bodhisattvas were seen filling the sky with their bodies. He also practiced the Five-Assembly Buddhamanasikāra in Bingzhou, which evoked the sound of buddhamanasikāra to be heard within the palace of Emperor Daizong. The Emperor dispatched envoys to trace it, and thus witnessed the flourishing of the Master’s preaching and transformation. He thereupon summoned him to enter the capital to teach the palace attendants buddhamanasikāra also in five assemblies, and he was named Dharma Master of the Five Assemblies.