往生集 2.31

2.31

Jiang Gongwang of the Song was a native of Diaotai. He served as a policy remonstrator (jianyidafu). Maintaining a vegetarian diet and pure practice, he wrote an 'Essay on Bodhi' and an 'Essay on Skillful Means of Buddhamanasikāra' to exhort both monastics and laity. He had a son who died young, who appeared to him in a dream, saying: 'Father, you have cultivated the Way and your meritorious karma is already accomplished. In the underworld there is a plaque with gold letters reading: "Jiang Gongwang of Yanzhou Prefecture, holding the duty of remonstrance, has set his mind on admiring suffering and emptiness; personally engaging in cultivation, his mind is free of attachments. In motion and stillness he does not contravene the Buddhadharma; in speech and silence he constantly accords with the ancestral lineage. His name is already removed from Jambudvīpa, and his person will surely return to the Pure Land."' At the end of the Xuanhe reign era, while serving as administrator of the Military Commission of Guangde, one day without any illness, he sat upright facing west and passed away.