華嚴經傳記 1.9

1.9

晉京師道場寺佛馱跋陀羅。此云覺賢。本姓釋氏。迦維羅衛人。甘露飯王之苗裔也。祖達摩提婆。此云法天。甞遊天竺。因以居焉。父達摩修利耶。此云法日。賢三歲偏孤。八歲喪母。為外氏所養。從祖鳩摩利。聞其聰敏。憐其孤幼。乃迎還度為沙彌。至年十七。與同學數人。俱以習誦為業。眾皆用功一月。賢一日當之。師歎曰。賢一日敵三十夫也。及受具戒。修業精懃。博學群經。多所綜達。少以禪律馳名。常與同學僧伽達多。遊處積年。達多雖服其才德。而未測其深淺也。後於密室閉戶坐禪。忽見賢來。驚問所從。答曰。暫上兜率。致敬彌勒。言訖便隱。達多方知是聖人也。後屢見賢神變。乃至誠方知得不還果。常欲遊方弘化。備觀風俗。會有秦沙門智嚴。至罽賓。訪問彼國僧眾。誰能流化東土。咸云。有佛馱跋陀羅者。本生天竺那可梨城。族姓相承。世遵道學。聰明博贍。位行難測。童稚出家。已通經論。受業於大禪師佛陀大仙。佛陀大仙。時亦在罽賓聞嚴求人。乃謂嚴曰。可以振維僧徒。宣授禪法者。佛馱跋陀其人也。嚴既要請苦到。賢遂默而許焉。於是辭師。裹糧東逝。涉路三載。寒暑備更。乃有層巖重蔭。連凍千里。清旭啟旦則崎嶇陵嶮。潛晷告昏。則枕廗氷雪。飛梯懸蹬。側足傍踐。援繩挂索。仰接雲岸。自氷雪之外艱途萬數。糧用中竭。分粒繼飡。爰憑聖祐。僅而得濟。既度葱嶺。略經六國。國主矜其遠化。竝欣懷資俸。至交趾附舶循海而行經一嶋下。賢舉手指山曰。可泊於此。舶主曰。客行惜日。調風難遇。不可停也。遂行二百餘里。忽值返風吹舶。還至前島。船人各悟其神。咸師事之。一稟其進止。後遇便風。同侶皆發。賢曰。不可動。舶主乃止。既而先發者一時覆敗。後於中夜。忽令眾船俱發。無肯從者。賢自起收纜。一船獨發。俄爾賊至。留者悉被抄害。次之達青州東萊郡。聞鳩摩羅什在長安。欣然而來。則秦弘始十年四月也。什大歡悅。共論法相。振發玄微。多所啟悟。因謂什曰。君所解不出人意。而致高名耶。什曰。吾年老故爾。何必能稱美談。什每有疑義。必共論決。沙門道才．曇暢．僧叡．慧觀等。六百人俱稟禪訓。其所指授。莫非真要。自遺法東遷。四百餘年開發之深。無若此也。其言理辨物。必求諸中。不苟適當時。不求勝人之口。其所得。則辨明無遺。其所不知。則時闕如也。秦太子泓欲聞賢說法。乃要命群僧。進論東宮。羅什與賢。數番往復。文多不載。秦主姚興。專志佛法。三千餘僧。竝預宮闕。盛修人事。唯賢守靜。不與眾同。後語弟子云。我昨見本鄉有五舶俱發。後經歲許。遇外舶至。既而訊訪。果是天竺五舶先所見者也。傾境聞之。競來禮事。其有奉施。悉皆不受。持鉢分衛。無論豪賤。甞與弟子慧觀。次第乞食。至陳郡袁豹。素不敬信。待之甚薄。未飽辭退。豹曰。似未足。且復小留。賢曰。檀越施心有限。故令所設已罄。豹即呼左右。益飯飯果盡。豹大慚。既而問慧觀曰。此沙門何如人。觀曰。德量高邈。非凡所測。豹深歎異之。賢儀軌率素不同華俗。而志韻清。遠雅有深致。法師僧弼。與沙門寶材。書曰。鬪場禪師。甚有大心。便是天竺主。何風流人也。到義熙十四年。吳郡內史孟顗。右衛將軍褚叔度。則請賢出此經。乃手執梵文。共沙門法業慧嚴等百有餘人。於道場寺譯出。詮定文旨。會通方言。妙得經意。故道場寺猶有華嚴堂焉。大教流傳。蓋其力也。初譯經時。堂前池內。每有二青衣。從池中出。奉以香華。舉眾皆見。亦有神祇。營衛左右。賢以元嘉六年卒。春秋七十有一矣。手屈三指。明得阿那含果焉。

Buddhabhadra of Daochangsi in the Jin capital: In Chinese, this translates to 'Enlightened Worthy' (Juexian). His original clan name was Śākya; he was a native of Kapilavastu and a descendant of King Amṛtodana. His grandfather, Dharmadeva—which translates as Fatian—once traveled through India and consequently settled there. His father was Dharmasūrya, which translates as Fari. Buddhabhadra lost his father at the age of three and his mother at eight, and was raised by his maternal relatives. His grandfather's cousin, Kumāri, heard of his intelligence and took pity on his orphaned youth, so he brought him back and ordained him as a novice (śrāmaṇera). By the age of seventeen, together with several fellow students, he took up recitation and study as his vocation. Where the others would labor for an entire month, Buddhabhadra could master the material in a single day. His master sighed in admiration, saying, 'In a single day, [Buddha]bhadra rivals thirty men!' When he received the full precepts, he applied himself diligently to his studies, learned extensively from the various sūtras, and attained a comprehensive mastery of most of them. In his youth he was renowned for meditation (dhyāna) and monastic discipline (vinaya). He lived and traveled for years together with his fellow student Saṃghadatta. Although Saṃghadatta admired his talents and virtue, he had not yet plumbed their depth. Later, while Saṃghadatta was sitting in meditation behind closed doors in a secret chamber, he suddenly saw Buddhabhadra enter. Startled, he asked where he had come from. [Buddhabhadra] replied, 'I briefly ascended to Tuṣita to pay homage to Maitreya.' As soon as he had spoken, he vanished. Only then did Saṃghadatta realize he was a holy sage. Afterward, he repeatedly witnessed Buddhabhadra's miraculous transformations, and through utmost sincerity came to know that he had attained the fruit of non-returning (anāgāmin). [Buddhabhadra] always wished to travel abroad to propagate the teachings and observe different customs. At that time, the Qin monk Zhiyan arrived in Jibin and inquired among the monastic assembly of that country as to who might be able to spread the transformation to the Eastern Lands. Everyone said, 'There is Buddhabhadra, originally born in the city of Nagarahāra in India. His clan has preserved its lineage for generations, following the study of the Way. He is intelligent and extensively learned, and his attainment and practice are hard to fathom. Leaving home in his childhood, he had already mastered the sūtras and treatises. He received instruction from the Great Meditation Master Buddhadeva (Fotuo Daxian).' Buddhadeva was also in Jibin at the time; hearing of Zhiyan's search, he told Zhiyan, 'The one who can uphold the monastic assembly and proclaim the meditation methods is Buddhabhadra.' After Zhiyan pleaded earnestly with great persistence, Buddhabhadra silently consented. Thereupon he took leave of his master, packed provisions, and headed east. Traveling for three years, he endured the full cycle of cold and heat. There were towering crags and dense shade, with continuous freezing temperatures for a thousand li. At clear dawn they traversed rugged and perilous ridges; when the hidden sun signaled dusk, they slept pillowed upon ice and snow. Over hanging ladders and suspended rock steps, they stepped sideways along cliffs; clinging to ropes and hanging cables, they looked up to reach cloud-covered peaks. Beyond the ice and snow, the hardships of the journey were manifold. When their provisions ran out en route, they shared individual grains to sustain their meals. Relying on holy protection, they barely managed to cross safely. Having crossed the Pamir Mountains (Congling), they passed through some six kingdoms. The kings of these kingdoms, honoring his mission to transform distant lands, all joyfully provided provisions and offerings. Reaching Jiaozhi, they boarded a merchant vessel and sailed along the coast. Passing beneath an island, Buddhabhadra pointed to a mountain and said, 'We may anchor here.' The shipmaster replied, 'A passenger values daylight, and favorable winds are hard to come by; we cannot stop.' Having traveled for more than two hundred li, they suddenly encountered a contrary wind that blew the ship back to the previous island. The mariners all realized his supernatural ability and treated him as their master, relying entirely on him for when to advance and when to halt. Later they met a favorable wind, and the other vessels all set sail. Buddhabhadra said, 'You must not move.' The shipmaster therefore stayed behind. Soon after, those who set sail first were all overturned and destroyed. Later, in the middle of the night, he suddenly ordered all the ships to set sail together, but none were willing to follow. Buddhabhadra himself arose, hauled up the cable, and departed alone on a single vessel. Shortly after, pirates arrived, and those who remained behind were all plundered and harmed. Next, he arrived at Donglai Commandery in Qingzhou. Hearing that Kumārajīva was in Chang'an, he set out joyfully to meet him, arriving in the fourth month of the tenth year of the Hongshi era of the Qin (408 CE). Kumārajīva was greatly delighted. Together they discussed the characteristics of phenomena (dharmalakṣaṇa) and brought out profound subtleties, leading to much awakening and insight. Thereupon [Buddhabhadra] said to Kumārajīva, 'Your explanations do not surpass ordinary conception, yet you have attained such a high reputation—why is that?' Kumārajīva replied, 'It is merely because of my advanced age; how could it be worthy of praise?' Whenever Kumārajīva had doubtful points, he would invariably discuss and resolve them with him. Monks such as Daocai, Tanchang, Sengrui, and Huiguan—six hundred persons in all—received meditation instructions together. What he taught was nothing other than the true essentials. In the more than four hundred years since the transmission of the bequeathed Dharma to the east, no deeper elucidation had ever matched this. In expressing principles and analyzing phenomena, he always sought the precise mean, never carelessly accommodating contemporary trends, nor seeking to best others in argument. What he had attained, he expounded clearly without omission; what he did not know, he left aside for the time being. The Qin Crown Prince Hong wished to hear Buddhabhadra preach the Dharma, so he summoned the monastic assembly to enter the Eastern Palace to engage in debate. Kumārajīva and Buddhabhadra exchanged arguments back and forth multiple times; these are too extensive to record here. The Qin ruler Yao Xing was wholeheartedly devoted to the Buddha-Dharma; more than three thousand monks were accommodated in the palace precincts, actively engaging in worldly affairs. Only Buddhabhadra maintained stillness, not conforming to the multitude. Later he told his disciples, 'Yesterday I saw five ships setting sail together from my homeland.' About a year later, foreign ships arrived, and upon inquiring, they turned out to be the five ships from India he had seen earlier. When the entire region heard of this, people competed to come and pay him homage and make offerings. Whatever was presented to him, he refused to accept. He carried his alms bowl to beg for food without discriminating between the noble and the humble. Once, together with his disciple Huiguan, he went begging for food in succession and arrived at the residence of Yuan Bao of Chen Commandery. Yuan Bao was usually lacking in respect and faith and treated them very poorly. Before [Buddhabhadra] was full, he prepared to take his leave. Yuan Bao said, 'You seem not to have had enough; please stay a little longer.' Buddhabhadra said, 'The patron's giving heart is limited, and so what you prepared is already exhausted.' Yuan Bao immediately called his attendants to add more rice, but the rice was indeed finished. Yuan Bao was deeply ashamed. Afterward, he asked Huiguan, 'What kind of man is this monk?' Huiguan said, 'The measure of his virtue is lofty and vast, beyond the fathoming of ordinary people.' Yuan Bao sighed in profound wonder. Buddhabhadra's deportment was plain and unadorned, differing from Chinese customs, yet his aspirations and spirit were pure and distant, possessing an elegant and profound tenor. The Dharma Master Sengbi wrote in a letter to the monk Baocai: 'The Meditation Master of the Douchang [Daochang] Monastery possesses a truly grand mind; he is truly a lord of India—what an extraordinary man of refined spirit!' By the fourteenth year of the Yixi era (418 CE), Meng Yi, the Governor of Wujun, and Chu Shudu, General of the Right Guards, invited Buddhabhadra to translate this sūtra. Holding the Sanskrit text in his hands, together with over a hundred monks including the monks Faye and Huiyan, he translated it at Daochangsi. They established the text's principles, reconciled the dialect, and marvelously captured the meaning of the sūtra; thus Daochangsi still has an Avataṃsaka Hall to this day. The propagation of this great teaching was indeed due to his efforts. When the sūtra was first being translated, two youths in green garments would regularly emerge from the pond in front of the hall, offering incense and flowers, which the entire assembly witnessed. There were also deities guarding them on both sides. Buddhabhadra passed away in the sixth year of the Yuanjia era (429 CE) at the age of seventy-one. With three fingers flexed on his hand, he clearly demonstrated that he had attained the fruit of anāgāmin.