華嚴經傳記 2.7

2.7

釋智炬。姓劉氏。少事神僧曇無最。器局融明。學藝優博。先讀華嚴經數十遍。至於義旨。轉加昏瞙。常懷怏怏。曉夕增其懇到。遂夢。普賢菩薩。乘白象放光明。來語曰。汝逐我向南方。當與汝藥。令汝深解。忽覺向同意說之。而恨不問南方處所。同意者曰。聖指南方。但當依命。何憂其不至乎。遂束裝遄邁。行三日。見一清池中有昌蒲。莖葉殊偉。意悅而掘之。其根盤薄數尺。劣同車轂。炬中心豁然以為。聖授服之。數日聰悟倍常。昔年疑滯。一朝通朗。而超超入神之趣。特出於先賢矣。遂周流講說五十餘遍。有疏十卷。年七十終於北臺。

The monk Zhiju, surnamed Liu, served the spiritual monk Tanwuzui in his youth. His capacity and caliber were harmonious and brilliant, his learning and arts superior and broad. He had previously read the Avataṃsaka Sūtra several tens of times, but regarding its doctrinal import, he became increasingly dimmed and confused; constantly harboring dissatisfaction, he intensified his earnestness morning and evening. Then he dreamed that the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, riding a white elephant and radiating light, came and said to him, "Follow me south, and I will give you medicine to enable you to understand deeply." Suddenly waking, he told this to a like-minded companion, lamenting that he had not asked the location in the south. The companion said, "The holy one directed you south; simply follow the command. Why worry that you will not reach it?" Thereupon he packed his bags and set off swiftly. After traveling for three days, he saw a clear pond containing calamus, whose stems and leaves were extraordinarily magnificent. Delighted, he dug it up; its roots were entwined several feet around, barely fitting the hub of a cart. Zhiju's heart opened up, thinking it was a sacred gift, and he ingested it. For several days, his brilliance and comprehension doubled the ordinary; the doubts and blockages of past years became clear and transparent in a single morning, and his sublime entry into spiritual intent was exceptionally superior to that of earlier worthies. He then traveled around lecturing on it more than fifty times, producing a commentary in ten fascicles. At age seventy, he died at Beitai.