華嚴經傳記 2.7

2.7

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.