景德傳燈錄 4.9

4.9

第三世慧方禪師者。潤州延陵人也。姓濮氏。投開善寺出家。及進具。洞明經論。後入牛頭山。謁巖禪師諮詢祕要。巖觀其根器堪任正法。遂示以心印。師豁然領悟。於是不出林藪僅踰十年。四方學者雲集。師一旦謂眾曰。吾欲他行隨機利物。汝宜自安也。乃以正法付法持禪師。遂歸茅山。數載將欲滅度。見有五百許人。髻髮後垂狀如菩薩。各持幡華云。請法師講。又感山神現大蟒身至庭前如將泣別。師謂侍者洪道曰。吾去矣。汝為吾報諸門人。及門人奔至。師已入滅。時唐天冊元年八月一日。山林變白谿㵎絕流七日。道俗悲慕聲動山谷。壽六十有七。臘四十。

The third generation, Chan Master Huifang, was a native of Yanling in Runzhou with the surname Pu. He went to Kaishan Monastery to leave householder life, and when he received full ordination, he thoroughly comprehended the sūtras and treatises. Later he entered Mount Niutou and had an audience with Chan Master Yan to consult on the secret essentials. Yan observed that his spiritual capacity was capable of bearing the correct Dharma, and thereupon transmitted the mind-seal to him. The master was awakened with sudden clarity. Thereupon he did not leave the forest retreats for just over ten years, and students from the four directions gathered like clouds. One day, the master said to the assembly, “I wish to go elsewhere to benefit beings in accordance with conditions. You should put yourselves at ease.” He then entrusted the correct Dharma to Chan Master Fachi and returned to Mount Mao. A few years later, when he was about to pass away, he saw about five hundred people with their hair hanging down in the back in the appearance of bodhisattvas, each holding banners and flowers, saying, “We request the Dharma master to preach.” Furthermore, a mountain deity was moved to manifest the body of a great serpent, coming before the courtyard as if weeping in farewell. The master said to his attendant Hongdao, “I am departing. Report this to all the disciples on my behalf.” When the disciples rushed to arrive, the master had already entered extinction. This was on the first day of the eighth month in the first year of the Tianci era of the Tang. The mountain forest turned white, and the streams and ravines ceased flowing for seven days. The sorrowful longing of monastics and laypeople shook the mountain valleys with sound. He lived sixty-seven years and had been a monk for forty years.