景德傳燈錄 2.32

2.32

The twenty-third patriarch, Haklenayaśas (Leno is Sanskrit; 'crane' [he] is the Chinese term; because when the venerable one appeared in the world, flocks of cranes always longed for him with admiration, he was thus named), was a man from the country of the Yuezhi. His family was brahmin. His father was Qiansheng, and his mother was Jinguang. Being childless, they prayed to the seven Buddhas. Jinchuang then dreamed that atop Mount Sumeru a divine child holding a golden ring said, "I have come." Upon waking, she was pregnant. At the age of seven, walking through villages, he saw the excessive sacrifices of the common people, entered a shrine, and scolded them: "You falsely bring about misfortune and fortune, deluding people; every year you slaughter livestock, which brings great harm!" As soon as he spoke, the shrine suddenly collapsed. Because of this, his villagers called him the holy child. At the age of twenty-two, he went forth from home. At thirty, he met the venerable Manorhita, who transmitted to him the treasury of the Dharma eye. Traveling and transforming, he reached central India. The king of that country was named Wuweihai, who revered the Buddha Path. The venerable one preached the correct Dharma for him. Then the king suddenly saw two people in red and white clothes bowing to the venerable one. The king asked, "Who are these people?" The master said, "These are the gods of the sun and the moon. Formerly I preached the Dharma for them, which is why they have come to pay homage." After a short while, they were no longer seen, and only an extraordinary fragrance was smelled. The king asked, "How many realms of the sun and the moon are there in all?" The venerable one said, "In the worlds transformed by a thousand Śākyamuni Buddhas, each has a billion Meru suns and moons; if I were to explain it at length, it could not be exhausted." Hearing this, the king was delighted. At that time, the venerable one expounded the unsurpassed Path and liberated beings with karmic affinities. Because his senior disciple Longzi had died young, there was his elder brother Siṃha, who was widely learned, had a powerful memory, and served a brahmin. When his master died and his younger brother also passed away, he took refuge in the venerable one and asked: "I wish to seek the Path; how should I employ my mind?" The venerable one said: "If you wish to seek the Path, there is nowhere to employ your mind." He asked: "If there is no employing of the mind, who performs the Buddha work?" The venerable one said: "If you have an employment, that is not merit. If you are without action, that is the Buddha work. The sūtra says: 'The merit that I make has no "mine".'" Hearing these words, Siṃha entered the Buddha's wisdom. Then the venerable one suddenly pointed to the northeast and asked, "What omen is that?" Siṃha said, "I see a vapor like a white rainbow piercing heaven and earth, and there are five streaks of black vapor crossing through it." The venerable one said, "What does it portend?" He said, "It cannot be known." The venerable one said, "Fifty years after my extinction, there will be a disaster arising in northern India, falling upon your person. I am about to pass into extinction; now I entrust the Dharma eye to you, to guard and maintain well." He then spoke a verse: