景德傳燈錄 3.25

3.25

He thereupon entrusted the disciples to him. One day he announced to the assembly: "During the Wude era, I traveled to Mount Lu. Climbing to the highest peak and gazing toward Potou Mountain, I saw purple clouds like a canopy, beneath which white vapors branched horizontally into six paths. Do you understand?" The assembly remained silent. Hongren said, "Could it be that later on the upādhyāya will branch off one shoot of the Buddha-Dharma?" The Master said, "Good." Later, in the guimao year of the Zhenguan era, Emperor Taizong, yearning for the flavor of the Master's Path and wishing to behold his presence, summoned him to the capital. The Master submitted a memorial declining with thanks; three times it went back and forth, and he ultimately declined on account of illness. On the fourth occasion, the emperor ordered the envoy: "If he really will not rise, bring his head." The envoy reached the mountain and proclaimed the imperial edict. The Master then stretched out his neck to meet the blade, his demeanor dignified and composed. Marveling at this, the envoy returned and reported it in a memorial. The Emperor admired and praised him even more, and bestowed precious silks upon him so that he could fulfill his aspiration. Finally, on the fourth day of the intercalary ninth month in the xinhai year, the second year of the Yonghui era of Emperor Gaozong, he suddenly gave an admonition to his disciples, saying, "All phenomena are completely liberated. Each of you must safeguard your mindfulness and let it flow and transform into the future." Having spoken, he sat peacefully and passed away at the age of seventy-two. A stūpa was erected on this mountain. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the following year, the door of the stūpa opened of itself without cause, and his appearance was as if alive. Thereafter, the disciples did not dare close it again. Emperor Daizong conferred the posthumous title "Chan Master Dayi" and named his stūpa "Ciyun." From his complete extinction to the jiache year, the first year of the Jingde era of the august Song, three hundred and fifty-six years have elapsed (it should say three hundred and fifty-four years).