景德傳燈錄 4.20

4.20

The sixth generation, Chan Master Huizhong, was a native of Shangyuan in Runzhou with the surname Wang. At the age of twenty-three he received his studies at Zhuangyan Monastery. Afterwards, hearing that Master Wei had appeared in the world to teach, he went to call on him. As soon as Wei saw him, he said, “The master of the mountain has come!” The master had an awakening to the subtle purport and thereupon served at his side. Later he took his leave to travel to various quarters on pilgrimage. At the Jiejie Courtyard, Wei saw a trumpet-creeper vine that had withered in the summer, and people wanted to chop it down. He said to them, “Do not cut it. When Huizhong returns, this vine will revive.” When the master returned, it turned out just as he had said. He immediately entrusted the mountain monastery to him and then departed to live at Yanzuo Monastery. Throughout his life, the master never changed his single patchwork robe; for utensils, he used only a single cauldron. Once, when there were two granaries of grain for feeding the monks, thieves lurked in wait to steal it, but tigers guarded it for him. The county magistrate Zhang Xun went to the mountain summit to pay homage and asked the master, “What disciples do you have?” The master said, “I have three to five.” Xun asked, “How can I see them?” The master tapped his meditation seat, and three tigers roared and came out. Xun fled in terror. Later, the assembly invited him into the city to reside at the old Zhuangyan Monastery. The master wished to build a separate Dharma hall east of the main hall. There was an old tree where a flock of magpies nested; workers were about to fell it. The master said to the magpies, “A hall is to be built on this ground; why do you not leave quickly?” As soon as he spoke, the magpies moved their nests to another tree. When the foundations were first laid, two spirit-men set its four corners and secretly assisted in the labor by night, so that it was completed in no time. From this, students from the four directions gathered under his seat like clouds. Those who attained the Dharma numbered thirty-four, each residing in a different region to transform many people. The master once instructed the assembly with a verse on pacifying the mind, saying: