景德傳燈錄 4.48

4.48

Chan Master Xiangmozang of Yanzhou was a native of Zhaojun. His surname was Wang. His father was a prominent clerk. The Master left home at the age of seven. At that time, the countryside was rife with monstrous specters and demons bewitching people; the Master, by his solitary person, subdued them without the slightest fear, and thus gained the name Xiangmo ('Subduing Demons'). He then relied on Chan Master Mingzan of Guangfu Cloister, leaving home and serving diligently. After receiving the Dharma, he encountered the flourishing transformation of the Northern School and vowed to fold his robes [and become his student]. Master Xiu asked him, "Your name is Xiangmo. Here there are no mountain spirits or tree monsters; would you turn around and act as a demon?" The Master said, "There is Buddha, and there is Māra." Xiu said, "If you are a demon, you must dwell in an inconceivable realm." The Master said, "Even a Buddha is empty; what realm could there be?" Xiu gave him a prediction, saying, "You have an affinity with the ruins of Shaohao." The Master soon entered Mount Tai. Within a few years, students gathered like clouds. One day, he announced to his disciples, "I am now old and decrepit; when things reach their extreme, they return." Having spoken, he passed away at the age of ninety-one.