續傳燈錄 6.51

6.51

江州圓通祖印居訥禪師。梓州中江蹇氏之子。初生有神光滿室。年十一依漢州什邡竹林寺僧元昉出家。十七試法華得度受具。以講學冠兩川。耆年多下之。會有禪者自南方還。稱祖道被天下。馬大師什邡人應般若多羅讖。蜀之豪俊以經論聞者。如亮公。而亮公棄徒隱西山。如鑒公。而鑒公焚疏鈔。稱滴水莫敵巨海。師憮然。良久曰。汝知其說乎。禪者曰。我不能知也。子欲知之何惜一往。師於是出蜀放浪荊楚。屨閱寒暑迄無所得。西至襄州。洞山榮座下留止十年。讀華嚴論至曰須彌在大海中高八萬四千由旬。非手足攀攬可及。以明八萬四千塵勞山住煩惱大海。眾生有能於一切法無思無為。即煩惱自然枯竭。塵勞成一切智之山。煩惱成一切智之海。若更起心思慮即有攀緣。即塵勞愈高煩惱愈深。不能至諸佛智頂。師即豁然有省。嘆曰。石鞏云。無下手處。而馬祖云。曠劫無明今日一切消滅。非虛語也。後遊廬山道價日增。南康太守程師孟。請住歸宗。遂嗣榮禪師。又住圓通。仁宗皇帝聞其名。皇祐初詔住十方淨因禪院。以目疾堅辭不赴。舉本院書記懷璉自代。於是詔璉。璉至。引對問佛法大意稱旨。賜璉號大覺禪師賜師號祖印禪師。住持二十年。移住四祖開先兩剎。師臨眾簡嚴不妄言笑。常入定初叉手自如。中夜漸昇至膺。侍者每視以候雞鳴。其精進如此。既老退居寶積巖。時江州牧劉公述每造師問道。一日忽辭劉公歸。沐浴端坐示寂。劉公率緇俗送往茶毘。火焰中白氣上貫太陽。大眾驚仰。歐陽文忠公貶異教者。獨尊敬師。每問南來士人。曾見訥禪師否。又與老蘇明允遊相好云。

Chan Master Junie Zuyin of Yuantong in Jiangzhou was a son of the Jian family of Zhongjiang in Zizhou. At his birth, a divine light filled the room. At age eleven, he left home under the monk Yuanfang of Zhulin Temple in Shifang, Hanzhou. At seventeen, he passed the examination on the Lotus Sūtra, was ordained, and received full ordination. His lectures and scholarship were foremost in the two Sichuan regions, and senior elders mostly deferred to him. It happened that a Chan practitioner returned from the south, claiming that the Patriarch's Way covered all under heaven, and that Great Master Ma, a native of Shifang, had fulfilled the prophecy of Prajñātāra; and that the eminent men of Shu famed for the sūtras and treatises—such as Master Liang, who abandoned his disciples and went into seclusion in the Western Mountains, and Master Jian, who burned his commentaries and notes, declaring that a single drop of water cannot match the great ocean. The Master felt despondent. After a long pause, he said, "Do you know their teachings?" The Chan practitioner said, "I cannot know them. If you wish to know them, why begrudge making the journey?" Thereupon the Master left Shu and wandered freely through Jing and Chu. His straw sandals endured cold and heat, yet he attained nothing. Going west to Xiangzhou, he stayed under Dongshan Rong for ten years. Reading the Huayan lun to the point where it says: 'Mount Sumeru is eighty-four thousand yojanas high within the great ocean, beyond the reach of hands and feet climbing it'—illustrating that the eighty-four thousand mountains of defilements abide in the great ocean of afflictions; if sentient beings can be without thought and without action regarding all dharmas, then afflictions naturally dry up, defilements become the mountain of omniscience, and afflictions become the ocean of omniscience; if they further give rise to mental deliberation, there is grasping at conditions, whereupon defilements become taller and afflictions become deeper, and they cannot reach the summit of the wisdom of all Buddhas—the Master had an awakening all at once. He sighed, "When Shigong said, 'There is no place to lay one's hands,' and Mazu said, 'The ignorance of countless kalpas is all extinguished today,' these were not empty words!" Later he traveled to Mount Lu, and the value of his Way grew daily. Cheng Shimeng, the prefect of Nankang, invited him to reside at Guizong, and he thereby succeeded Chan Master Rong. He also resided at Yuantong. Emperor Renzong heard of his name, and at the beginning of Huangyou he was decreed to reside at the Ten-Direction Jingyin Chan Monastery. Pleading eye disease, he resolutely declined and did not go, recommending the monastery's recorder Huailian to replace him. Thereupon [the Emperor] summoned Lian. When Lian arrived, he was granted an audience and questioned on the great meaning of the Buddhadharma, which pleased the imperial mind. [The Emperor] bestowed on Lian the title Chan Master Dajue, and on the Master the title Chan Master Zuyin. He was abbot for twenty years and moved to reside at the two monasteries of the Fourth Patriarch and Kaixian. When facing the assembly, the Master was concise and dignified, neither joking nor smiling lightly. He often entered samādhi, at first holding his hands folded at ease, and by midnight they gradually rose to his breast; his attendants would watch this to mark the cock's crow—such was his diligence. When he grew old, he retired to live at Baoji Rock. At that time, Liu Shude, governor of Jiangzhou, often visited the Master to inquire about the Way. One day, the Master suddenly bid farewell to Liu and returned, bathed, sat upright, and manifested quiescence. Liu led both clergy and laity to escort him to the cremation; from within the flames, a white vapor rose piercing through the sun. The great assembly was astonished and looked up with reverence. Lord Ouyang Wenzhong (Ouyang Xiu), who condemned heterodox teachings, alone respected the Master. Whenever he asked scholars coming from the south, he would say, "Have you seen Master Nie?" He also had friendly relations with Old Su Mingyun (Su Xun).