傳法正宗記 4.16

4.16

鶴勒那者。月支國人也。姓婆羅門氏。父曰千勝。母曰金光。初千勝以未有嗣子。詣其國之七佛真幢求之。還謂其婦曰。我已求子於七佛幢也。是夕金光遂夢。有童子臨須彌山手持玉環。謂金光曰。我來也。尋覺有娠他日忽有異僧來其舍。謂金光曰。護汝孕。慎勿污之。金光曰。潔身已十月矣。因問僧曰。此若生子。有福德乎。僧曰。是當生男子也。然其於第四劫時已能為龍宮說法。故佛嘗記之。謂其將為大法祖。及誕大士。天即雨華。地出金錢。國人瑞之。以聞其王。王乃取子。使乳於宮中。宮嬪百千爭欲育之。子即能分身。各為其一子。王神之。然莫辨其正子。遂語曰。我無儲嗣育汝欲以為太子。適變多身。我甚惑之。汝果得通。當復神化。未爾則終為千子。言已其子放光。忽然失之。尋見於父母家。及七歲。會其國人淫祀拘羅神。為之歎曰。三界微劣。寡得正法之人。而邪魅恣作。因詣之。其廟貌即墮。年二十。遂從羅漢比丘出家。受戒於其山。初其師使專誦大品般若。如此者三十年。後棲月支之林間。感群鶴依之。以故加今之號。晚遇摩拏羅。於王宮得其付法。始務遊化。及至中天竺國。會其國王曰無畏海者。先夢。月照其身。臣為原曰。非久當有賢聖來應此夢。王即以告四門。及大士之至。司門者奏之。王遽以法仗出迎還宮。禮於正殿。方坐。俄有二緋素衣人。前拜鶴勒。王默駭。此何人。不挹主者。大士知之謂王曰。此日月天子。非人也。以吾至是故來致禮。王曰。何以識之。曰吾往劫嘗與其說法。因之得生於日月宮。少頃其人忽隱。唯異香久薰。王因問曰。若此日月國土凡有幾何。大士曰。忍土日月山王。凡有百憶。而四天之下。約有四千八國。然其大小不等。王曰。是國土者。一時有耶。有前後乎。曰此隨前後三劫而有無耳。王曰。三劫者依何所而有之。曰三劫依六冥而有之。王曰。何為六冥。曰上下二氣四維相合。謂之六冥。六冥之間三劫相更。其初乃有主。其人者曰田主。田主之後而國土益分。然其生於六冥之間。而壽亦有品。有萬歲者。有千歲者。有百歲者。有夭有不夭者。報既不等。而形類亦別。雖儒童迦葉二菩薩。亦不能悉知。我適約說。猶滿城芥子而方探一粒。王聞益自小其見。大士尋出王宮。始大士有弟子曰龍子者。夭亡。其父母與兄師子比丘皆來。將遷殯其喪。而眾舉不動。兄怪之問大士曰。眾盡力舉之。何以不動。曰過自汝也。師子曰。何過。願聞其所以。曰汝初師婆羅門僧出家以去。汝弟二年日夜相憶。乃欲營福資之。遂告汝師。塑一佛像久之工未加飾。汝惡之。遂投於地。而復為之。汝今但去收其棄像。此喪必舉。師子如其言復來。弟喪果舉。及婆羅門師死。師子以大士言驗。復求師之初問曰。我欲求道。當何用心。大士曰。汝若求道。無所用心。曰既無用心。爭作佛事。曰汝若有用。即非功德。汝若無作。即是佛事。故經云。我所作功德。而無我所作。師子聞法即解。乃趨於弟子之列。時其徒或從而問曰。師以無我所修行。而得此宿命。是必知我之眾有無福業。願聞其說。大士即指東北謂之曰。見此乎。眾曰不見。曰此麁相尚不能見。況其微妙功德耶。師子前之曰。我適見矣大士曰。汝何見耶。曰我見異氣皎如白虹貫乎天地。復有黑氣五路橫布。其前類忉利天梯。大士曰。汝見是氣。知其應乎。曰所應未之知也。唯師言之。大士曰。我滅之後五十年末。難興于北天竺。汝當知之。師子因告曰。我將遊方。敢請教於尊者。大士曰。吾今老矣。涅槃即至。此如來大法眼藏悉以付汝汝往他國。然其國有難。而累在汝躬。慎早付受無令斷絕。聽吾偈曰。

Haklenayaśas was a native of the country of the Yuezhi. His surname was brāhmaṇa. His father was named Qiansheng, and his mother was named Jinguang. At first, because Qiansheng did not have an heir, he went to the True Banner of the Seven Buddhas in his country to pray for one. Upon returning, he said to his wife, “I have prayed for a son at the Banner of the Seven Buddhas.” That night Jinguang had a dream in which a young boy approached Mount Sumeru holding a jade ring in his hand and said to Jinguang, “I have come.” Soon she realized she was pregnant. Another day, an extraordinary monk suddenly came to her dwelling and said to Jinguang, “Protect your pregnancy; be careful not to defile it.” Jinguang said, “I have kept my body pure for ten months already.” She then asked the monk, “If this brings forth a son, will he have blessed virtue?” The monk said, “He will be born a boy. Moreover, in the fourth kalpa he was already able to preach the Dharma for the dragon palace. Therefore the Buddha once prophesied about him, saying that he would become a patriarch of the great Dharma.” When the Great Being was born, flowers rained down from heaven and gold coins emerged from the earth. The people of the country regarded this as an auspicious omen and reported it to their king. The king then took the child and had him nursed in the palace. The palace ladies, numbering hundreds of thousands, vied to nurture him. The child was immediately able to divide his body, becoming an individual son for each of them. The king marvelled at him as divine, yet could not distinguish his real son. He thereupon said, “I have no heir and raised you wishing to make you crown prince. Just now you transformed into many bodies, which bewilders me greatly. If you truly possess spiritual powers, you should transform supernormally again. If not, you will remain a thousand sons forever.” Having spoken these words, the child emitted light and suddenly vanished. Soon he was seen at his parents' house. When he reached the age of seven, he happened upon the people of his country performing excessive sacrifices to the deity Jula. He sighed on their account, saying, “The three realms are base and inferior, and those who attain the true Dharma are few, while perverse demons act at will.” He thereupon went there, and the shrine and its statues immediately collapsed. At the age of twenty, he went forth from the household under an arhat monk and received the precepts on that mountain. At first, his master had him recite the Great Wisdom [Sūtra] exclusively; he did so for thirty years. Later, he lived in the forests of the Yuezhi, and his presence moved flocks of cranes to gather around him; for this reason his present name was bestowed upon him. In his later years he met Manorhita, and in the royal palace he received his transmission of the Dharma; only then did he apply himself to wandering and converting others. When he arrived in Central India, he met the king of that country, named Fearless Ocean (Abhayārṇava), who had earlier dreamed that the moon shone upon his body. A minister interpreted it for him, saying, “Before long a worthy sage will come in response to this dream.” The king immediately informed the four gates. When the Great Being arrived, the gatekeepers reported it. The king quickly went out with ceremonial insignia to welcome him, returned to the palace, and paid homage to him in the main hall. Just after they sat down, two people in crimson and plain white garments suddenly stepped forward and bowed to Haklena. The king was secretly astonished: “Who are these people that they do not salute the host?” The Great Being knew this and said to the king, “These are the Devas of the Sun and Moon; they are not human. Because I have arrived here, they have come to pay their respects.” The king said, “How do you know them?” He replied, “In past kalpas I once preached the Dharma to them, and in consequence they gained rebirth in the palaces of the sun and moon.” Shortly afterward the persons suddenly vanished, leaving only an extraordinary fragrance perfuming the air for a long time. The king then asked, “How many such sun and moon realms are there in all?” The Great Being said, “In this realm of endurance, there are ten billion suns, moons, and kings of mountains. Beneath the Four Heavens, there are approximately four thousand and eight countries, yet their sizes are unequal.” The king asked, “Do these lands exist at the same time, or is there an earlier and a later?” He said, “They come into being and pass away according to the three kalpas of before and after.” The king asked, “Upon what do the three kalpas depend for their existence?” He said, “The three kalpas depend upon the six obscurities for their existence.” The king asked, “What are the six obscurities?” He said, “The two pneumas of above and below, and the four cardinal directions joining together—these are called the six obscurities. Within the six obscurities, the three kalpas alternate with one another. In the beginning there is a lord; that person is called the Field-Lord. After the Field-Lord, the lands are further divided. But those born within the six obscurities also have grades of lifespan: there are those of ten thousand years, those of a thousand years, those of a hundred years, and those who die young and those who do not. Since their retributions are not equal, their bodily forms and species also differ. Even the two bodhisattvas, the Young Scholar and Kāśyapa, cannot fully know them. What I have just briefly spoken is like picking out a single grain from a city full of mustard seeds.” Hearing this, the king felt all the more humble about his own view. The Great Being soon left the royal palace. Previously, the Great Being had a disciple named Longzi (Nāgaputra) who died young. His parents and elder brother, the monk Siṃha, all came to move and inter his remains, but the crowd could not lift them. The brother found it strange and asked the Great Being, “The crowd exerts all its strength to lift it, so why does it not move?” He said, “The fault lies with yourself.” Siṃha said, “What fault? I wish to hear the reason.” He said, “When you first went forth from the household under a brāhmaṇa master and departed, your younger brother longed for you day and night for two years, and so he wished to cultivate merit to support you. He then told your master and sculpted a Buddha statue, but after a long time the craftsmanship remained undecorated. You disliked it, so you threw it to the ground and remade it. If you now simply go and retrieve that discarded statue, this corpse will surely be lifted.” Siṃha did as he said and returned; his brother’s corpse indeed could be lifted. When the brāhmaṇa master died, Siṃha, finding the Great Being’s words verified, again sought him out as his master. He initially asked, “I wish to seek the Way; how should I apply my mind?” The Great Being said, “If you seek the Way, there is nowhere to apply your mind.” He said, “Since there is nowhere to apply one's mind, how does one perform the Buddha-work?” He said, “If you have something applied, it is not merit. If you have non-action, that is the Buddha-work. Thus the sūtra says: ‘The merit that I have performed is without my performing it.’” Upon hearing the Dharma, Siṃha immediately understood and stepped forward to join the ranks of disciples. At that time, one of his disciples followed up by asking, “The Master has practiced without self-possession and has obtained this knowledge of past lives. He must certainly know whether our assembly has blessed karma or not. We wish to hear you speak of it.” The Great Being then pointed to the northeast and said to them, “Do you see this?” The assembly said, “We do not see it.” He said, “You cannot even see these coarse forms, so how could you see subtle merit?” Siṃha stepped forward and said, “I have just seen it.” The Great Being said, “What do you see?” He said, “I see an extraordinary vapor, bright like a white rainbow piercing heaven and earth. Moreover, there is a black vapor spread across five paths, in front of which is something resembling the ladder to the Trāyastriṃśa heaven.” The Great Being said, “You see this vapor; do you know what it portends?” He said, “What it portends I do not yet know; I only ask the Master to explain it.” The Great Being said, “Fifty years after my extinction, a calamity will arise in North India. You should know this.” Siṃha then said, “I am about to travel abroad, and I venture to request your instruction, O Venerable One.” The Great Being said, “I am now old, and nirvāṇa is at hand. I entrust all of this great Dharma-eye treasury of the Tathāgata to you. You must go to another country, but that country will face calamity, and the burden will fall upon your person. Be careful to transmit it early, so that it is not cut off. Listen to my verse:”