傳法正宗記 3.42

3.42

At first his parents would not consent, but after he pleaded bitterly, he finally attained his wish. The king then ordered the śramaṇa Dhyānalata to shave his head. The master remained in the palace for nine years, and only then did [the king] assemble superior monks to administer the precepts to him. One night the Great Being admonished himself, saying, 'I have already received the full precepts, yet I still abide in a worldly house, and I am now twenty-six years old. How will I ever encounter a sage and hear the Way?' Instantly moved [by this thought], a divine light shone down from above. Suddenly he saw a level road, and ahead was a great mountain. The Great Being immediately hastened toward it. By the time he reached that mountain, the sky was already dawning. Looking at himself, he was already seated within a stone cave. When morning came, the king sought his lost son but could not find him, and thereupon banished Dhyānalata. Meanwhile, the Great Being cultivated dhyāna here; just as ten years had passed, disciples gradually gathered around him. One day, seeing an auspicious vapor, he suddenly said to them, 'A sage will soon come for my sake. Make haste to cleanse the cave ahead and await him.' Before long, Rāhulata indeed arrived. At that time, the Great Being was in meditation; [Rāhulata] waited seven days until he arose. They exchanged questions and answers totaling several hundred words, and Rāhulata's understanding proved superior. Submitting wholeheartedly, the Great Being thereupon sought the Way from him. Rāhulata said, 'The Tathāgata predicted that you would become the seventeenth patriarch.' Soon he instructed him to transmit the great Dharma-eye. One day the Great Being said to his assembly, 'The Great Being Rāhulata once said that in the land of Mātī a sage would appear named Gayāśata, who would succeed me in transmitting the Dharma. Today I shall go with you to seek him out.' When they had walked for some time, an auspicious wind came from the west, purely brushing past everyone. The Great Being said, 'This is the wind of the Way and virtue. Three thousand li to the west, we will surely meet the sage. Yet this wind is unlike the wind of gods, dragons, ghosts, spirits, or asuras: though it blows and stirs, it does not harm the myriad things. When the sick meet it, they are healed; when scholars meet it, they gain thorough penetration; when bad karma meets it, it is eliminated.' Thereupon, gathering the assembly with supernatural powers, in a short while they reached a mountain together. He said to the assembly, 'The peak of this mountain has purple clouds like a canopy; a sage must surely be here.' The assembly looked in all directions, and not far away there was indeed a mountain dwelling. Approaching its gate, they suddenly saw a young boy holding a mirror, hastening forward to greet them. The Great Being immediately asked, 'How old are you?' He replied, 'A hundred years old.' He asked again, 'You are only a young child; why do you say a hundred years old?' He replied, 'If I do not understand the principle, it is just like being a hundred years old.' He asked again, 'Are you skilled in spiritual capacity?' He replied, 'Does not a verse of the Buddha say: If a person lives a hundred years / without understanding the capacity of the Buddhas, / it is not as good as living for a single day / and gaining decisive comprehension of it?' The Great Being asked again, 'Holding a round mirror, what is your intention?' The young boy then replied with a verse, saying: