法苑珠林 18.22

18.22

In the Liang, there was He Gui, a native of Nanhai Commandery in Guangzhou. In the year Xieqia and the month corresponding to the Huangzhong pitch pipe, on the twenty-third day of the tenth month in the fourteenth year of the Tianjian era, he was gathering herbs on Mount Huyi in Yuzhang. Fortunately, he was neither an exile nor an outcast, but rather seemed like one seeking immortals and summoning recluses. Climbing the peak for ten-odd li, [stepping through] dust as if arriving somewhere, he was about to follow a winding path when he was first obstructed by a clear stream. It was still like standing water in some parts, and suddenly a pure torrent; he was just about to wade through it and lift his garments. Before crossing, suddenly, without realizing it, he saw an elder on the western bank of the stream, who told Gui not to cross. Gui then stayed where he was. The man's face was pure blue-green; he went barefoot without shoes. He was about to be eighty or ninety years old, his face already wrinkled, his beard five or six inches long, his mustache half the length of his beard, his ears protruding above his eyebrows, and his eyebrows drooping all the way down. The long hairs of his eyebrows were two to three inches long, fluttering with the wind. His lips were very red, and his voice was resonant and clear. His fingernails were pure yellow, and the hair on his fingers was also two to three inches long. He wore a cloth cape and a niwasana of ochre cloth beneath it. Holding a roll of text in his hand, he tossed it from afar to Gui. Gui received it respectfully, bowed thrice from afar, and [the elder] told Gui: "You may give this sūtra to Prince An'an," also stating the prince's surname and given name. "When this sūtra arrives, a retreat of three times seven days should be held. If he does not understand the method of the retreat, he may ask Master Fu of Xialin Temple. Dharma Master Fu's precepts and conduct are rigorous and ascetic; he is serene and non-acting, having abandoned desires, regarding the noble and humble as equal. He satisfies himself with wild greens and beans, and never slacks in meditative stillness." When this elder finished speaking, he departed. Walking a dozen paces, he suddenly vanished. Gui opened and viewed the roll; the title was the Wisdom Seal Samādhi Sūtra. The purport of the sūtra takes the utmost, the signless Dharmakāya, as its essence. Its principle transcends the hundred negations, and its meaning surpasses names and signs. It is quiet and identical with the nature of phenomena, wondrous and equal to tathatā. As for its wisdom illumination: compared with principle, it is like a complete seal, the mind merging into frozen stillness; hence it is named 'samādhi'. (Recorded in Vinaya Master Sengyou's Hongming ji of the Liang dynasty).