法苑珠林 85.30

85.30

Under the Tang, the monk Huiyin of Dazhuangyan Temple in the Western Capital had the secular surname Yu and was a native of Haiyan in Wujun. Naturally endowed with warmth and broad-mindedness, his discernment was pure and his understanding reached far. Later he went to Dharma Master Bian of Changgan [Temple] to study the Three Treatises, fathoming the subtle words of the dharmatā and propagating the profound purports of the complete teachings. Just like pouring water from one vessel into another, his green exceeded the indigo. After Bian retired in quietude to the mountains and forests, he entrusted his students to [Huiyin]. His disciples numbered more than five hundred, continuing the legacy and passing the lamp for nearly thirty years. In the eighth year of the Taijian era of the Chen, at the beginning of the rains retreat, he suddenly received an unseen emissary who said, "The King invites the Dharma Master." An entourage clamoured, and string and wind music resounded together. Immediately, his breath stopped as if his lifespan were relinquished, though his body remained as usual. After seven days had passed, he arose as if from deep samādhi. When his students asked about it, he said, "Look inside the chest to see what is there." Upon examination, two bolts of silk were found. Yin said, "These are sacrificial offerings." When asked again the reason, he said, "With delusions and inversions, what would one not do? I was summoned by King Yama. During the summer retreat I recited the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā; in the underworld it seemed as if three months had passed. I also saw all the aspects of the hells and the five torments in succession." Were it not that his compassion extended to the unseen and the manifest, and his practice reached the utmost sympathetic resonance, how could he have answered that prayer from the netherworld and spiritually journeyed to another realm? On the twelfth day of the second month of the first year of Zhenguan, he passed away at Dazhuangyan Temple at the age of eighty-nine.