法苑珠林 85.31

85.31

Under the Tang, the monk Huileng of Zijin Temple in Xiangzhou had the surname Shentu. Whenever there was a doctrinal debate, he was always made to repeat and expound it; his speech was simple and plain, while his discourse on principle was penetrating and subtle. His contemporaries jointly called him "Leng Who Grasps the Meaning." By the middle of the first month of the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, Dharma Master Chang of Gantong Temple in Xiangzhou said, "I dreamed that King Yama invited Master Leng, wishing [him] to lecture on the Three Treatises, and Master Chang to lecture on the Lotus Sūtra. How about it?" Leng said, "Splendid! Huileng has made a vow always to abide in the hells to teach and transform sentient beings, expounding the Mahāyāna scriptures. Now that there is this sign, this vow shall be fulfilled." Towards the end of the ninth month, King Jiang, seeing Leng's vitality weakening, sent two ounces of milk from Shaozhou and urged him to take it. That evening, [Leng] dreamed of a man in robes and cap who said, "Do not take this milk. King Yama's adornment of the bodhimaṇḍa is already complete; there is milk medicine in great abundance." Around dusk in the middle of the tenth month, he felt unwell. He told his disciples, "My five internal organs have collapsed; there is no specific place of pain." Rising and sitting up at the fourth watch, he told the abbot Baodu, "I recall that at the age of eight, I went to Longquan Temple to borrow the Avalokiteśvara [Sūtra]; before reaching Gṛdhrakūṭa I had already lectured on it three times, as clearly as if it were before my eyes." Before his words were finished, a loud voice outside called, "Dharma Master, rise early and burn incense! The emissary has arrived." Du said, "Who is it?" The voice answered, "King Yama's emissary has come to welcome Dharma Master Leng." He immediately arose, burned incense, bathed, made repentance, and bowed to the Buddha. Returning to his room, he bid farewell to Du. Before he finished eating his gruel, he took his lifelong personal notes and burned them, saying, "If others read these private notes, they will not grasp their essential meaning." At the time of the morning meal, an extraordinary fragrance suddenly wafted in; Leng composed his expression and passed away. This was the sixteenth day of the tenth month of the fourteenth year; he was sixty-five years old.