第八章 圓寂篇
一九九四年十二月四日，上人體力不支住院時說：
「我要告訴你們準備後事，大家要有心裡準備，我是會隨時走的，什麼事情都沒有一定的……誰都有來也有去的時候，不要悲哀，要和平時一樣。」
後來經四眾弟子再三懇請，上人才又多住世了半年。上人代眾生受業的病痛，折磨到了極點，上人說：
「我甚至不會用一根手指頭的力量，來幫助這個躺在床上的自己。」
「我現在就好像兩個人，一個人現在仍然到處救眾生。我這一個人，我是不會管他的，我不會幫助自己的。」
然而眾生福薄，上人還是於六月七日下午三點十五分入滅了，溈仰宗第九代祖師進入涅槃，虛雲老和尚的親傳嗣法門人從此走入佛教的歷史。
有些人疑問上人既是「大成就者」，為何臨終仍示現「病態」？其實答案很簡單，因為歷代高僧大德，臨終示現皆各具有其因緣。如《六祖壇經》中載，六祖活著時有人要殺他，死了後還有人要砍他的頭回去供養。達摩祖師到中國來，曾經被下毒加害過六次。西土二十四祖師子尊者是被國王以劍斬頭而死的。玄奘大師臨終前摔了跤，從此生疾在床，大師曰：「師從無始以來，所有煩惱有情，諸有惡業，因今小疾，並得消殄，應生欣慶。」而其師戒賢論師晚年惡疾纏身，痛欲自殺，後夢觀音萻薩云：「汝於過去，曾作國王，多惱眾生，故招此報」後來觀音菩薩教他要「至誠懺悔，於苦安忍，勸宣經論，罪自當消滅」。在上人圓寂前也曾對他的「病情」而作一詩說：
「苟延殘喘度餘生，老病纏綿痛苦中，
日進飲食如服毒，夜宿病榻賽僵蟲。
夢中屢逢無常鬼，醒來難尋救命神，
人命呼吸還知否？速返清淨極樂城。」
上人的病情一直到六月七日圓寂前都沒有減輕過，也沒有現瑞相，更沒有顯神蹟，就這樣「不留痕跡」地為眾生轉著成住壞空、生老病死的因緣法。上人一生醫治不知多少眾生的病，而自已卻「不會管」自己的病，甚至選擇最痛苦的方式－－
病態而走。
我們知道以前的馬祖道一禪師一生神通廣大，度人無數，踏殺天下，座下出了八十四位的大善知識（大弟子），可是他自己卻常年生病，想起這種高僧的菩薩風範，真是令人讚嘆再三啊！
還有世壽一百二十歲的禪宗泰斗虛雲老和尚，一生十難四十八奇，神蹟無數。在晚年一百一十二歲時還被他弟子給出賣，以致遭共幹劫持、刑戮，幾度死生，被鐵棍打到頭破血流，肋骨折斷。
而肉身不壞的憨山紫柏大師亦曾受嚴刑，臨終是背生腫瘤去的。一代高僧廣欽老和尚于六十七年時亦示現病態，寺裡法師說；「老和尚說過，他老人家往生，當示現病態，因為娑婆世界太苦，怎堪蹉跎？」廣老說得對，「娑婆世界太苦，怎堪蹉跎？」
曾有人問廣老：「有人很有修行，但臨終時，還要遭病或意外，是否『定業難轉？』」老和尚答：「可以說是『定業難轉』，也可以看作是『乘業還業』，也就是有修行，才會遇此苦難挫折，這正是他修行的功德，使事情在這一次就解決了。」
在上人的遺言中有幾句詩，我覺得很耐人尋味，頗有禪機，抄錄於下：
「老僧閒來無甚事，捉個迷藏臥病床
見有觀空空不空，診病問源源非源」
這些句子已把上人示現病態的答案說得很清楚了。我說過了，歷代祖師高僧大德，在娑婆度化眾生各有其「因緣」，我們應該從這個人一生對菩薩道的實踐與救度眾生的真正悲情及佛學貢獻來看他的成就，而非以「神蹟」或「瑞相」來評判。然而事實證明，上人荼毗火化後，共撿得舍利上萬顆（包括舍利花及十二顆的牙舍利），顏色有素白、槐黃、翠綠、藏藍、玄黑、靛紫等多種，其中有許多凝結在骨頭上的舍利，晶瑩光澤，一如翡翠玉石，十分稀有難得，可知上人一生講經上萬會及「不打妄語」的功德，這正是不可思議的！
待續 |
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Part Eight Passing into Stillness
On December 4, 1994, when the Master was sent to the hospital for over-exhaustion, he said,
I want to tell you what to do after I’m gone. All of you should prepare yourselves psychologically. I may depart at any time. Nothing is fixed... Every person has a time for coming and a time for going. Don’t be sad. Act the same way that you do in ordinary times.
After the sincere and repeated pleas of the fourfold assembly of disciples, the Master stayed in the world for another six months. When the Master had suffered to the ultimate in bearing the karma of living beings, he said,
“I wouldn‘t even lift a finger to help myself as I lie on this bed.”
“I’m like two people right now. One is still going about saving living beings. But as for this person here, I won’t pay any attention to him. I won’t help myself.”
Alas for living beings’ scarce blessings! The Master still entered the stillness at 3:15 p.m. on June 7, 1995. The ninth patriarch of the Weiyang Sect entered Nirvana, and the heir of Venerable Hsu Yun became part of Buddhist history.
Some people wonder why, having such lofty achievement, the Master manifested illness before he passed away. Actually the answer is very simple. All the eminent and great monks through the generations have had their reasons for manifesting certain conditions before they die. As recounted in the Sixth Patriarch Sutra, when the Sixth Patriarch was still alive there were people who wanted to kill him; after he died someone wanted to chop off his head and take it home to make offerings to it. When Patriarch Bodhidharma went to China, six attempts were made to poison and kill him. The Twenty-fourth Indian Patriarch, Aryasimha, was beheaded by imperial order. Before Great Master Hsuan Tsang died, he tripped and fell, then became ill and was confined to his bed. He remarked, “All my afflictions, emotions, and evil karma from beginningless time, by virtue of this slight illness, are now obliterated. I should therefore be happy.” His teacher, Venerable Shilabhadra, master of debate, became seriously ill in his old age and was in so much in pain that he wanted to commit suicide. Later Guanshiyin Bodhisattva came to him in a dream and said, “In the past you were a king who brought great suffering upon living beings. That’s why you have received this retribution.” Guanshiyin Bodhisattva advised him, “Sincerely repent, patiently endure the suffering, and diligently expound the Sutras and treatises, and then your offenses will naturally be wiped out.” Before the Master passed into stillness, he also composed a verse regarding his sickness:
I linger on, breathing with difficulty as I live out the remainder of my life,
Embroiled in the sufferings of old age and disease.
Every day I take my meals as if I were swallowing poison.
At night I lie on the sickbed like a stiff worm.
I often run into the ghosts of impermanence in my dreams;
But when I wake up, I can't find a god who can save me.
Don't you know that life passes in the space of a breath?
Hurry back to the city of pure and ultimate bliss!
Up to the time of his passing, on June 7, the Master’s health showed no improvement. Nor were there any auspicious portents or miracles. In that way, without leaving any traces, he embodied the Dharma of causes and conditions: formation, dwelling, decay, and emptiness; and birth, old age, sickness and death. The Master healed the sicknesses of countless living beings during his lifetime, yet he paid no attention to his own sickness. He chose the most painful way to go--dying of sickness.
We know that Dhyana Master Mazu Daoyi had great spiritual penetrations and saved countless people. His influence spread throughout the country. He had 84 great disciples, and yet he himself was constantly ill. When we think of the Bodhisattva spirit of these great masters, we are moved to endless praise!
Then there was the Venerable Hsu Yun, who lived to be 120 and was a heroic personage in the Chan School. His life included ten ordeals, forty-eight rare events and countless miracles. When he was 112, he was sold by his disciples, and robbed and tortured by Communist officials. He died and revived several times, after being beaten with a metal club until he was bleeding and his bones and tendons were broken.
Great Master Hanshan Zibo, who left behind an undecaying flesh body, also underwent harsh torture and died from a tumor on his back. Venerable Guangqin, an eminent monk of his time, also manifested illness in 1978, and a Dharma Master in his temple said, "The Venerable One said that he would manifest illness when he died, because there's so much suffering in the Saha World; how could he bear to waste his time?" Venerable Guangqin was right. "There's so much suffering in the Saha World; how could we bear to waste our time here?"
Someone once asked Venerable Guangqin, "If someone has very high attainment in cultivation, and yet dies in sickness or from an accident, is it because of his fixed karma, which is difficult to avert?" The Venerable One said, "You could say it's his fixed karma which is hard to avert, but you could also see him as repaying karmic debts. Only someone with attainment in cultivation will encounter this kind of suffering and tribulation. It is precisely the merit and virtue from his cultivation which allows him to settle everything once and for all this time."
There are a few verses about the Venerable Master that I feel are worth savoring and which contain profound meaning, so I have quoted them below:
The old monk came in leisure, with nothing to do.
He played hide-and-go-seek and lay on the sickbed.
In viewing existence, contemplate emptiness; emptiness is not empty.
In diagnosing the illness, one seeks the source; the source is not the source.
These lines clearly give explain the Master's manifestation of illness. As I said before, the patriarchs and great masters have all had their causes and conditions in teaching living beings in the Saha World. We should evaluate a person's accomplishments by considering his lifelong practice of the Bodhisattva path, his compassion in saving living beings, and his contributions to Buddhism. We should not judge a person solely on miracles or auspicious omens. After the Venerable Master's cremation, over 10,000 pieces of sharira were found (including sharira clusters and twelve teeth sharira), in a range of colors, including white, brown, green, blue, black, and purple. There were many sharira formed on the bones, gleaming like jade, extremely rare. This shows the Venerable Master's inconceivable merit accrued from giving over 10,000 lectures on the Sutras and from never telling a lie in his entire life.
To be continued |
