Grand Master Yanshou
Grand Master Yanshou, courtesy name Chongxuan, lived in the Song period. He was the son of the Wang family of Qiantang. In his youth, he loved reciting the Lotus Sutra, and this spiritual response was such that a flock of goats knelt down to listen.
When he grew older, Chongxuan was appointed by King Wenmu to manage tax affairs. Many times, he used public funds to buy fish and loaches at West Lake and release them. When this was discovered, legal officials investigated and sentenced him to death. Before the execution, King Wenmu secretly sent people to observe him: if his face remained calm, without sorrow or fear, they were to report back.
He remained serene from beginning to end. The royal messenger then delivered an edict to the execution officer and brought him back to see the king. When asked for the reason, he replied: “I misused public funds; death would be a just punishment. But with all that money I rescued countless lives. Even if this body dies, I can still be reborn in the Lotus Land. Therefore I am not afraid.” King Wenmu was moved and ordered his release. Yanshou requested to leave home and become a monk, and the king agreed.
After that, he took refuge under Chan Master Cuiyan in Siming. Later he studied with National Master Shao at Tiantai, awakened to the essential mind, and received the Master’s seal of approval. He also practiced the Lotus Repentance rite at Guoqing Monastery. During meditation, he saw Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva pour sweet dew into his mouth; from then on, he gained unobstructed eloquence.
Because of a long-standing vow, he wished to focus either on Chan or on Pure Land, but had not yet decided. He went to the meditation hall of Great Master Zhizhe and made two lots: one said “Single-minded Chan Samadhi,” the other said “Adorning the Pure Land.” He then sincerely bowed to the Triple Gem, repented, and prayed for blessing. When he drew the lot, seven times in a row it was “Adorning the Pure Land.” From then on, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to Pure Land practice.
In the second year of Jianlong under the Song, King Zhongyi invited him to serve as abbot of Yongming Monastery and honored him with the title Chan Master Zhijue. He stayed there for fifteen years and ordained one thousand seven hundred monks.
The Great Master established a daily schedule of 108 practices each day and night. Two especially notable practices were reciting one full Lotus Sutra and reciting one hundred thousand Buddha-name invocations daily. At night, when he crossed to another mountain hollow to recite the Buddha’s name, nearby people heard Dharma conch sounds and celestial music rising and falling melodiously.
As for the Lotus Sutra, in his lifetime he recited thirteen thousand complete copies. He regularly transmitted Bodhisattva precepts, bought birds and fish to release them, and offered food to ghosts and spirits; all merits were dedicated to the Pure Land. He also wrote one hundred fascicles of Records of the Mirror of the School, harmonizing similarities and differences among Huayan, Lotus, and Consciousness-Only teachings.
The Great Master also compiled Ten Thousand Good Deeds Return to One Source. Its Pure Land instruction is very practical. In summary:
Question: If the Pure Land of Mind-Only pervades all ten directions, why not enter it directly? Why instead produce attachment and rejection, seek rebirth in Ultimate Bliss, and rely on lotus pedestals? Does this not conflict with the principle of non-arising? And if one dislikes impurity and prefers purity, how can that be equality?
Answer: Rebirth in the Mind-Only Pure Land belongs to those who have already awakened to their own mind and realized the formless Dharma Body. However, according to the Sutra on the Inconceivable Realm of the Tathagata, even those who have reached the First Bhumi and entered the Mind-Only Land still vow to relinquish this body and swiftly be reborn in Ultimate Bliss. This shows that outside mind there is no Dharma, and the Land of Bliss is not outside Mind-Only.
As for “non-arising in principle” and “the gate of equality,” that is true in doctrine. But those with insufficient strength, shallow wisdom, coarse minds, and heavy habits are strongly pulled by worldly conditions and cannot easily realize this directly. Such people need to seek rebirth in Ultimate Bliss, and by means of that excellent environment can quickly realize the Mind-Only Pure Land and practice the Bodhisattva path.
The Treatise on Ten Doubts also says: “The wise may understand non-arising, yet still eagerly seek Pure Land rebirth, because they know the nature of birth is illusory and cannot be grasped. This is true non-arising. Foolish people do not understand this. Bound by the idea of birth, when hearing ‘birth’ they think there is real arising; when hearing ‘non-arising’ they wrongly think there is nowhere to be reborn. Therefore they create right-and-wrong disputes, slander each other, and form wrong-view karma that defames the Dharma. How pitiful!”
Question: Sutras and treatises say, “Outside mind there is no Dharma; the Buddha neither comes nor goes.” Why then do Pure Land practitioners see sacred signs and the Buddha coming to receive them?
Answer: The Pratyutpanna Sutra says: “Like a person dreaming of seven treasures and rejoicing with relatives; upon waking, one does not know where that wealth is.” Buddha-recitation is like this.
Thus all realms are like illusions, manifested from mind-only: seemingly present yet empty. Though forms of coming and going appear, in truth there is no coming or going. Therefore sacred visions are illusory, yet not absent as illusory appearances. Coming and going are unreal, yet appearances of coming and going are not obstructed. This is the Middle Way. Illusory form is true emptiness; true emptiness is precisely illusory form. Being and non-being are non-obstructive. All events and environments in ordinary worldly life are the same.
In truth, the real realm of Mind-Only has no east or west, no directions, no going or coming, and no Dharma outside mind. But only those who have cut off karmic delusion, realized Non-arising Forbearance, and entered the true mark of the Dharma Body should directly equate themselves with this profound principle. Beginners should not mistakenly claim it.
Question: According to the Contemplation Sutra, one must collect the mind in samadhi and clearly contemplate the dependent and direct adornments of Ultimate Bliss in order to be reborn there. Why can those who are not yet in samadhi still gain rebirth through Name-recitation?
Answer: The nine lotus grades in Ultimate Bliss include all levels of practice, but they do not go beyond two points: Settled Mind and Focused Mind.
Settled Mind, or settled virtue, refers to those who successfully cultivate contemplation or recite the Name and enter samadhi. These are reborn in higher grades.
Focused Mind, or scattered virtue, refers to those who recite the Name but have not yet entered samadhi, or who cultivate other wholesome merits in support and then vow and dedicate them. These people can still enter lower grades. But they must devote their whole life to the West and practice diligently. While sitting or lying down, they should often face west. When reciting the Buddha’s name and making vows, they must be utterly sincere and not lax.
This urgent mindfulness is like prisoners in chains seeking quick release; like people in fire, flood, or pursuit by bandits desperately seeking safety. One must also, for the matter of birth and death, arouse Bodhi-mind, seek rebirth in the West, and quickly realize the holy path to repay the four great debts of gratitude, continue the flourishing of the Triple Gem, and save all beings. With such sincerity, success is certain.
Conversely, if speech and conduct do not match, if faith and vow are weak, if mind is not single, and practice is not continuous, success is difficult. Such laziness may lead, at death, to karmic obstruction, absence of good spiritual friends, bodily pain, and mental confusion, so right mindfulness cannot arise. Why? Present practice is the cause; the moment of death is the result. The cause must be firm for the result not to fail, just as a gentle sound gives a gentle echo, and a straight form gives a straight shadow.
If one wishes to succeed in ten recitations at death, then right now one must cultivate with one-pointed sincerity and vigor; then there is nothing to fear.
In general, beings divide mind into good and evil, so results become suffering or joy. Because karma is created through body, speech, and mind, the six paths of rebirth continue. Angry hatred and sexual misconduct are hell karma. Greed and stinginess are hungry-ghost karma. Ignorance and wrong views are animal karma. Pride and arrogance are asura karma. Firmly keeping the Five Precepts is human karma. Advancing in the Ten Good Deeds is sravaka karma. Thoroughly understanding dependent arising is pratyekabuddha karma. Completing the Six Perfections is bodhisattva karma. True equal compassion is Buddha karma.
If mind is pure and one recites the Buddha, one is transformed and reborn in the Pure Land, in jeweled pavilions and fragrant terraces. If mind is deluded, dark, and defiled, one is reborn in defiled realms among mounds and pits. Therefore, apart from one’s own mind there is no separate substance: to attain a pure result, one must plant excellent causes. Just as water naturally flows downward and fire naturally rises upward, this principle is inevitable – what is there to doubt?
Because people of that time still hesitated between Chan and Pure Land and did not know which method gave certain results, the Great Master composed the Fourfold Judgment Verse comparing gains and losses:
With Chan, without Pure Land:
Of ten people, nine lose the way.
When karmic states appear,
In an instant they follow them.
Without Chan, with Pure Land:
Whoever wants practice, wants release from suffering.
Reborn and seeing Amitabha,
Why fear not awakening?
With Chan and with Pure Land:
Like a tiger with added horns.
In this life, teacher of others;
In future, Buddha and Patriarch.
Without Chan and without Pure Land:
Iron bed and blazing pillar of fire.
For ten thousand kalpas and a thousand lives,
No place of refuge.
In the eighth year of Kaibao, on the morning of the 26th day of the second month, the Great Master went to the main hall, burned incense, and bowed to the Buddha. Afterward, he gathered the assembly for final instruction and encouragement, then sat in full lotus on the Dharma seat and passed away at age seventy-two.
Later, a monk from Linchuan came and for a full year circumambulated and bowed at the Great Master’s stupa. When asked why, he replied: “Last year I was gravely ill. My spirit entered the underworld and saw, at the left side of the great hall, an image of a monk being reverently worshiped by King Yama. I asked why, and learned it was the image of Chan Master Yanshou of Yongming Monastery in Hangzhou. He had already been reborn in the highest grade of Ultimate Bliss, and King Yama honored his virtue.”
According to biographies, during the era of the King of Wuyue, in Hangzhou there was a monk, Master Xingxiu, abbot of Faxiang Monastery. He was from the Zhen family of Quannan. Born with unusual features, his ears were so long they reached his shoulders, and by age seven he still had not spoken. One day, someone jokingly asked him a question, and he suddenly answered: “If one does not meet a true master, speaking much only knocks down a house of smoke.”
Later he became a monk at Waguan Monastery in Jinling, studied under Chan Master Xuefeng, and awakened to the mind seal. From then on, even wild beasts became tame around him. He became famous as a monk of extraordinary and miraculous signs. A senior monk asked, “What is the meaning of your long ears?” He did not answer, only stretched his ears to indicate. Another asked, “Is the southern mountain summit hard to reach?” He replied, “Only because one has never gone there.” Asked, “After arriving, what is it like?” He answered, “Resting alone on the high peak.”
When the King of Wuyue visited a monastery to bow to the Buddha, he asked Master Yongming: “Venerable one, are there any true monks in this age?” The Great Master replied: “There is Master Xingxiu, the long-eared monk. He is an embodiment of Dipamkara Buddha.” The king went to Master Xingxiu, bowed respectfully, and honored him as Dipamkara Tathagata appearing in the world.
Master Xingxiu said: “Great Master Yongming talks too much. He too is an embodiment of Amitabha Buddha.” After saying this, he sat still and passed away. The King of Wuyue hurried back to Yongming Monastery intending to ask further, but the Great Master had already passed away as well.
Therefore, people of that time transmitted the saying that Great Master Yongming was an emanation of Amitabha Buddha. Monastics and lay followers then took the Great Master’s birthday – the 17th day of the 11th month – as the commemorative feast day of Amitabha Buddha.