四祖道信大師者
Master Daoxin, the Fourth Patriarch
姓司馬氏。世居河內。後徙於蘄州廣濟縣。生而超異。幼慕空宗諸解脫門。宛如宿習。既嗣祖風。攝心無寐。脅不至席者僅六十年。隋大業十三載領徒眾抵吉州。值羣盜圍城。七旬不解。萬眾惶怖。祖愍之。教令念摩訶般若。時賊眾望雉堞間若有神兵。乃相謂曰。城內必有異人。不可攻矣。稍稍引去。唐武德甲申歲師却返蘄春。住破頭山。學侶雲臻。一日往黃梅縣。路逢一小兒。骨相奇秀。異乎常童。祖問曰。子何姓。答曰。姓即有。不是常姓。祖曰。是何姓。答曰。是佛性。祖曰。汝無姓邪。答曰。性空。故無。祖默識其法器。即俾侍者至其母所。乞令出家。母以宿緣故。殊無難色。遂捨為弟子。以至付法傳衣。偈曰。華種有生性。因地華生生。大緣與性合。當生生不生。遂以學徒委之。一日告眾曰。吾武德中游廬山。登絕頂。望破頭山。見紫雲如葢。下有白氣。橫分六道。汝等會否。眾皆默然。忍曰。莫是和尚他後橫出一枝佛法否。祖曰。善。後貞觀癸卯歲太宗嚮師道味。欲瞻風彩。詔赴京。祖上表遜謝。前後三返。竟以疾辭。第四度命使曰。如果不起。即取首來。使至山諭旨。祖乃引頸就刃。神色儼然。使異之。回以狀聞。帝彌加欽慕。就賜珍繒。以遂其志。迄高宗永徽辛亥歲閏九月四日。忽垂誡門人曰。一切諸法。悉皆解脫。汝等各自護念。流化未來。言訖安坐而逝。壽七十有二。塔于本山。明年四月八日。塔戶無故自開。儀相如生。爾後。門人不敢復閉。代宗諡大醫禪師．慈雲之塔。
His family name was Sima. For generations they had lived in Henei, and later moved to Guangji County in Qizhou. From birth he was extraordinary, and in childhood he was drawn to the various gates of liberation of the Emptiness teaching, as though from habits formed in past lives. After inheriting the ancestral tradition, he stilled his mind and went without sleep, and for nearly sixty years his side never touched a mat.
In the thirteenth year of the Daye era of the Sui dynasty, he led his followers to Jizhou. It happened that a band of robbers had surrounded the city, and for seventy days they would not withdraw. The multitudes within were terrified. The Patriarch, out of compassion, taught them to recite Maha Prajna. Then the robbers looked toward the battlements and seemed to see divine soldiers there. They said to one another, "There must be extraordinary people inside the city. We cannot attack it." And little by little they withdrew.
In the Jiashen year of the Wude era of the Tang, the Master returned to Qichun and dwelt on Mount Potou. Students gathered like clouds. One day he went to Huangmei County, and on the road met a small child whose bone structure was remarkably fine, unlike an ordinary boy. The Patriarch asked, "What is your surname?" The child replied, "I have a surname, but it is not an ordinary surname." The Patriarch said, "What surname is it?" He answered, "It is Buddha-nature." The Patriarch said, "Then you have no surname?" He answered, "Its nature is empty; therefore there is none." The Patriarch silently recognized that he was a vessel fit for the Dharma, and sent an attendant to his mother to ask that the boy be allowed to leave home. Because of karmic ties from former lives, his mother showed no reluctance at all, and gave him up to become a disciple. In time the Patriarch transmitted the Dharma and handed down the robe to him, with this verse:
"The seed of the flower has the nature to be born; by the ground of cause, flowers are born again and again. When the great condition meets with that nature, what is born and born again is not born."
He then entrusted his students to him.
One day the Patriarch told the assembly, "During the Wude era I traveled to Mount Lu. I climbed to the very summit and looked toward Mount Potou. I saw purple clouds like a canopy, and beneath them a white vapor spreading crosswise in six paths. Do you understand?" The assembly was silent. Neng said, "Could it be that after you are gone, a branch of the Buddha-Dharma will spread out sideways from you, Master?" The Patriarch said, "Good."
Later, in the Guimao year of the Zhenguan era, Emperor Taizong had a taste for the Master's way and wished to see his presence. He summoned him to the capital. The Patriarch sent up a memorial declining, and this happened three times in all; each time he excused himself on grounds of illness. The fourth time the emperor charged the envoy, saying, "If he still will not come, bring back his head." When the envoy reached the mountain and announced the imperial decree, the Patriarch stretched out his neck to meet the blade, his expression utterly composed. The envoy was astonished, and on returning reported the matter. The emperor revered and admired him all the more, and bestowed precious silks upon him, allowing him to fulfill his own purpose.
At last, on the fourth day of the intercalary ninth month of the Xinhai year of the Yonghui era under Emperor Gaozong, he suddenly gave instruction to his disciples: "All dharmas are utterly liberated. Each of you must guard your own mind and pass the teaching on to future ages." Having spoken, he sat upright and passed away. He was seventy-two years old. A stupa was built on that mountain. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the following year, the door of the stupa opened of itself for no reason, and his countenance was as though alive. After that, his disciples did not dare close it again. Emperor Daizong bestowed on him the posthumous title Great Physician Chan Master, and the name Ciyun for his stupa.