曇摩密多
Dharmamitra
(梁言法友)。少稟道化。喰味玄秘。為三寶之勇卒。法城之巨塹。諷誦經藏。堅持律部。偏好禪那。兼修定品。心安虗靜。思達玄微。志願遊方。弘通禪悅。於是汎泊來東。以宋永初三年。始至江陵。住長沙寺。旬日之中。得一舍利。形質雖小。光色異常。以鉢水汎之。遙淥右轉。乍浮乍沈。光[卄/(澄-豆+示)]炳煥。眾皆驚此神奇。嗟歎盈路。元嘉初來集京師。住祇洹寺。譯普賢觀經一分。虗空藏觀一分。至十年移憩定林。業遠囂動。專務清寂。更華。寺後別禪堂。師友十餘。並雅精業。晝夜不休。供施雲集。以十八年。更譯禪秘要三分。五門禪經一分。春秋八十。元嘉十九年六月。卒于寺(云云)。
(In Liang, his name means "Dharma Friend.") From an early age he received the teaching and tasted its profound mysteries. He was a valiant soldier of the Three Treasures and a great moat around the fortress of the Dharma. He recited and chanted the scriptural collection and firmly upheld the Vinaya. He was especially fond of dhyāna and also cultivated the stages of concentration. His mind was peaceful and empty-still, and his thoughts reached the profound and subtle. His vow was to travel widely and spread the joy of dhyāna. And so he drifted across the seas and came east, first arriving at Jiangling in the third year of Yongchu of the Liu Song. He stayed at Changsha Temple. Within ten days he obtained a śarīra; though small in form, its light and color were extraordinary. When placed in a bowl of water, it circled to the right from afar, now floating, now sinking, its radiance blazing brightly. Everyone marveled at this wonder, and sighs of admiration filled the roads. In the early years of Yuanjia he came to the capital and stayed at Qihuan Temple. He translated one section of the Sutra of Contemplating Samantabhadra and one section of the Contemplation of Ākāśagarbha. In the tenth year he moved to reside at Dinglin. His karma was far from clamor and movement, and he devoted himself single-mindedly to pure stillness. Again he established a separate dhyāna hall behind Huisheng Temple, where more than ten teachers and friends, all refined and skilled in their practice, continued day and night without rest. Offerings and gifts gathered like clouds. In the eighteenth year he further translated three sections of the Essential Secrets of Dhyāna and one section of the Sutra of the Five Gates of Dhyāna. He lived to the age of eighty. In the sixth month of the nineteenth year of Yuanjia, he passed away at the temple (and so on).