University of Virginia Library

22a. Shih Hui-mu

[OMITTED]

[A second version of Hui-mu's life taken from the sixth-century
collection titled Ming hsiang chi (Records of mysterious
omens)][70]

The nun Hui-mu of the Sung dynasty was surnamed Fu. She entered
the religious life at age eleven but accepted only the ten rules [of a novice
in the monastic life]. She lived in Chu-ko Village Convent in Liang
Commandery.

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47

When Hui-mu first read the Larger Perfection of Wisdom, she was
able to chant from memory two chapters a day [a total of more than
twenty thousand words]. Her teacher, Hui-ch'ao, had built a scripture
hall, and once, when Hui-mu went in to offer worship, she saw in the
northwest corner of the room a Buddhist monk wearing the gold-colored
robe of a Buddhist monastic, and his feet were not touching the
ground.

Another time when Hui-mu, in the middle of the night, was lying
down and memorizing scriptures, she had a dream in which she traveled
to the west, where she saw a pool filled with lotus blossoms, and
sitting inside each lotus was a person who had been born there [by
metamorphosis]. One large flower, however, was empty. Hui-mu,
wanting to climb up onto the flower, grabbed hold of it with all her
strength but, without realizing what she was doing, also began to
chant scripture in a loud voice. Because her mother, hearing the chanting,
thought that Hui-mu was having a nightmare, she woke her
daughter up.

Hui-mu's mother was very old, and, because she had lost all her
teeth, Hui-mu always thoroughly chewed her mother's food first so
that her mother could eat. Doing this, however, meant that Hui-mu
had to eat after noon as well as before thereby transgressing the
monastic rule of not eating after mid-day. For that reason, even
though Hui-mu had grown up and come of age to be able to accept the
full obligation of the monastic life, she did not do so.

After her mother died, Hui-mu herself cleaned and prepared the
ground for the placing of the ceremonial platform used for receiving
the monastic rules, and she asked her teacher to bestow them. Suddenly,
the space around the platform glowed with dazzling light, all a
golden color. Hui-mu looked toward the southwest, where she saw a
heavenly being who wore a trimmed robe of russet-gold color. He
seemed now close and now far away, but, when she sought after him,
he had disappeared.

The extraordinary things that happened to her she kept secret, but,
when her elder brother became a monk, he heard rumors and wanted
to find out for sure, so he tricked her, saying, "You have been living
the religious life many years now, but with no results. Therefore, you
might as well let your hair grow and become a wife."[71] When Hui-mu
heard this, she felt great dread and thought she should tell the truth
about everything, so she gave a rough description of what she had
seen.

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48

When the nun Ching-ch'eng heard of her Way and virtue, she went
to Hui-mu for the purpose of becoming well acquainted with her, the
more easily to ask about the unusual phenomena Hui-mu had experienced,
and Hui-mu told her everything in detail.

Later, Hui-mu and her companions in religion were worshipping
the Endless-Life Buddha [Amitāyus]. Because Hui-mu did not get up
after a prostration, the others thought she had fallen asleep. Someone
kicked her and asked, but Hui-mu said nothing at all. When Ching-ch'eng
again begged and entreated her, Hui-mu said, "While I was
prostrate on the ground [worshipping the Buddha], I had a vision of
going to the Western Paradise and seeing Amita Buddha, who was
explaining the Smaller Perfection of Wisdom [to me]. He had already
gone as far as the fourth chapter when, to my very deep regret, I was
kicked awake."

In the fourteenth year of the yüan-chia reign period (437), Hui-mu
was sixty-nine years old.