56. Hui-sheng
[OMITTED]
The nun Hui-sheng (Victorious Wisdom) (425-505) of Solitude
Convent of Liang
Hui-sheng's secular surname was T'ang. Her family was originally
from the city of P'eng-ch'eng [in northeast China], but her father,
T'ang Seng-chih, took up residence in Chien-k'ang [the capital of the
Liang dynasty].
When still a child Hui-sheng wanted to leave the household life to
become a nun. She was upright in character and restrained in speech;
her deeds matched her words. Lacking any tendency to frivolity, she
would remain indoors for as long as ten days. All who saw her
respected her extraordinary qualities.
In the twenty-first year of the yüan-chia reign period (444) of the
Sung dynasty, when Hui-sheng was eighteen years old, she left the secular
life and lived at Meditation Grove Convent as a disciple of the
nun Ching-hsiu (no. 52). After her reception of the obligation to
observe all the monastic precepts, she lectured on the Flower of the
Law Scripture. Under the tutelage of the nun Hui-hsü (no. 48) of Collected
Goodness Convent she studied the five ways of meditation.[54]
Later, under Hui-yin of Grass Hall Monastery and Fa-ying of Spiritual
Root Monastery, Hui-sheng cultivated the practice of contemplation
in which she grasped to an exceptional degree the marvellous realization
of the [Buddhist Way].[55] Whenever others perceived this and
asked her about it, she always replied, "Sins, whether serious or slight,
should be disclosed at once. Confess them diligently day and night."
Exalted and humble alike respected her, giving her offerings without
cease.
In the fourth year of the t'ien-chien reign period (505) of Liang
she died at the age of eighty-one and was interred on Bare Plank
Mountain.
[54]
A textual variant gives the reading "five gates of meditation," which
could also be the title of a text, the Five Gates of Meditation Scripture,
translated by Buddhamitra and Dharmamitra in the capital during the early
Sung dynasty (420-479) (T. 15, no. 619). The five gates in the scripture are
watching one's breath, observing the impurity of all things, cultivating compassion
for all living beings, contemplating the causes of dependent arising,
and keeping in mind, or calling upon, the Buddha. Another list of five, from
the Vimalakīrti's Preaching Scripture, is meditating on impermanence, suffering,
emptiness, non-ego, and the calm cessation of nirvana (T. 14, no. 475,
chap. 1, 541.a.15-16).
[55]
According to a textual variant, the first named (Hui-yin) could also be
Ssu-yin. Fa-ying is not the same Fa-ying whose biography appears in Kao seng
chuan 11:402.a.6.
