Master Sheng'an, the 11th Patriarch of the Pure Land School — "I Depart Now, I Shall Return; Meet Again Through Reciting the Buddha's Name"

The 14th day of the fourth lunar month marks the memorial day of Master Sheng’an, the 11th Patriarch of the Pure Land (Lianzong) School. Though the patriarch’s time in the world was brief—only 49 years—his earnest compassion and teaching through both word and example have left an inexhaustible treasury of Dharma wealth for future generations. This piece draws on a handful of the patriarch’s surviving writings, using key turning points in his life as a thread, to offer fellow practitioners a glimpse of his boundless merit.

Excerpt from The Essay on Encouraging the Generation of the Bodhicitta

I am a child of the Buddha, yet I cannot repay the Buddha’s kindness. I am of no benefit to myself inwardly, no benefit to others outwardly, no benefit to the world while I live, no benefit to future generations after I die. The heavens, though high, cannot cover me; the earth, though thick, cannot bear me. Who could be a more grave sinner than I? Overcome by unbearable grief, with no recourse in sight, I cast aside my humble unworthiness in an instant, and suddenly raise the great bodhicitta. Though I cannot reverse the decline of the Dharma in this age, I am determined to strive to uphold the true Dharma in future lives.

Let us turn back to the spring of the 58th year of the Kangxi era (1719 CE), when 34-year-old Master Sheng’an crossed the river from Xiling in Hangzhou to travel to Mount Ayuwang in Siming, Ningbo, to pay homage to the stupa holding the Buddha’s relics. A few months earlier, he had revised and expanded the 30 Pure Land poems he composed at age 30 into a collection of 108, titled Poems Encouraging Pure Land Practice, which he formally published and circulated. The completion of this expanded collection marked a major milestone in the maturation of the master’s Pure Land thought. Key expositions on doctrinal contrasts such as Chan and Pure Land, self-power and other-power, and Buddha-name recitation and visualization—which would later appear in his Pure Land treatises including the Commentary on the Western Vow Text and Interpretation of the Sea God’s Vow—were already present in these poems.

Though the spring landscape was lovely along his journey over rivers and up mountains, it couldn’t make the master pause for even a moment. When he arrived at Ayuwang Temple, he came upon a bhikshu paying homage to the stupa, who said he intended to complete 84,000 full prostrations before it. The two took to each other immediately, and Master Sheng’an gladly joined him. They paid homage to the stupa together each day, performed their monastic duties, practiced side by side, and stayed for the summer rains retreat there. Three months later, the master burned a finger as an offering before the relic stupa, and composed eight poems titled Record of Paying Respects to the Stupa. One of them reads:

It has been two thousand years since the Parinirvana of Shakyamuni, Yet his relics still shine brilliantly to this day. I rejoice at the good karma I accumulated in past lives, That I may gaze upon the radiant marks before the stupa.

The poem notes that during his time paying homage to the stupa, he witnessed the relics emitting light. All told, the master made five finger-burning and incense-burning offerings to the Buddha over the course of his life.

Not long after, the master traveled to Yongfu Temple in Hangzhou to take part in a Water-Land Dharma assembly. During the assembly, while discussing offerings to the Buddha with his fellow monastics, the master lamented that in this degenerate age, many monks and nuns show no grief or make any offerings on the day of the Buddha’s Parinirvana, and some do not even know the date of the Buddha’s passing. He therefore resolved to hold a Parinirvana offering Dharma assembly the following year to repay the Buddha’s immeasurable kindness. On the spot, several people resolved to help the master organize the offering assembly.

On the 15th day of the second month of the 59th year of the Kangxi reign (1720 CE), the master kept his promise and returned to Mount Ayuwang, leading the fourfold assembly to formally launch a seven-day Parinirvana Dharma assembly. The well-known Essay on Encouraging the Generation of the Bodhicitta was written during this assembly. In the essay, the master lays out in detail the eight types of bodhicitta and ten causes and conditions for raising it, encouraging the fourfold assembly to all generate bodhicitta and uphold the Tathagata’s true Dharma.

Excerpt from The Essay on Encouraging the Generation of the Bodhicitta

We recite the Buddha’s name ultimately to attain Buddhahood; if we do not raise the great bodhicitta, what is the point of reciting at all? We generate bodhicitta ultimately to practice the path; if we are not reborn in the Pure Land, it is easy to backslide even after raising the mind. So sow the seed of bodhicitta, till it with the plow of Buddha-name recitation, and the fruit of the path will grow of its own accord; board the ship of great vows, enter the sea of the Pure Land, and rebirth in the Western Pure Land is guaranteed.

The sutras teach that all phenomena are created by the mind, and also that the mind arises dependent on conditions, with no fixed, unchanging essence or form. A single thought of anger plunges one into the hell realms; a single thought of compassion purifies a Buddha land. The vow you hold shapes the mind you have. Therefore, to walk the path to Buddhahood without backsliding, bodhisattvas must anchor their minds in vows, set firm vows, and raise bodhicitta. Only then can they be called true children of the Buddha, and only then can their personal practice be inseparably tied to the liberation of all beings and the attainment of full awakening. The Pure Land Dharma gate is no different: Amitabha Buddha’s 48 great vows are the perfect expression of bodhicitta. The Pure Land of the mind, the Amitabha of our original nature, are fully revealed only through the power of bodhicitta. For this reason, raising bodhicitta is the essential first step to awakening. Walking the bodhisattva path is the only way to attain full Buddhahood. And accomplishing bodhicitta in this very life is rebirth in the Pure Land.

At age 29, the master practiced contemplation on the question, “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” Just four months later, he awakened to the true nature of the mind, exclaiming, “I have woken from a dream.” After his awakening, he continued a three-year closed retreat, devoting himself diligently to Pure Land practice. At 35, with tears of blood and kowtowing in reverence, he composed the Essay on Encouraging the Generation of the Bodhicitta, which opens by stressing the necessity of raising bodhicitta and setting firm vows. This makes clear that the essay is both an inheritance and elucidation of the Buddha’s mind and the patriarchs’ ancestral seal, as well as the fruit of his own compassionate practice and verified realization.

One of the Four Spontaneous Poems

I am good for nothing, I belong only in the deep mountains, One sparse room, I shut myself inside alone. I have a message for the world: do not call for me, For I will not set foot in the human realm again in this lifetime.

In the 6th year of the Yongzheng reign (1728 CE), the master was 43 years old, with one year remaining in his planned ten-year series of Parinirvana offering assemblies, and only six years left before his passing. During this period, the patriarch was tempered by both worldly and transcendent trials, his practice deepened, and his virtue grew more abundant. He was thus lifted to prominence by the dragons and heavenly beings, and his reputation spread widely across the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, with streams of seekers coming to request teachings and seek guidance. While actively spreading the Dharma, the master felt he had no time for his own practice, so he decided to withdraw into seclusion at Xianlin Temple in Hangzhou, never leaving its grounds, and devoted himself fully to Pure Land practice. This poem records the motivation for his closed retreat: he humbly claimed he had no ability, so he could only dwell in a thatched cottage in the deep mountains to practice alone. He sent word to the world not to call for him, for he would not return to the bustle of the human world in this lifetime.

Fourth of the Four Spontaneous Poems

A broken boat cannot save the drowning: this defies all reason, I must push with all my might to reach the shore. Once the boatman has stepped onto land, I will take up a new oar and re-enter the midstream.

Withdrawing to the mountains to avoid the world may seem at odds with the ideal of liberating all sentient beings. But the master knew that to fully deliver all beings, he must first complete the great task of attaining rebirth in the Pure Land. The ordinary, karma-bound beings of this Sahā world are like a broken boat: we can barely keep ourselves afloat; how can we save other sentient beings? So we must strive with all our might in this life to first reach the other shore of liberation, then turn the compassion boat around, using profound wisdom to skillfully deliver the countless sentient beings drowning in the midstream. This aligns with the words of Nagarjuna Bodhisattva: “If one has not attained the patience of the birthless Dharma, there is no way to deliver sentient beings in this defiled world.”

Inscription for the Pure Practice Hall

If the mind is not unified, practice cannot be pure; Only drowsiness and distraction breed these afflictions. I speak to all of you who enter and leave this hall: Examine yourselves often, whether you are diligent or lazy. If you are lazy, rouse yourselves to effort; if diligent, push further ahead. Devote this entire life to practice, and you will surely see Amitabha Buddha.

In the 3rd month of the 8th year of the Yongzheng reign (1730 CE), the master was 45 years old. At the request of his followers, he took up residence as abbot of Fantian Temple on Phoenix Mountain. He followed the model of the Eastern Lin community, emulating Master Huiyuan, and established a Pure Land practice society for the temple’s monastics and lay followers, founding the Pure Practice Hall. He wrote the Rules for the Pure Practice Hall, stipulating that practice in the hall would last three years, with daily practice divided into twenty sessions: ten for reciting the Buddha’s name, nine for visualization practice based on the Contemplation Sutra of Amitayus, and one for repentance rituals. The master himself restricted his movement to the western courtyard of Fantian Temple, naming his room the Inch of Incense Hermitage, and expressed his resolve in a poem with the lines: “Fellow practitioners join in a three-year society, / For visiting guests, only an inch of incense is left.” That is, even if honored guests came to visit, he would exchange a few brief words of Dharma with them, and once the inch of incense burned down, he would return to reciting the Buddha’s name. From then on, he cut off all worldly ties and focused solely on Pure Land practice, and people called him the reincarnation of Master Yongming.

The Final Verse Composed at the End of Life

My body rests within the lotus flower, the Buddha appears before me, The Buddha’s light shines upon my purple-gold lotus. My mind follows the Buddhas to be reborn in the Pure Land, In the state of no coming and no going, the event is perfectly manifest.

Three years later, the master ended his closed retreat. On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month that year, the day of Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, the master told his disciples, “I will pass away on the 14th day of the fourth lunar month next year.” The master had known the time of his passing months in advance, and waited only for the moment of his rebirth. He then entered another closed retreat in the Inch of Incense Hermitage, reciting 100,000 Buddha names every day.

In the 12th year of the Yongzheng reign (1734 CE), 49-year-old Master Sheng’an completed the final closed retreat of his life. On the 12th day of the fourth lunar month, he announced to the assembly, “Ten days ago I saw the Western Three Saints descending from the sky, and I see them again today. I will surely be reborn in the Pure Land.” He then settled all the temple’s affairs, and bid farewell to the lay patron practitioners who had come upon hearing the news. When his attendant asked him to write a farewell verse, the master wrote this verse, saying: I am already within the lotus flower, my mind follows Amitabha Buddha to be reborn in the Pure Land. “In the state of no coming and no going, the event is perfectly manifest” means he has realized the Dharma nature of no coming and no going, yet the concrete event of rebirth is clearly manifest. This is precisely what Master Tianyi Yihuai expressed: “One is certainly reborn, yet there is no actual going away.”

In the pre-dawn hours of the 14th day of the fourth lunar month, the master bathed, changed into fresh robes, faced west, closed his eyes, and sat in the full lotus position. By morning, disciples from near and far had arrived, weeping and pleading with the master: “We beg you to remain in the world to deliver sentient beings.” The master opened his eyes, looked around at the assembly, and said: “I go, but I will return. The matter of birth and death is of utmost importance; each of you purify your minds and recite the Buddha’s name.” After speaking, he folded his hands in anjali mudra, chanted the Buddha’s name, and passed away.

The master was born on the 8th day of the eighth lunar month in the 25th year of the Kangxi reign. He lived 49 years, and was ordained for 25 years. He served as abbot of temples for more than ten years, and the number of disciples he ordained, precepted, and lay followers who took refuge with him is incalculable. His life of Dharma activity is like a lotus rising from the water, emitting the eternal fragrance of Buddha nature.

At the close of the Essay on Encouraging the Generation of the Bodhicitta, the master left this final exhortation: “If you all truly hold to my words, then we will be bound as bodhicitta companions, and the Lotus Society alliance will be forged from this day forward. I pray that we will all be reborn in the Pure Land, all see Amitabha, all transform sentient beings, and all attain full awakening.” On this memorial day commemorating the master’s passing, the best offering and remembrance we can give him is to heed his admonitions and follow his teachings. “I go, but I will return” is no empty promise. May all monastics and lay practitioners across the ten directions recite the Buddha’s name with sincere diligence, silently merge with their original mind, and the master will meet us in every sound of the Buddha’s name.