律相感通傳 1.50

1.50

答曰：「非羅什也，斯乃宋孝武征扶南獲之。昔佛滅後三百年中，北天竺大阿羅漢優婁質那以神力加工匠，三百年中鑿大石山，安置佛窟。從上至下，凡有五重，高三百餘尺。請彌勒菩薩指揮，作檀像以處之。《玄奘法師傳》云：『高百餘尺。』《聖跡記》云：『高八丈，足趺八尺，六齋日常放光。』其初作時，羅漢將工人上天，三往方成。第一栴檀，第二牛頭栴檀，第三金像，第四玉像，第五銅像。凡夫今見，止在下重，上四重閉。石窟映徹，見人藏腑。第六百年，有佛奈遮阿羅漢，生已母亡，生扶南國。念母恩重，從上重中取小檀像，令母供養。母終，生楊州，出家住新興寺，獲悟三果。宋孝武征扶南，獲此像來都，亦是羅漢神力。母今見在時，往羅浮、天台、西方諸處。昔法盛、曇無竭者，再往西方有傳五卷，略述此緣。何得云什師背負而來耶？」

He replied: “It was not Kumārajīva; it was obtained by Emperor Xiaowu of the Song when he campaigned against Funan. In the past, within the three hundred years after the Buddha's demise, the great arhat Upagupta of Northern India used his supernatural power to direct artisans, spending three hundred years carving out a great rocky mountain to establish Buddha-grottos. From top to bottom there were five tiers in all, over three hundred feet high. He invited Bodhisattva Maitreya to direct [the work] and make a sandalwood image to be housed there. The Biography of the Dharma Master Xuanzang says: ‘It is over one hundred feet high.’ The Record of Sacred Traces says: ‘It is eighty feet high, with a foot-pedestal of eight feet, and regularly emits light on the six fasting days.’ When it was first made, the arhat took the artisans up to heaven; only after three journeys was it completed. The first was sandalwood, the second ox-head sandalwood, the third a gold image, the fourth a jade image, and the fifth a bronze image. What ordinary mortals see today is only in the lowest tier; the upper four tiers are closed. The stone grottos are crystalline and transparent, showing through to human viscera. In the sixth century, there was the arhat Fo-naizhe; upon his birth his mother died and was reborn in the country of Funan. Mindful of the heavy debt of gratitude to his mother, he took a small sandalwood image from the uppermost tier to let his mother make offerings to it. When his mother passed away, she was reborn in Yangzhou, went forth from household life to dwell in Xinxing Monastery, and attained realization of the third fruit. When Emperor Xiaowu of the Song campaigned against Funan, he obtained this image and brought it to the capital, which was also due to the arhat's supernatural power. His mother is now still alive, occasionally travelling to Luofu, Tiantai, and various places in the Western Regions. In the past, Fasheng and Dharmodgata went twice to the Western Regions and have a five-fascicle record that briefly recounts these circumstances. How could one say that Master Kumārajīva brought it on his back?”