律相感通傳 1.85

1.85

He replied, "King Aśoka's fourth daughter was not attractive in appearance and remained secluded indoors for a long time. Constantly distressed by her ugliness, she drew the Buddha's form, yet the marks and features were unlike the Buddha's and resembled her own body instead. Once it was completed, she made a vow: 'The Buddha's marks and features are preeminent and different from mortals; how could they resemble my own form and appearance?' With this, she prayed earnestly, enduring months and years, after which she had a spiritual resonance wherein the Buddha appeared, suddenly transforming her former appearance. Her father questioned her thoroughly, and she recounted what she had vowed. The images now at Yuhua on North Mountain, Changsha in Jing Prefecture, Gao Kui's in the capital of Yang, and the present Chongjing Monastery are all this image. Some have inscriptions on their halos or pedestals, but few people recognise them. King Aśoka commanded various spirits and ghosts to transport them to various places to open beings up to the Buddha Dharma. The faces of these various images are none other than female forms. The site of Chongjing Monastery was originally a battlefield; toward the end of the Western Jin, when the Five Barbarians arose in force, killings by weapons and armor were extremely numerous here, and human bones beneath the ground can still be seen today. Those killed were innocent, having suffered cruel and excessive slaughter; therefore, the spirits and ghosts brought [the image] to subdue the area, enabling the wronged souls to give rise to wholesome thoughts. When the Zhou dynasty extinguished the Dharma, the spirits also removed it. When the Sui ruler ascended and flourished, the Buddha [image] was erected once again."