高僧傳 5.35

5.35

翼常歎寺立僧足，而形像尚少。阿育王所造容儀，神瑞皆多，布在諸方，何其無感，不能招致。乃專精懇惻，請求誠應。以晉太元十九年甲午之歲二月八日，忽有一像現于城北，光相衝天，時白馬寺僧眾，先往迎接，不能令動。翼乃往祇禮，謂眾人曰：「當是阿育王像，降我長沙寺焉。」即令弟子三人捧接，飄然而起，迎還本寺，道俗奔赴，車馬轟填。後罽賓禪師僧伽難陀從蜀下，入寺禮拜，見像光上有梵字，便曰：「是阿育王像，何時來此？」時人聞者方知翼之不謬。年八十二而終，終日，像圓光奄然靈化，莫知所之。道俗咸謂翼之通感焉。

Yi often lamented that although the temple had been established and the monks were sufficient, the sacred images were still few. The forms and appearances made by King Aśoka possessed many divine omens and were distributed throughout the various quarters; how was it that he had no spiritual response and could not summon one? Thereupon, with concentrated diligence and earnest sorrow, he prayed for a sincere response. On the eighth day of the second month in the nineteenth year of the Taiyuan era of the Jin dynasty (a jiawu year), an image suddenly appeared north of the city, its light and radiance shooting into the sky. At that time, the monks of Baima Temple went first to receive it, but could not make it move. Yi then went, paid reverent homage, and said to the assembly: "This must be an image of King Aśoka, descending to our Changsha Temple." He then ordered three disciples to hold and receive it, and it rose effortlessly into the air. They welcomed it back to their own temple, while monastics and laypeople rushed to the scene, their carriages and horses creating a thunderous din. Later, when the Kashmiri dhyāna master Saṃghananda came down from Shu and entered the temple to pay homage, he saw Brāhmī characters on the image's halo and said: "This is an image of King Aśoka; when did it come here?" Those of the time who heard this only then knew that Yi had not been mistaken. He died at the age of eighty-two. On the day of his death, the image's round halo suddenly underwent a miraculous transformation and vanished, no one knowing where it went. Monastics and laypeople all considered this to be a spiritual resonance with Yi.