高僧傳 13.28

13.28

When the clay core of the image was first completed, the bhikṣu Daozhao would often perform repentance rites in the middle of the night. Suddenly, he saw the place of the clay core shining brightly with brilliant light. Looking closely for a long time, he realized it was an extraordinary spiritual light. Three days after the casting, before the mold could be opened, there was the dhyāna master Daodu, a monk of pure and lofty conduct, who gave up his seven-strip kāṣāya to help cover the expense of opening the uṣṇīṣa. Soon, he saw two monks from afar kneeling to open the topknot of the image; when he approached to look closely, they vanished abruptly. At that time, the two monks Yue and Jing passed away one after the other. By imperial decree, the affairs of the image were entrusted to Sengyou of Dinglin Temple. On the twenty-sixth day of the ninth month of that year, the image was moved to Guangzhai Temple. It had not rained that month, and there was considerable dust. When it was about to be moved at dawn, light clouds covered the sky in the night, and a fine drizzle moistened the earth. Sengyou was walking mindfully near the image, contemplating the weather, when he saw flames of light rising and falling beside the image from afar, like lamps and candles, and also heard the sounds of the striking chime and prostrations of repentance. Entering the hall to look closely, everything suddenly vanished; Jiang Xiaosun, who guarded the temple, also saw this together with him. That night, merchants along the Huai River all heard under the great boat bridge the urgent directing of bridge repairs, with the sound as if of hundreds of people. From this one knows that such an important spiritual vessel could hardly have been brought about by human power alone.