高僧傳 3.26

3.26

At that time, eminent and virtuous śramaṇas of the capital, Huiguan, Huicong, and others, admired his lofty character from afar and longed to receive his instruction. In the ninth month of the first year of Yuanjia (424 CE), they personally petitioned Emperor Wen, requesting that Guṇavarman be welcomed and invited. The Emperor immediately issued an edict to the Regional Inspector of Jiaozhou, ordering him to send a ship over the sea to invite and bring him. Huiguan and the others also dispatched the śramaṇas Fachang, Daochong, Daojun, and others thither to pray and invite him, and also delivered a letter to Guṇavarman, King Po-duo-jia of Shepo, and others, earnestly hoping that he would deign to visit the Song territory and circulate the teachings of the Way. Guṇavarman, considering that the sacred transformation should be broadened, did not dread traveling abroad. Earlier, he had already followed the ship of the merchant Zhu Nandi intending to head toward a small country, but happened to encounter favorable winds and reached Guangzhou. Therefore, his testamentary text says: 'Blown by the wind of karmic actions, I then reached the realm of the Song.' This is what it refers to. When Emperor Wen learned that Guṇavarman had reached Nanhai, he issued another edict to the prefectures and commanderies to supply provisions and send him down to the capital. His route passed through Shixing, where he stayed for about a year. In Shixing there was Mount Hushi, whose form towered in solitude, its peaks and ridges exceedingly high. Guṇavarman considered it to resemble Gṛdhrakūṭa, and so renamed it Lingjiu (Vulture Peak). Outside the mountain monastery, he separately established a dhyāna chamber; the chamber was several li from the monastery, and the sound of the stone chime could not be heard there, yet whenever the wooden mallet was struck, Guṇavarman had already arrived. At times, he braved the rain without being wetted, or trod on mud without being soiled; the assembly of both monastic and lay at that time all became solemn and grew in reverence. In the monastery there was a Precious Moon Hall. On the north wall of the hall, Guṇavarman painted with his own hand an image of Rāhula, as well as the form of the youth of Dīpaṅkara spreading his hair. After the image was finished, it emitted light every evening, which only ceased after a long time. Cai Maozhi, the Grand Administrator of Shixing, revered him with deep respect. Later, when Maozhi was about to die, Guṇavarman personally went to visit him and expounded the Dharma to comfort him. Later, his family members dreamed that they saw Maozhi in the monastery explaining the Dharma with the assembly of monks, which was truly due to the power of Guṇavarman's guidance. This mountain originally had many calamities from tigers. From the time Guṇavarman dwelt there, whether traveling by day or going by night, whenever he met a tiger, he would press down on its head with his staff, pet it, and depart. Thereupon, mountain travelers and river guests went and came without hindrance, and seventy to eighty percent of them were moved by his virtue and converted. Guṇavarman once entered dhyāna in a separate room and did not emerge for consecutive days. The monks of the monastery sent a śrāmaṇera to inquire after him, who saw a white lion climbing up a pillar, and blue padma flowers blooming abundantly across the empty sky. The śrāmaṇera cried out in fright and went to chase the lion, but suddenly nothing was seen. His miraculous marvels were inexhaustible, mostly of this kind.