高僧傳 3.44

3.44

At that time, there were also the Indian śramaṇas Saṃghadatta, Saṃgharatna, and others, all deeply enlightened in dhyāna practice, who came to travel in the territory of Song. Datta was once sitting in dhyāna in the mountains; as the hour for the noon meal drew near, he thought of fasting with an empty stomach, whereupon a flock of birds flew over carrying fruit and offered it to him. Datta reflected, "A monkey offered honey, and the Buddha also accepted and ate it; now that flying birds offer food, why should it not be permissible?" He thereupon accepted and ate it. In the summer of the eighteenth year of the Yuanjia era, upon the invitation of King Kang of Linchuan, he held a retreat in Guangling, and later died in Jianye. Saṃgharatna, translated as "Benefiting the Multitude," arrived in the capital at the end of the Jingping era of Song. He begged for food among the populace and sat in quiet meditation under trees, cultivating his pure nature in seclusion and staying unentangled with the contemporary world. In the tenth year of the Yuanjia era, he chose a dwelling on the southern slope of Mount Zhong, cleared away thorns and brushwood, and established a monastery, which is the Songxi Temple.