續高僧傳 25.121

25.121

釋智曠。姓王。本族太原。中居徐部。厥考後住荊州新豐縣。母初將孕。夢入流浴。童子乘寶船來投。便覺有娠。及生長。敏而重行。梁太清初。喪亂無像。元帝當辟。曠少勇壯招募壯士隨軍東行。未幾淪陷。深悟虛假。遂不婚娶專求離俗。初值巾褐。誘以神仙。先受符籙次陳章醮。便問。此術能致道乎。答曰。籙既護身。章亦招貨。曠曰。斯乃保茲苦器。便名道耶。又請度世法。乃示斷粒。必到玉清。七日便飛。至期不應。道士曰。爾猶飲水。致無有赴。次更七日口絕水飲。道士又曰。爾夜尚眠。致無感耳。又更七日常坐不臥。三期屢滿。靡剋昇天。而氣力休強。遠近驚異。後值高僧。授戒為佛弟子。德行動人。漸示潛迹。江陵張詮者。二世眼盲。曠曰。爾家塜內棺枕古井。移墳開甃。必獲禳焉。因即隨言。瞽者見道請求剃落。眾咸憚之。便伐薪施僧。空閑靜慮。又言。㵎有古鐘。可掘出懸寺。仁州刺史謂為詭惑。鞭背百下無慘無破。便送出臺。拘在尚方。有力者試以八尺械懸來捶膝。傍觀謂言糜碎。而曠容既無撓肉亦無痕。獄吏云。承居士能忍飢。便絕食七日。身色如故。市衢見行。驗獄猶有。方委分身。梁宣大定三年。從人乞草屩。今夜當急行。及三更合城火發。四門出人。不泄燒殺七千。曠在獄。引囚二百安步而出。年將不惑。始蒙剃落。進戒以後。頭陀州北四望山。去此地福德方安天子。去城六十猛獸所屯。初止以後馳弭床側。每夕山隅四燈同照。士俗雲赴奄成華寺。後宣明二年。平顯二陵皆在寺前驗於往矣至於梁元覆敗王琳上迫。後梁國移並預表莂。有一宰鴨而為齋者。鴨神夜告便曰。何有殺牲而充淨供。自爾便斷。曾度夏水。徒侶數十。欲住不可欲去無從。前岸兩船無人將至。曠笑而舉聲呼之。船自截流直到。遂因濟水。誡以勿傳。又於咸陽造佛迹寺。有牛產犢。出首還隱。已過信次。母將離弋。僧告曠無惻。答曰。此犢是寺居士。侵用僧物。今來償債。其羞不出。牛母無他。因執爐呵誡犢子。疾當償報。何恥生乎。應言便出。故神異冥徵不可備載。以開皇二十年九月二十四日。終於四望開聖寺。春秋七十有五。自剋終期天香滿室。合寺音樂西南而去。未亡二年。預云終事。示如脾痛。問律師曰。阿那含人亦有疾不。未答間自云。報身法然。及遷神後手屈三指。仁壽元年。永濟寺僧法貴。死而又穌。見閻羅王。放還正值曠乘宮殿自空直下。罪人喜曰。三果聖僧來救我等。所造八寺咸有靈奇。或涌飛泉。時降佛跡。隨慧日道場法論備見若人為之碑頌。廣彰德行。

Śramaṇa Zhikuang was surnamed Wang, his clan originally from Taiyuan, later residing in Xuzhou. His father subsequently lived in Xinfeng County, Jingzhou. When his mother was about to conceive, she dreamed of entering a stream to bathe; a boy aboard a jeweled boat came toward her, and thereupon she felt herself pregnant. As he grew up, he was quick-witted and valued practice. At the beginning of the Taiqing era of the Liang, during chaotic upheaval, Emperor Yuan was about to muster forces. In his youthful vigor, Kuang recruited brave men to follow the army eastward. Before long the campaign collapsed. Having deeply realized the empty and illusory nature of worldly life, he refrained from marriage and devoted himself to seeking renunciation. At first he met Daoist practitioners, who enticed him with immortality, first imparting talismans and registers, and next laying out petitions and sacrificial offerings. He asked, "Can these arts attain the Dao?" They replied, "The registers protect the body, and the petitions attract wealth." Kuang said, "If this merely preserves this vessel of suffering, can it be called the Dao?" He further requested the method for transcending the world, whereupon they taught him to abstain from grain, saying he would surely reach Jade Purity and fly away in seven days. When the appointed time brought no result, the Daoist said, "You still drank water, which is why there was no response." For the next seven days, he took no water by mouth. The Daoist then said, "You still slept at night, which is why there was no resonance." For yet another seven days, he sat constantly without lying down. The three periods repeatedly passed, yet he was utterly unable to ascend to heaven; nevertheless, his vigor remained robust, which astonished those near and far. Later, he met an eminent monk, received the precepts, and became a disciple of the Buddha. His virtuous conduct moved others, and he gradually revealed his hidden wonders. Zhang Quan of Jiangling had been blind for two generations. Kuang said, "In your family tomb, the coffin rests against an ancient well. If you move the tomb and open the well brickwork, you will certainly gain relief." Following his words, the blind man saw the path and requested tonsure; the multitude was in awe of him. Thereupon he chopped firewood to give to the saṅgha, finding quiet contemplation in vacant seclusion. He also said, "There is an ancient bell in the ravine; it can be dug up and hung in the monastery." The governor of Renzhou, considering it deceptive madness, flogged his back a hundred times, but there was neither distress nor broken skin. He was then sent to the palace and detained in the Shangfang prison. A strong man tried hanging an eight-foot cangue to beat his knees with it; onlookers thought they would be smashed to pulp, yet Kuang's countenance showed no distress, nor did his flesh bear any mark. The prison officer said, "I hear that you, upāsaka, can endure hunger." So he fasted for seven days, yet his complexion remained unchanged. He was seen walking in the marketplace, while an inspection of the prison revealed he was still there; only then was his bilocation recognized. In the third year of the Dading era of the Later Liang, he begged someone for grass sandals, saying, "Tonight there will be a hurried journey." At the third watch, fire broke out across the entire city. The four gates let no one out, and seven thousand were burned to death without escaping. While in prison, Kuang led two hundred prisoners and walked out at a leisurely pace. Approaching the age of forty, he finally received tonsure. After receiving the full precepts, he practiced dhūta on Mount Siwang north of the prefecture: "Only by leaving this place will merit and virtue bring peace to the Son of Heaven." Situated sixty li from the city, it was a lair for wild beasts; after he first settled there, they wandered tamely beside his bed. Every evening, four lamps shone together at the mountain corners; gentry and commoners gathered like clouds, suddenly turning it into a splendid monastery. Later, in the second year of the Xuanming era, the Ping and Xian Imperial Tombs were both situated in front of the monastery, which proved his past foresight. As for the downfall of Liang Yuan and the advance of Wang Lin, as well as the relocation of the Later Liang capital, all were prophesied by him in advance. There was a man who slaughtered a duck to prepare a vegetarian feast. The duck's spirit announced in the night, "How can killing an animal supply a pure offering?" From then on, the practice was ended. He once crossed a summer flood with dozens of companions; wanting to stay was impossible, yet they had no way to advance. Two unmanned boats came toward them on the opposite bank; Kuang smiled and called out aloud, and the boats crossed the current directly to them. Thus they crossed the river, and he admonished them not to spread word of it. He also built the Tianji Monastery in Xianyang. A cow was giving birth to a calf, but after its head emerged it pulled back again; the normal time had passed, and the mother was near death. A monk informed Kuang, showing no concern, Kuang replied, "This calf was an upāsaka of the monastery who misappropriated saṅgha property and has now come to repay the debt. Out of shame, it will not come out; the mother cow has no other ailment." Thereupon, holding an incense burner, he scolded and admonished the calf: "You must swiftly repay your retribution; why feel shame at being born?" In response to his words, it was immediately born. His miracles and hidden signs cannot be recorded in full. On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month in the twentieth year of Kaihuang, he died at Kaisheng Monastery on Mount Siwang at the age of seventy-five. He had predicted his own time of death; heavenly fragrance filled the room, and music from the entire monastery drifted toward the southwest. Two years before his passing, he predicted his death, manifesting symptoms as if of spleen pain. He asked a vinayadhara, "Does an anāgāmin also have illness?" Before the master could reply, Kuang said himself, "The retribution body is naturally so." After his spirit departed, three fingers of his hand curled. In the first year of Renshou, the monk Fagui of Yongji Monastery died and revived; he saw King Yama, and when released, he encountered Kuang riding a palace descending straight from the sky. The sinners rejoiced, saying, "The holy monk of the three fruits has come to save us!" The eight monasteries he built all exhibited divine wonders: sometimes flying springs welled up, and at times footprints of the Buddha appeared. Dharma Master Falun of the Huiri Daochang fully documented this person and composed a stele eulogy for him, broadly making known his virtuous conduct.