續高僧傳 25.137

25.137

釋慧聰。姓王。出家已後遊行齋講。手不釋卷。尋經旨趣心自欣躍。苦形節食行知足行。自云。法華經。常不輕菩薩。不專讀誦經典。但行禮拜四眾。尚得六根清淨。我何為不禮諸佛世尊。即於別院閉門。常禮萬五千佛。依經自唱。一一禮之。寺僧怪其所作。於壁隙伺之。見禮拜頭下天龍八部等亦頭下。數數非一。諸人來其院者。無不心戰走出。恒聞異香蔚蔚爾。及死在。貞觀年中院絕人往。每夜常聞彈指禮拜行道等相。

Shi Huicong was surnamed Wang. After renouncing the household, he traveled about, attending vegetarian feasts and lectures, with scripture never leaving his hand. Seeking the ultimate purport of the scriptures, his mind leaped with joy on its own. Afflicting his body and moderating his diet, he practiced contentment. He said to himself, "In the Lotus Sūtra, Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta did not exclusively cantillate and recite scriptures, but merely prostrated to the fourfold assembly, yet he still attained purification of the six sense faculties. Why should I not bow to the Buddhas, the World-Honoured Ones?" He then shut the door in a separate compound, constantly prostrating to the fifteen thousand Buddhas, intoning on his own according to the scripture, bowing to each one individually. The monks of the monastery wondered at what he was doing and peered through a chink in the wall; they saw that when his head lowered in prostration, devas, dragons, and the rest of the eight classes of beings also lowered their heads, repeatedly, not just once. Whenever people came to his compound, none failed to tremble in heart and run away. A wondrous and luxuriant fragrance was constantly smelled. Up to his death during the Zhenguan era, people ceased visiting the compound; every night, the sounds of snapping fingers, prostrations, and circumambulations were constantly heard.