續高僧傳 28.28

28.28

釋空藏。俗姓王氏。先祖晉陽。今在雍州之新豐焉。母初孕日。自然不食酒肉五辛。時以同塵身子故。密加異之。既誕育後。靈鑒日陳。情用高遠。讀誦經論思存拔濟。至年十九。同佛出家。既惟一己二親留礙。乃於父前以身四布。七日不起。恐其命絕方從所願。即辭向藍田負兒山中私自剃落。初齎麵六斗。擬作月糧。日噉二升。三年不盡。屢感神鼎自然而至。由是增其禪誦。晨宵無輟。後依止判法師住龍池寺。欽重經論日誦萬言。前後總計三百餘卷。三論涅槃探窮巖穴。大業之始。以藏名稱惟遠道俗所聞。下勅徵延入住禪定。唐運既興崇繕法宇。有勅於金城坊建會昌寺。并請大德十人。度僧五十人。永用住持。以藏行德夙彰。又請住焉。供事彌隆極光恒美。而性樂山水志存清曠。每年仲春遊浪林阜。行次玉泉。遂有終焉之思。居止載紀眾聚如山。說導亡疲開悟逾廣。後為亢旱。經時山泉乃竭。合寺僧眾咸以驚嗟。藏乃至心祈請。其泉應時還復。遠近道俗動色相歡。兼又弘操嶽峙器局川停。不擾榮利不懷寵辱。濟度群有不略寸陰。乃鈔摘眾經大乘要句。以為卷軸。紙別五經三經。卷部二十五十。總有十卷。每講開務極增成學。聞義兩持偏無迷忘。夏分常行方等懺法。賢劫千佛日禮一遍。常坐不臥垂三十年。翹勤專注難加係迹。以貞觀十六年五月十二日。終於會昌。春秋七十有四。遺身於龍池寺側。收骨起塔。觀其讀誦之富。振古罕儔。視其髏骨。兩耳通明。頂有雙孔。眼眶含竅各有三焉。弟子等追惟永往。樹碑於會昌寺中。金紫光祿大夫衛尉卿于志寧為文。

Shi Kongzang, whose secular surname was Wang, had ancestors from Jinyang and now resided in Xinfeng in Yongzhou. When his mother first conceived him, she naturally refrained from alcohol, meat, and the five pungent roots. Because of his resemblance to Śāriputra while yet amid the dust of the world, people secretly marveled at him. After he was born and raised, his spiritual insight showed itself daily, and his aspirations were lofty and far-reaching. He read and chanted scriptures and treatises, his mind set on delivering beings. When he reached the age of nineteen, he wished to leave home as the Buddha did. Considering that he was an only son and that his parents would obstruct him, he stretched his body out on the ground before his father for seven days without rising. Fearing he would die, his father finally yielded to his wish. He immediately took leave and went into Mount Fu'er in Lantian to shave his head in secret. At first, he took six pecks of flour intended as provisions for a month, eating two pints a day, yet it was not exhausted in three years. Repeatedly he moved divine cauldrons to arrive naturally. Because of this, he intensified his meditation and recitation, unceasing day and night. Later, he relied on Dharma Master Pan and lived at Longchi Monastery. Reverently cherishing the scriptures and treatises, he recited ten thousand words daily, totaling more than three hundred fascicles over time. He thoroughly investigated the three treatises and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra to their depths. At the beginning of the Daye era, because Kongzang’s fame had spread far and was heard of by monastics and laity, an imperial decree was issued summoning him to enter and reside at Chanding Monastery. When the Tang dynasty arose and repaired and promoted Dharma temples, an imperial decree established Huichang Monastery in Jincheng Ward, inviting ten bhadantas and ordaining fifty monks to dwell and uphold it permanently. Because Kongzang’s practice and virtue had long been evident, they also invited him to reside there. The provisions and offerings were ever more abundant, and his glory was continually splendid. Yet by nature he delighted in mountains and rivers, his aspiration set on pure spaciousness. Every mid-spring, he roamed the forests and hills. Traveling to Yuquan, he conceived the desire to spend his remaining years there. He dwelt there for a decade; the multitudes gathered like a mountain. He guided and instructed without weariness, opening minds ever more broadly. Later, due to a severe drought, the mountain spring dried up over time, and all the monks of the monastery sighed in alarm. Kongzang then prayed with utmost sincerity, and the spring immediately restored its flow. Monastics and laity far and near were moved with joy. Moreover, his broad conduct was as steadfast as a mountain, and his capacity was as calm as deep waters. He was untroubled by worldly glory or profit and took no heed of favor or disgrace; in delivering sentient beings, he did not neglect an inch of time. He then extracted essential Mahāyāna sentences from various scriptures to make scroll manuscripts: on individual sheets he copied five scriptures or three scriptures, and in rolls of twenty or fifty, totaling ten fascicles. Every time he lectured and opened discussions, it greatly advanced their learning; when he heard the teachings, he grasped both the letter and the meaning, with nothing confused or forgotten. During the summer, he regularly practiced the vaipulya repentance method, and bowed once daily to the thousand Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa. He constantly sat without lying down for nearly thirty years. His zealous devotion and focused concentration were difficult for others to emulate. On the twelfth day of the fifth month in the sixteenth year of the Zhenguan era, he passed away at Huichang Monastery at the age of seventy-four. His body was abandoned by the side of Longchi Monastery, where his bones were collected and a stupa was erected. Looking at the wealth of his reading and recitation, few could equal it throughout antiquity. When examining his skull, both ear canals were clear and open, there were double holes at the crown, and the eye sockets contained apertures, three in each. His disciples, remembering his eternal departure, erected a stele in Huichang Monastery, with an inscription written by Yu Zhining, Grand Master for Golden and Purple Radiance and Minister of the Guards.