宋高僧傳 14.5

14.5

系曰：律宗犯即問心，心有虛實故。如未得道，起覆想說，則宜犯重矣。若實有天龍來至我所，而云犯重，招謗還婆羅漢同也。宣屢屢有天之使者，或送佛牙，或充給使，非宣自述也。如遣龍去孫先生所，豈自言邪？至於乾封之際，天神合沓，或寫《祇洹圖經》、《付囑儀》等，且非寓言於鬼物乎？君不見《十誦律》中諸比丘尚揚言：「目連犯妄」，佛言：「目連隨心想說無罪。」佛世猶爾，像季嫉賢，斯何足怪也。又無畏非開元中者，貞觀、顯慶已來莫別有無畏否？

The appraisal states: When the Vinaya School investigates infractions, it inquires into the mind, for the mind may be false or real. If one has not attained the Way, yet speaks with a deceitful mind, one properly commits a grave offense. But if celestial beings and dragons genuinely came to one's abode, and one were said to commit a grave offense, the slander incurred would be the same as that faced by the arhats. Xuan repeatedly had celestial emissaries, who either delivered the Buddha's tooth or served as attendants; these were not Xuan's self-praises. Like sending the dragon to Master Sun, how could that have been his own words? As for the Qianfeng era, when celestial spirits gathered in crowds, or wrote the Jetavana Diagrammatic Sūtra and Ritual of Entrustment, could these be allegorical tales of spirits and apparitions? Have you not seen in the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya that the monks still proclaimed: "Maudgalyāyana has committed the offense of lying," and the Buddha said: "Maudgalyāyana spoke in accordance with the perception of his mind and is without offense"? If it was so even in the Buddha's lifetime, what wonder is there that people in the semblance and degenerate ages should envy the worthy? Furthermore, Śubhakarasiṃha was not from the Kaiyuan era; could there have been another Śubhakarasiṃha since the Zhenguan and Xianqing eras?