宋高僧傳 16.34

16.34

釋從禮，襄陽人也。善事父母，頗揚鄉里之譽。迨喪偏親，乃果決捨家，于時年已壯矣。及登具足，請師傳授戒文。念性殊乖，卒難捨本，往往睡魔相撓。禮忿其昏濁，作鐵錐刺額兼掌，由是流血，直逾半稔，方遂誦通。自爾精持律範，造次顛沛必於是。以梁乾化中遊天台，乃挂錫于平田精舍。後推為寺之上座。持重安詳，喜慍不形于色，唯行慈忍。恒示眾曰：「波羅提木叉是我大師，須知出家非戒，則若猿𤣓之脫鎖焉。」每所行持，切於布薩，誡眾令護惜浮囊。時夏亢陽，主事僧來告「將營羅漢齋，奈何園蔬枯悴！請闍黎為祈禱。」禮曰：「但焚香於真君堂。」真君者，周靈王太子，久聞仙去，以仙官受任為桐栢真人、右弼王、領五嶽、司侍帝晨、王子喬來治此山，是故天台山僧坊道觀，皆塑右弼形像，薦以香果而已。自此俗間號為「山王土地」，非也。時主事向仙祠而呪曰：「上座要雨以滋枯悴。」至夜，雲起雨霏，三日而止。又僧厨闕用水槽棧，而山上有赤樹中為材，來白禮。禮曰：「某向真君道去，但庀徒具器以伺之。」無何，大風卒起，曳仆其樹，取用足焉。其感動鬼神，率多此類。兩浙武肅王錢氏聞之，召入州府，建金光明道場，檀施優渥。迴施眾僧，身唯一布納。通夜不寐，一食常坐，且無盈長。同光三年乙酉歲冬十一月入滅，春秋七十九，僧臘五十二。火葬，收舍利，立塔存焉。

Śramaṇa Congli was a native of Xiangyang. He served his parents well, winning considerable praise in his home village. When one of his parents died, he resolutely left household life, being already in his prime at the time. When he received the full precepts, he asked his master to transmit the text of the prātimokṣa. His memory was quite poor, making it difficult to abandon the text, and he was frequently troubled by the demon of sleep. Li was furious at his own dullness and used an iron awl to pierce his forehead and palms, causing blood to flow; only after more than half a year did he finally master reciting it fluently. From then on, he rigorously observed the rules of the vinaya, always holding to them even in moments of haste and peril. During the Qianhua reign era of the Liang, he traveled to Tiantai and hung up his staff at the Pingtian hermitage. Later, he was chosen as the sthavira of the temple. He was grave, dignified, and composed; neither joy nor anger showed on his face, and he practiced only compassion and forbearance. He constantly instructed the assembly, saying: "The prātimokṣa is our great master. You must understand that leaving household life without precepts is like an ape breaking free of its chain." In all his observances, he was earnest about the upoṣadha, admonishing the assembly to protect the precepts as one guards a floating raft. Once in summer, there was a drought, and the administrator monk came to report: "We are about to prepare a feast for the arhats, but the garden vegetables have withered away! We pray that the ācārya will pray [for rain]." Li said, "Simply burn incense in the hall of the True Lord." The True Lord was the crown prince of King Ling of Zhou; having long been rumored to have ascended as an immortal, he received appointment as an immortal official as the Perfected of Tongbai, Right Assistant King, Overseer of the Five Peaks, and Attendant to the Celestial Emperor—Prince Qiao—who came to govern this mountain. Therefore, the monastic quarters and Daoist abbeys on Mount Tiantai all sculpted the image of the Right Assistant, making offerings to him merely with incense and fruit. From this, the common people came to call him the "Mountain King and Earth God," which is incorrect. The administrator then faced the immortal shrine and incanted: "The sthavira requires rain to moisten what has withered." When night fell, clouds arose and rain poured down, ceasing only after three days. On another occasion, the monastic kitchen lacked a wooden trough and rack for water, but there was a red-barked tree on the mountain suitable for lumber; they came to report this to Li. Li said, "I shall go speak to the True Lord; you need only assemble the workers and prepare the tools to await it." Before long, a great wind suddenly arose, uprooting and felling the tree, which was sufficient for their needs. His moving of ghosts and spirits was mostly of this sort. When King Wusu of the Qian clan of Liangzhe heard of this, he summoned him to the provincial seat and established a Golden Light Sanctuary, offering generous alms. Li redistributed everything to the monks, retaining only a single patched cloth robe for himself. He did not sleep throughout the night, ate only one meal a day, constantly sat in meditation, and kept no surplus possessions. In the eleventh month, winter of the second year of the Tongguang reign era, an yiyou year, he entered extinction at the age of seventy-nine, with a dharma age of fifty-two. He was cremated, his śarīra were gathered, and a stupa was erected and preserved.