神僧傳 3.22

3.22

釋僧意。不知何許人。貞確有思力。每登座講說。輒天花下散于法座。元魏中住太山朗公谷山寺。寺有高麗等像七尊。並是金銅。俱陳寺堂。堂門常開。而鳥獸無敢入者。意奉法自資束躬供養。將終前夕有一沙彌。死來已久。見形禮拜云。違奉已來常為天帝驅使。栖遑無暇廢修道業。不久天帝請師講經。願因一言得免形苦。意便洗浴燒香端坐靜室。候待時至。及期果有天來入寺及房。冠服羽從偉麗殊特。眾僧初見但謂是何世貴人入山參謁不生驚異。及意爾日無疾而逝。方知靈感焉。

Shi Sengyi was a man of unknown origin. He was upright, resolute, and endowed with great power of thought. Whenever he ascended the seat to lecture and expound, heavenly flowers would invariably scatter down upon the Dharma seat. During the Yuan Wei, he resided at the mountain monastery of Master Lang's Valley on Mount Tai. The monastery possessed seven images from Gaoli and elsewhere, all of gilt bronze, displayed together in the monastery hall. The hall doors were always open, yet no birds or beasts dared enter. Sengyi maintained the Dharma to sustain himself, restraining his person to make offerings. On the eve before his end, there was a novice who had died long ago; he manifested his form, bowed, and said: "Since I departed from serving you, I have constantly been ordered about by the Lord of Heaven, flurried with no leisure, neglecting my cultivation of the path. Soon the Lord of Heaven will invite the Master to lecture on the sūtras. I pray that through a single word [of yours], I may be freed from this bodily torment." Sengyi then bathed, burned incense, and sat upright in a quiet room, waiting for the time to arrive. When the appointed time came, a deva indeed arrived at the monastery and entered his room, with cap, robes, and feathered retinue grand, splendid, and extraordinary. When the monks first saw him, they merely thought he was some nobleman of the world coming into the mountain for an audience, and were not astonished. Only when Sengyi passed away without illness that day did they realize it was a divine response.