神僧傳 5.18

5.18

釋法充。姓畢氏。九江人。常誦法華并讀大品。其遍難紀。兼繕造寺宇。情在住持。末住廬山半頂化城寺修定。自非僧事未嘗妄履。每勸僧眾無以女人入寺。上損佛化下墜俗謠。然世以基業事重有不從者。充歎曰。生不值佛已以罪緣。正教不行義須早死。何慮方土不奉戒乎。遂於此山香爐峯自投而下。誓粉身骨用生淨土。便於中虛頭忽倒上。冉冉而下處于深谷。不損一毛。寺眾初不知也。後有人上峯頂。路望下千有餘仞聞人語聲。就而尋之。乃是充也。身命猶存口誦如故。迎還至寺。僧感其死諫為斷女人經于六年。方乃卒世。時屬隆暑。而屍不臭爛。香如爛瓜。即開皇之末年矣。

Shi Fachong had the secular surname Bi. He was a native of Jiujiang. He constantly recited the Lotus Sūtra and read the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, chanting them innumerable times. He also repaired and built monastery buildings, his heart set on upholding the Dharma. Later, he lived at the Huacheng Monastery halfway up Mount Lu to cultivate samādhi; unless it concerned monastic affairs, he never set foot outside. He repeatedly admonished the assembly of monks never to let women enter the monastery, saying that above it harms the Buddha's teaching and below it leads to vulgar gossip. However, worldly people, regarding the foundational estate as significant, occasionally disobeyed. Chong sighed and said, "Not meeting the Buddha in this life is already due to karmic offenses. If the true teaching cannot be practiced, it is right that I should die early. Why worry that this region will not uphold the precepts?" He thereupon threw himself down from the Incense Burner Peak of this mountain, vowing to shatter his body and bones to be reborn in the Pure Land. In midair, his head suddenly turned upward, and he floated gently down into the deep ravine without harming a single hair. The monks of the monastery did not know of it at first. Later, someone ascended the peak, looked down more than a thousand fathoms from the path, and heard the sound of human speech. Following it, he found that it was Chong; his life was preserved, and his mouth was reciting as before. They welcomed him back to the monastery. The monks, moved by his admonition through death, barred women for six years. Only then did he pass away. It was during the height of summer, yet his corpse did not foul or decay, smelling fragrant like a ripe melon. This was in the final year of the Kaihuang era.