神僧傳 5.2

5.2

釋普明。本名法京。俗姓朱氏。會稽人。少小志操有異。有僧乞食因勸云。即子既有善性。可向天台山出家。其中有初依菩薩在彼說法。遂以陳太建十四年。踰山越㵎來入天台。正值智者處坐說法。智者笑云。宿誓願力今得相遇。隨智者往荊州玉泉寺。每於泉側練苦專思。智者反路台峯令造大鍾天台供養。江陵道俗競為營造。當欲鑄時盲人來看。明懸鑒機知相不吉果爾。開模鍾便破缺。後還國清所住之房。去水懸遠。房頭空地純是礓石。仍懷念曰。若令此石出水豈不快乎。言竟數日石中泉溜。周給東西。國清精舍。隋高帝置立。明以講堂狹小欲毀廣之。共頂禪師商量。頂勸勿改。有括州都督周孝節遙聞此事。即施杉柱泛海送來。頂向赤城感見明身長一十餘丈。高出松林之上。翼從數十許人語頂曰。兄勿苦諫事願剋成。頂知神異合掌對曰。不敢更諫一依仁者。竪堂之日感動山王。晨朝隱軫狀若雷震。摧樹傾枝闊百步許。自佛壟下直到於寺。至于日沒還返舊蹤。砰砰磕磕勢若初至。又願共道俗造堂殿金銅盧舍那像坐身丈六。時有一人稱從曹溪村來。施金十一兩用入像身。問其姓名終不肯說。禮拜辭退。周訪彼村無人識者。又比房侍者恒聞房內共人語話。陰伺察視不見別形。所聽言音唯勸修善。既而化緣就畢。大漸時至清晨呼諸弟子曰。夫人壽命。不可常。保汝等宜知。便自脫新淨之衣著故破者。換衣纔竟奄然就滅。

Shi Puming, originally named Fajing, was of the secular surname Zhu and a native of Kuaiji. From childhood his intentions and conduct were unusual. A monk begging for alms gave him counsel, saying: 'Since you have a good nature, young man, you may go to Mount Tiantai and renounce household life. There is a first-ground bodhisattva there who expounds the Dharma.' Thereupon, in the fourteenth year of the Taijian reign-period of the Chen dynasty, he crossed mountains and traversed streams to enter Mount Tiantai, arriving just as Master Zhiyi was seated expounding the Dharma. Zhiyi smiled and said: 'Through the power of past vows, we meet today.' He followed Zhiyi to Yuquan Monastery in Jingzhou, where he constantly underwent ascetic practices and focused his thoughts beside the spring. When Zhiyi returned to Mount Tiantai, he ordered him to cast a great bell to offer at Tiantai. Clergy and laity in Jiangling competed to help construct it. When it was about to be cast, a blind man came to watch. Ming possessed the clairvoyance to recognize impending conditions; knowing this was an inauspicious sign, it proved to be so: when the mold was opened, the bell was cracked and defective. Later, he returned to Guoqing Monastery, where the cell he inhabited was far removed from water, and the open ground before the room consisted entirely of coarse stones. He thought to himself: 'If water could be made to emerge from these stones, how delightful it would be!' No sooner had he spoken than after a few days a spring trickled forth from within the stones, fully supplying both east and west. The Guoqing vihāra had been established by Emperor Gaozu of the Sui. Ming, considering the lecture hall too narrow, wished to demolish and expand it. He conferred with Chan Master Ding, but Ding urged him not to alter it. Zhou Xiaojie, the Area Commander of Kuozhou, heard of this from afar and immediately donated cedar pillars, sending them across the sea. When Ding faced Mount Chicheng, he was moved to see Ming's body over ten zhang tall, rising high above the pine forest, accompanied by several dozen attendants who said to Ding: 'Brother, do not stubbornly remonstrate; this vow must be accomplished.' Ding, recognizing his divine wonder, clasped his hands and answered: 'I dare not remonstrate any longer; I shall entirely comply with your benevolence.' On the day the hall was erected, it moved the mountain deities: in the early morning, a rumbling sound like thunder broke trees and bent branches across a width of about a hundred paces, descending all the way from Folong straight to the monastery; at sunset it returned along its former path, booming and crashing with the same force as when it first arrived. Furthermore, he vowed together with the clergy and laity to construct a hall and an image of golden bronze Vairocana, sixteen feet tall in seated posture. At that time, a person claiming to come from Caoxi Village donated eleven ounces of gold to be incorporated into the image's body. When asked his name, he persistently refused to say; he bowed, took leave, and departed. Throughout inquiries in that village, no one knew him. Moreover, the attendants in adjoining rooms constantly heard him conversing with someone inside his room; when they stealthily spied on him, they saw no other form. The voices they heard were solely urging the cultivation of good. When his converting conditions reached completion and his terminal illness arrived, he called his disciples in the early morning and said: 'A person's lifespan cannot be preserved forever; you all should know this.' He then took off his fresh, clean robes and put on old, tattered ones. As soon as he finished changing, he peacefully passed away.