神僧傳 6.42

6.42

釋清虛。姓唐氏。梓州人也。立性剛決桀黠難防。忽迴心長誦金剛般若。三業偕齊無有懈怠。甞於山林持誦。有七鹿馴擾若傾聽焉。聲息而去。又隣居失火連薨灰燼。唯虛之屋飈焰飛過略無焦灼。長安二年獨遊藍田悟真寺上方北院。舊無井泉人力不及。遠取於㵎掣瓶荷罋運致極勞。時華嚴大師法藏。聞虛持經靈驗。乃請祈泉。即入彌勒閣內焚香經聲達旦者三。忽心中似見三玉女在閣西北山腹以刀子剜地。隨便有水。虛熟記其處遂趨起掘之。果獲甘泉用之不竭。四年從少林寺坐夏。山頂有一佛室甚寬敞。人無敢到者。云鬼神居宅焉。甞有律師恃其戒行夜往念律。見一巨人以矛刺之。狼狽下山逡巡氣絕。又持火頭金剛呪僧。時所宗重。眾謂之曰。君呪力無雙能宿彼否。曰斯焉足懼。於是齎香火入坐持呪。俄而神出以手擥足。投之間下。七日不語精神昏倒。虛聞之曰。下趣鬼物敢爾。即往彼如常誦經。夜聞堂中似有聲甚厲。即念十一面觀音呪。又聞堂中似有兩牛鬪。佛像皆振呪既亡效。還持本經一契。帖然相次。影響皆絕。自此居者無患。神遂移去。神龍二年準詔入內祈雨。二十七日雪降。中宗以為未濟時望。令就寺更祈請。即於佛殿內精禱并煉一指。纔及一宵雨足千里。指復如舊纔遇大水寺屋皆墊溺。其院無苦若無澇沒。凡諸異驗皆如此也。

Shi Qingxu, whose lay surname was Tang, was a native of Zizhou. Resolute, unyielding, fierce, and cunning by nature, he was difficult to restrain. Suddenly turning his mind [to religion], he constantly recited the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā, aligning the three karmic actions without any negligence. Once, while he was reciting in a mountain forest, seven deer approached him tamely as if listening attentively, departing only when the sound ceased. Moreover, when a neighboring house caught fire and adjacent eaves were reduced to ashes, only Xu's house was untouched; though swirling flames flew over it, it was not scorched in the least. In the second year of the Chang'an era, he traveled alone to the North Courtyard of the upper quarters of Wuzhen Monastery in Lantian. Previously, there was no well or spring there, and human effort was insufficient; drawing water from distant ravines with buckets and jars was exceedingly laborious. At that time, the Huayan Master Fazang, hearing of the spiritual efficacy of Xu's recitation of the sūtra, asked him to pray for a spring. Xu entered the Maitreya Pavilion, burned incense, and recited the sūtra until dawn for three nights. Suddenly, in his mind, he seemed to see three jade maidens on the mountainside northwest of the pavilion gouging the earth with knives, whereupon water gushed forth. Xu clearly memorized the location, hurried up, and dug it out; he indeed obtained a sweet spring whose supply was inexhaustible. In the fourth year, he spent the summer retreat at Shaolin Monastery. On the mountain peak was a Buddha hall, exceedingly spacious, where no one dared to go, said to be an abode of ghosts and spirits. Once, a Vinaya master, relying on his strict observance of precepts, went there at night to recite the Vinaya. He saw a giant who stabbed him with a spear; he scrambled down the mountain in disarray and expired shortly thereafter. There was also a monk who recited the Fire-headed Vajra Dhāraṇī and was held in high esteem at the time. The assembly said to him, 'Your dhāraṇī power is peerless; can you spend the night there?' He replied, 'Why should that be feared?' Thereupon, he took incense and fire, entered, sat down, and recited the dhāraṇī. Soon, a spirit appeared, seized his feet with its hands, and cast him down the steps. For seven days, he could not speak, his mental faculties confounded. When Xu heard of this, he said, 'How dare a ghost of the lower destinies act like this!' He immediately went there and recited the sūtra as usual. At night, he heard what sounded like an extremely fierce roar in the hall; he then recited the Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara Dhāraṇī. Then he heard what sounded like two bulls fighting in the hall, and the Buddha images all shook. The dhāraṇī having had no effect, he returned to reciting a fascicle of his foundational sūtra. Tranquility ensued successively, and all sounds and signs ceased. From then on, residents faced no harm, and the spirit departed. In the second year of the Shenlong era, he entered the palace in accordance with an imperial edict to pray for rain. On the twenty-seventh day, snow fell. Emperor Zhongzong considered that this had not fulfilled the urgent expectation of the season and ordered him to go to a monastery to pray further. Thereupon, he prayed earnestly in the Buddha hall and burned one of his fingers. Within a single night, rain fell abundantly over a thousand li. His finger was restored as before. Later, when a great flood occurred and the monastery buildings were all submerged, his courtyard alone suffered no affliction, as if there were no inundation. All his diverse extraordinary signs were like this.