神僧傳 8.52

8.52

釋鑑空。俗姓齊氏。吳郡人也。少小苦貧雖勤於學而寡記持。壯歲常困。遊吳楚間。已四五年矣。元和初值錢唐荒儉。乃議求餐于天竺寺。至孤山寺西餧甚不前。因臨流雪涕悲吟數聲。俄有梵僧臨流而坐。顧空笑曰。法師秀才旅遊滋味足未。空曰。旅遊滋味則已足矣。法師之呼一何乖謬。梵僧曰。子不憶講法華經於同德寺乎。空曰。生身已四十五歲矣。盤桓吳楚間未甞涉京口。又何洛中之說。僧曰。子應為飢火所燒不暇記憶故事。遂探囊出一棗大如拳許曰。此吾國所產。食之者。上智知過去未來事。下智止於知前生事耳。空飢極食棗掬泉飲之。忽欠伸枕石而寢。頃刻乃悟。憶講經於同德寺如昨日焉。因增涕泣。問僧曰。震和尚安在。曰專精未至。再為蜀僧矣。今則斷攀緣也。神上人安在。曰前願未滿。悟法師焉在。曰豈不記香山石像前戲發大願乎。若不證無上菩提。必願為赳赳貴臣。昨聞已得大將軍矣。當時雲水五人惟吾得解脫。獨汝為凍餒之士也。空泣曰。某四十許年日唯一餐。三十餘年擁一褐浮俗之事決斷根源。何期福不完乎。坐於飢凍。僧曰。由師子座上廣說異端。使學空之人心生疑惑。戒珠曾缺羶氣微存。聲渾響清終不可致。質傴影曲報應宜然。空曰。為之奈何。僧曰。今日之事吾無計矣。他生之事警於吾子焉。乃探鉢囊取一鑑。背面皆瑩徹。謂空曰。要知貴賤之分修短之期。佛法興替。吾道盛衰。宜一鑒焉。空照久之謝曰。報應之事。榮枯之理。謹知之矣。僧收鑑入囊。遂挈而去。行十餘步旋失所在。空是夕投靈隱寺。出家受具足戒。後周遊名山愈高苦節。大和元年詣洛陽。於龍門天竺寺遇河東柳珵。向珵親說其由。珵聞空之說事。皆不常且甚奇之。空曰。我生世七十有七。僧臘三十二。持鉢乞食尚九年在世。吾捨世之日佛法其衰乎。珵詰之。默然無答。乃索珵筆硯題數行於經藏北垣而去。曰興一沙衰恒河沙。兔而罝。犬而拏。牛虎相交與角牙。寶檀終不滅其華。

Śramaṇa Jiankong's secular surname was Qi, and he was a native of Wujun. In his youth he suffered from poverty; although diligent in learning, he remembered and retained little. In his prime he was constantly in hardship, traveling between Wu and Chu for four or five years already. At the beginning of the Yuanhe era, encountering a famine in Qiantang, he planned to seek food at Tianzhu Monastery. Arriving west of Gushan Monastery, he was extremely famished and could go no further; facing a stream, he wiped his tears and uttered several sorrowful chants. Suddenly, an Indian monk sat down facing the stream, looked at Kong, smiled, and said, "Dharma Master, Graduate, have you had your fill of the flavor of wandering?" Kong said, "I have had my fill of the flavor of wandering. But why address me as 'Dharma Master'—is that not entirely mistaken?" The Indian monk said, "Do you not remember expounding the Lotus Sūtra at Tongde Monastery?" Kong said, "I am already forty-five years of age in this life. Lingering between Wu and Chu, I have never once set foot in Jingkou. Whence then this talk of Luoyang?" The monk said, "You must be scorched by the fire of hunger and have had no leisure to remember past events." He then reached into his pouch, took out a jujube as large as a fist, and said, "This is produced in my country. Whoever eats it: those of supreme wisdom know the affairs of the past and future, while those of lesser wisdom merely know the affairs of their former life." Kong, being desperately hungry, ate the jujube and cupped spring water to drink. Suddenly he yawned, stretched, and fell asleep with his head on a stone. In an instant he awoke, remembering expounding the sūtra at Tongde Monastery as if it were yesterday. Thereupon weeping all the more, he asked the monk, "Where is the Venerable Zhen?" He replied, "His devoted practice was insufficient; he became a monk in Shu a second time. Now he has severed grasping conditions." [Kong asked,] "Where is the Superior Shen?" He replied, "His previous vow has not yet been fulfilled." [Kong asked,] "Where is Dharma Master Wu?" He replied, "Do you not remember playful vows made before the stone statue at Xiangshan? If one does not attain unsurpassed bodhi, one would surely wish to be a martial high official. Yesterday I heard he has already become a great general. Among the five cloud-and-water travelers of that time, only I have attained liberation, while you alone have become a freezing and starving man." Kong wept and said, "For some forty years I have had only one meal a day. For over thirty years I have worn a single coarse garment, resolutely cutting off the roots of worldly affairs. How could my merit be incomplete, such that I am subjected to cold and hunger?" The monk said, "Because from the lion throne you expounded heterodoxies widely, causing practitioners of emptiness to give rise to doubt. The pearl of your precepts was once flawed, and a lingering rank smell remained. When the voice is muddy, a clear sound can never be achieved; when the substance is hunched, the shadow is bent—the retribution is as it should be." Kong said, "What can be done about it?" The monk said, "Regarding the affairs of today, I have no plan; let the affairs of another life serve as a warning to you." He then reached into his bowl pouch and took out a mirror, bright and clear on both front and back. He said to Kong, "If you wish to know the distinctions of high and low, the length of life, the rise and fall of the Buddha-dharma, and the waxing and waning of our Way, you should look into it once." Kong gazed into it for a long time, bowed in thanks, and said, "The matters of retribution and the principles of prospering and withering: I have respectfully come to know them." The monk put the mirror into his pouch, took it up, and departed; walking a dozen steps, he suddenly vanished. That evening Kong sought refuge at Lingyin Monastery, renounced household life, and received the full precepts. Later he traveled around famous mountains, becoming ever more eminent in his ascetic discipline. In the first year of the Dahe era he went to Luoyang, where he met Liu Cheng of Hedong at Tianzhu Monastery in Longmen. He recounted the details to Cheng in person. Hearing Kong's account of these events, Cheng found them entirely extraordinary and exceedingly marvelous. Kong said, "My worldly age is seventy-seven, and my monastic age is thirty-two. Carrying my bowl to beg for food, I still have nine years to live in this world. When I depart the world, will the Buddha-dharma not decline?" Cheng questioned him, but he remained silent without answer. He then asked Cheng for a brush and inkstone, inscribed several lines on the northern wall of the canonical treasury, and left, saying: "A single grain of sand flourishes, while the sands of the Ganges decline. / The hare is snared, the hound is seized. / The bull and tiger clash, with horns and fangs. / The precious sandalwood never loses its blossoms."