神僧傳 2.38

2.38

The monk Huishao: his origins are unknown. When he was an infant, his mother fed him fish and meat, but he immediately vomited it out; from then on, he never consumed meat. At the age of eight, he left household life to become a monk. He mastered the Lotus Sūtra and was steadfast in his ascetic practices. Later, following his master, the monk Yao, he resided at Zhaoti Monastery in Linchuan. Constantly mindful of the profound weight of the Buddha's kindness, he vowed to renounce his body in repayment. He then hired people to chop firewood and stacked it ten feet high in a stone chamber on the East Mountain, opening a niche in the center. He returned to the monastery and informed his master, who admonished him, but [Huishao] would not listen. Thereupon, setting a fixed date, he ascended the mountain to hold an eight-precept fast gathering. The entire region rushed to attend, filling the valleys like clouds. When night fell, Shao personally circumambulated with incense, held a torch, lit the firewood, entered the niche, and sat down. As he recited the Chapter on the Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja’s Renunciation of the Body, even as the flames reached his forehead, the sound of the sūtra recitation could still be heard. The great assembly suddenly saw a star as large as a bushel measure fall straight into the fire, and after a moment it ascended into the sky. All said it was an auspicious sign of heavenly palaces coming to welcome him. Shao once said to his fellow disciples, “Where my body burns, a paulownia tree will grow; by all means do not cut it down.” After three days, it indeed grew there. Clerics and laypeople marveled at it.