神僧傳 4.37

4.37

The Great Being Fu Hong lived at Shuanglin Monastery in Wushang County, Dongyang Commandery. Embodying expedient means and responding to the Way, he followed in the footsteps of Vimalakīrti. He took manifesting multiple bodies to deliver beings as his task, relying on Shuanglin to instruct both the ordained and the laity. At times a golden hue shone from his chest, or an extraordinary fragrance flowed from his palms. At other times he was seen to be over a rod tall, his arms reaching past his knees, his feet two feet long, and his fingers six inches long. His eyes were bright, with double pupils radiating outward; his countenance was dignified and towering, bearing the marks of a great being. When Emperor Xiaowu of the Liang heard of him, he invited him to reside in Jianye, whereupon he dwelt at Dinglin Monastery at the foot of Mount Zhong. He sat shaded by tall pines and slept against boulders. Illuminating the four directions and six suburbs, heavenly flowers and sweet dew constantly flowed on the ground. Later, the emperor opened the lecture on Prajñā at Chongyun Hall in Hualin Garden, setting up a separate couch to engage in debate with the divine decree. When the jade carriage ascended the hall, the Great Being sat serenely. When the censors rebuked and questioned him, he merely said, 'The Dharma-ground does not move; if it moves, everything is unsettled.' Moreover, knowing that the Liang dynasty's destiny was nearing its end, and taking pity on the calamities of war, he burned his arm as a torch, hoping to avert coming disaster. In the middle of summer during the first year of the Dajian era of the Chen, in his home prefecture, he lay down on his right side and suddenly passed away. At that time the summer heat was blazing, yet his body was warm, his complexion serene, his radiance fresh and pure, and fragrance filled the air. His limbs bent and straightened as usual; of the onlookers who gave rise to the bodhimind, none failed to marvel in astonishment. He was then placed in a coffin within a cliff cave. For several tens of days, fragrant flowers were scattered and accumulated. Later, his body was suddenly gone; those who went and could not find it yearned for him all the more deeply, their grieving cries choking the mountain valleys. Formerly, while alive, the Great Being considered that because the scriptures were so numerous, people might not be able to read through them all. He therefore built a large tiered pavilion in the mountains, with a single pillar and eight faces, filled it with scriptures, and caused it to turn without obstruction, calling it a revolving repository. He made a vow: 'Those who enter the gate of my repository will not lose a human rebirth life after life.' He then encouraged worldly people: 'If anyone who has aroused the bodhimind can turn this revolving repository, that person's merit will be no different from upholding and reciting all the scriptures.' Today, all revolving repositories built across the empire display an image of the Great Being, which truly began with this. On the mountain was an old pine tree; the Great Being once made a vow among the pines to deliver sentient beings, taking an axe to make an oath, and the axe mark remains on the pine wood to this day. The leftover rice he used to feed tigers was thrown into the forest and transformed into stones; mottled with blue-green and white, they can be made into prayer beads and are called 'rice stones', enduring to this day. His miraculous traces are too numerous to record.