神僧傳 5.2

5.2

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.