神僧傳 8.52

8.52

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."