神僧傳 9.57

9.57

The monk Jingfan was a man of Jiahe whose surname was Da. His mother dreamt that bright light filled the room and saw a divine person resembling a Buddha; because of this, she became pregnant. When he was just ten years old, he relied on Shengguo Monastery to renounce household life and shave his head. He studied the teachings under the two Dharma Masters Zhan and Qian, receiving their transmission. He first resided at the Amitāyus Cloister, where he lectured on the Lotus Sūtra more than ten times. During the Daguan reign era, he gathered twenty-seven monks to cultivate the Lotus Repentance. For each session of expedient and formal cultivation, he conducted three assemblies in succession over twenty-eight days. His sincere devotion reached on high, moving Samantabhadra to confer the karmavācanā rite, calling the name of "Bhikṣu Jingfan" with a voice like a striking bell. At that time, Wang Gongdu, the magistrate of Changzhou County, witnessed the event with his own eyes and inscribed a stone as a record. Furthermore, he once dreamt that a man in yellow robes invited him into the underworld to see the king, who ordered the ledgers to be checked, which stated: "Bhikṣu Jingfan has lectured on the Lotus Sūtra for numerous kalpas." He immediately dispatched an envoy to send him back. One day, during Chan contemplation, the entire assembly saw a divine person in golden armor kneeling on one knee before the master. Furthermore, during a repentance period elsewhere, they were inspected by Skanda. Among the great assembly, some had not kept the precepts purely; this was determined in advance, and later the repentance rite was indeed incomplete. At that time, Lord Ying, the prefect of Gusu, had a maidservant afflicted by an evil spirit; he invited the master to confer the precepts, and the demon was immediately destroyed. A woman of the Ge clan asked him to confer precepts to benefit her late husband; she saw her husband circumambulate the master three times and depart. Attendant-in-Waiting Lord Jia, seeing the master's practice of the Way, appointed him as the Dharma Head of the jurisdiction. The master served as abbot for more than ten years. After his death, his body was cremated, yielding five-colored relics.