弘贊法華傳 1.18

1.18

唐國子祭酒蕭璟。蘭陵人。梁帝之玄孫。梁王巋之第五子也。梁滅入隋。姊為煬帝皇后。生長貴盛。而家崇信佛法。大業中。自誦法花經。乃依經文。作多寶塔。以檀香為之。塔高三尺許。并為木多寶像。經數年未就。其兄子銓。在宅。朝起。忽於前院草中。見一檀木浮圖。蓋下有一鍮石佛像。製作殊異。梵容威肅。其眼精。以銀為之。中黑精光淨。如自然者。銓怪。走告璟。璟視驚喜。取蓋還。試置多寶塔上。宛然相稱。如故作者。雖木色小異。而塔形更妙。以佛像安塔中。亦相稱如故造。璟喜歎。自以為精誠所感。其佛像衣內。有舍利百餘枚。璟女尼。等年少。竊疑舍利。鎚打不破。乃試取三十枚。於石上。以斧打之。舍利迸散。了無著者。女就地拾覓。唯得三四枚。餘並不見所在。既而懼。以告璟。璟往塔中視之。即舍利皆如在舊。璟從此。日誦法花經一遍。以至于終。貞觀十二年。病篤。蕭后。及弟姪視之。璟與相見。各令燃香。因即共別。唯留弟宋公瑀。及女為尼者。令燃香誦經。頃之。謂其尼曰。我欲去。普賢菩薩。來迎我在東院。師可迎之。尼如言往迎。未還。璟曰。此院不淨。不肯來。吾當往就。汝等好住。因與瑀等別。仍起。長跪合掌。正向西方。頃之遂絕。遺令。獨載一車。斂以在身之服。婦人不得送葬。勿以肉祭祀。坎纔令沒棺。朝野歎其通𩄭。家人奉而行之。昔遍吉大士。神力無邊。現乘象王證明法花。斯或先佛之權應。或補處之垂化。七地莫測。二乘不思矣。夫上妙色身。既其明道。精微圖像。信亦感俗固有。㳂形以悟神。因迹以觀本。喜見之相。實汲誘之關津也。

Xiao Jing, Chancellor of the Directorate of Education under the Tang, was a native of Lanling, a great-great-grandson of Emperor Wu of the Liang, and the fifth son of Xiao Kui, King of Liang. After the Liang fell and he entered the Sui, his elder sister became the empress of Emperor Yang. Though born and raised amidst nobility and prosperity, his family deeply revered the Buddha's Dharma. During the Daye era, he chanted the Lotus Sūtra himself and, in accordance with the text of the sūtra, made a Prabhūtaratna Stūpa using sandalwood. The stūpa was about three feet high, and he also made a wooden image of Prabhūtaratna, which remained unfinished after several years. One morning, when his nephew Xiao Quan rose in the residence, he suddenly saw in the grass of the front courtyard a sandalwood stūpa canopy, beneath which was a brass Buddha image of extraordinary craftsmanship and solemn, dignified Indian countenance. Its eyeballs were made of silver, with the pupils clear, bright, and lustrous, as if natural. Quan marveled at it and ran to tell Jing. Jing looked at it with startled joy, took the canopy back, and tried placing it atop the Prabhūtaratna Stūpa; it fitted perfectly, as though made for it of old. Although the color of the wood differed slightly, the shape of the stūpa became even more wondrous. When he placed the Buddha image inside the stūpa, it also matched as if originally crafted for it. Jing rejoiced and sighed in admiration, considering it an effect evoked by his sincere devotion. Inside the garments of the Buddha image, there were more than a hundred relics (śarīra). Jing's daughter, who was a nun, and others who were young secretly doubted that relics could not be broken by a hammer, so they took thirty of them to test and struck them on a stone with an axe. The relics scattered, leaving no trace behind. The daughter searched and picked them up from the ground, finding only three or four, while the rest could not be seen anywhere. Filled with dread, she reported this to Jing. Jing went to look inside the stūpa, and all the relics were there just as before. From that time on, Jing chanted the Lotus Sūtra once a day until the end of his life. In the twelfth year of the Zhenguan era, his illness grew severe. Empress Xiao, along with his younger brothers and nephews, came to visit him. Jing met with them, had each of them light incense, and then bid them farewell together. He kept only his younger brother Xiao Yu, Duke of Song, and his daughter who was a nun, instructing them to light incense and chant the sūtra. After a short while, he said to the nun: 'I am about to depart. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva has come to welcome me and is in the eastern courtyard; master, you may go welcome him.' The nun went to welcome him as instructed, but before she returned, Jing said: 'That courtyard is impure, so he is unwilling to enter; I must go to him myself. Live well, all of you.' Thereupon he bid farewell to Yu and the others, rose, knelt upright with palms joined, facing directly toward the west, and shortly thereafter passed away. His testamentary instructions ordered: 'Bear me alone upon a single cart; enshroud me in the clothes upon my body; women shall not attend the funeral procession; do not sacrifice with meat; dig the pit just deep enough to submerge the coffin.' Court and countryside alike sighed in admiration at his broad-mindedness, and his family reverently carried it out. In ancient times, the Mahāsattva Samantabhadra possessed boundless spiritual power, manifesting astride the elephant king to verify the Lotus. This may be the expedient response of a former Buddha, or the gracious transformation wrought by one in the position of succession; it cannot be fathomed by the Seventh Ground, nor conceived by the Two Vehicles. Indeed, since the supreme and wondrous physical form illuminates the Way, subtle and exquisite icons surely move the mundane world. Following the form, one awakens to the spirit; by virtue of the traces, one contemplates the origin. The visage delightful to behold is truly a vital passage for guiding and uplifting.