弘贊法華傳 1.20

1.20

釋道冏。扶風好濤人也。本姓馬氏。學業淳粹。弱齡有聲。初出家。為道懿弟子。冏素誦法花。唯憑誠此業。元嘉二年九月。在洛陽。為人作普賢齋。於是。澡雪庭除。表裏清淨。嚴遍吉之像。肅如在之心。道俗四十許人。已經七日。正就中食。忽有一人袴褶乘馬。入至室堂前。下馬禮佛。冏謂。常人不加禮異。此人登馬揮鞭。忽失所在。便見赤光赫然竟天。良久而滅。後三年十二月。在白衣家。復作普賢齋。將竟之夕。有二沙門。容眼如凡。直來禮佛。眾中謂是庸僧。不甚尊仰。聊問何居。答云。住在前村。時眾白衣。有張道。覺其有異。至心禮拜。沙門出門。行可數十步。忽飛空直上衝天。追目此僧。不復知所。後與同學四人南遊陽都。觀矚風化。夜乘氷渡河。中道氷破。三人沒死。冏又歸誠觀音。迺覺脚下如有一物自𢼨。復見赤光在前。乘光至岸。建都。止南㵎寺。常以般舟為業。甞中夜入禪。忽見四人御車至房。呼令上乘冏欻不自覺已見身在郡陵沈橋間。見一人在路座胡床。待者數百人。見冏驚起曰。坐禪人耳。彼人因謂左右曰。止向令知處而已。何忽勞屈法師。於是。禮拜執別。令人送冏還寺。扣門。良久方開。入寺見房猶閉。眾咸莫測其然。宋元嘉二十年。臨川康王義慶。携往廣陵。終於彼也。

Śramaṇa Daojiong was a native of Haotao in Fufeng. His original surname was Ma. His scholarship was pure and refined, and he was already renowned in his youth. When he first went forth from the household life, he became a disciple of Daoyi. Jiong had long recited the Lotus Sūtra, placing his reliance and sincerity solely in this practice. In the ninth month of the second year of the Yuanjia reign, while in Luoyang, he conducted a Samantabhadra retreat for someone. Thereupon, he swept and washed the courtyard clean, purifying it inside and out. He adorned an image of Samantabhadra and cultivated a reverent state of mind as if in the presence [of the deity]. There were some forty monastics and laypeople. Seven days had already passed, and they were just partaking of the midday meal, when suddenly a man wearing riding trousers and riding a horse came right up to the front of the hall. He dismounted and bowed to the Buddha. Jiong considered him an ordinary person and did not treat him with any special courtesy. The man mounted his horse, brandished his whip, and suddenly vanished from sight. Immediately, a bright red light was seen filling the sky, which faded only after a long time. Three years later, in the twelfth month, he again conducted a Samantabhadra retreat in a layman's household. On the evening of its conclusion, two śramaṇas whose appearance and gaze seemed ordinary came directly in to bow to the Buddha. The assembly thought them mediocre monks and did not regard them with great veneration. Someone casually asked where they lived, and they replied, "We live in the village ahead." Among the laypeople present at the time, there was one Zhang Dao, who sensed something unusual about them and bowed with utmost devotion. When the śramaṇas exited the gate and had walked some tens of paces, they suddenly took flight into the empty air, soaring straight up into the heavens. Those who followed them with their eyes could no longer tell where they had gone. Later, [Daojiong] traveled south with four fellow students to the capital of Yangdu to observe its customs. At night, they crossed a river on ice; midway across, the ice broke, and three of them sank and drowned. Jiong again placed his sincere reliance in Avalokiteśvara, whereupon he felt as if something under his feet were supporting him on its own. He also saw a red light ahead, and following the light, he reached the shore. When the capital was established [at Jiankang], he stayed at Nanjian Temple and consistently took the pratyutpanna-[samādhi] as his practice. Once, while entering meditation in the middle of the night, he suddenly saw four men driving a carriage up to his room, calling for him to board. In a flash, without realizing it, Jiong saw himself between the Commandery Mound and the Shen Bridge. He saw a man seated on a folding chair on the road, attended by several hundred people. Seeing Jiong, the man arose in surprise and said, "He is merely a meditator!" That man then said to his attendants, "I only intended to let him know the place; why have you abruptly troubled and dragged the Dharma master here?" Thereupon, bowing and bidding farewell, he ordered someone to escort Jiong back to the temple. They knocked on the gate, and only after a long while was it opened. When he entered the temple, he found his room still locked, and everyone was mystified as to how it had happened. In the twentieth year of the Yuanjia reign of the Song, Liu Yiqing, King Kang of Linchuan, took him along to Guangling, where he finally passed away.