弘贊法華傳 7.22

7.22

釋慧斌。俗姓胡氏。出家。住豫章郡禪居道場。後師事天台智顗。祈求出家。蔬食長齊。精苦尤甚。隱居𭅕山。杜絕人物。誦法華經。初誦經竟。即燃左手第四指。以為供養。如此日限三遍。自是累年每有殊香熏馥房戶。又聞彈指感動居隣。以大業八年八月捨命。春秋四十有四。未亡之前。自覩神人現形數丈。而為作禮。稱歎持經功德。因言。法師當行。躬願陪從。又寺僧智海。實行人也。夢法師云。今生兜率陀天。接奉無由。便此辭別。深相勸課。使共行道。身亡以後。形體長大。倍於平昔。斂以舊衣。三分蔽一。道俗驚異。莫詳其理。遺言付囑。令身施眾生。同學僧顗。贊成其志。收骸。建立方墳於尸陀之所洪井巖焉。

Shi Huibin, whose secular surname was Hu, left home [to become a monk] and resided at the Chanju Daochang in Yuzhang Commandery. Later he served Tiantai Zhiyi as his master, having earnestly prayed to leave home. He ate vegetables and observed constant fasting, enduring extraordinary hardship and austerity. He lived in seclusion in the Yue Mountains, cutting himself off from worldly contacts, and recited the Lotus Sūtra. When he finished reciting the sūtra for the first time, he promptly burned the fourth finger of his left hand as an offering. He kept a daily quota of three recitations in this manner. From then on, over the course of many years, there was always an extraordinary fragrance perfuming his room, and the sound of snapping fingers was heard, deeply moving his neighbors. In the eighth month of the eighth year of the Daye reign era (612 CE), he gave up his life at the age of forty-four. Before he died, he personally beheld a divine being manifesting a form several zhang tall, who bowed in veneration to him, praising the merit of upholding the sūtra, and then said, "The Dharma Master is about to depart; I personally wish to accompany and attend you." Moreover, the temple monk Zhihai, who was a true practitioner, dreamed that the Dharma Master said, "I am now to be born in Tuṣita Heaven. As there is no means for us to meet and serve [together], I bid you farewell here." He earnestly exhorted and instructed Zhihai to practice the Way alongside others. After Huibin died, his body grew large, twice its normal size. When shrouded in his old robes, they covered only one third of it. Clergy and laity alike were astonished, none comprehending the reason. In his final testamentary instructions, he ordered that his body be donated [as food] to sentient beings. His fellow student, the monk Sengyi, helped fulfill his wish, collected his bones, and erected a square tumulus at the place of the śītavana on the cliff of Hongjing.