弘贊法華傳 7.27

7.27

釋慧峙。未詳氏族。始興人也。少而道素。勤於聽習。誦法華經。凡三千餘遍。年二十三。正聽律。忽染時患。經涉數旬。乃夢有人將峙。到一所牆院。赤白一如官舍。入門即見貴人。形長八九尺。身著絳紺袍。戴烏紗帽。云。是閻羅王。王問。師作何德業。峙答云。少來誦法華經。王云。可誦。峙即覺昇一高座面向西。誦法華經第二卷。到譬喻品中譬如長者有一大宅便住。王即起云。法師還去。命二人送。一人姓陳。一人不記。送出到路側。將峙入一棘林中。斷峙身為兩段。人各捉一段。到河水邊洗之。竟仍擲過傍岸。因即醒悟。疾亦輕損。數日平復。即能聽誦。又年五十五時。身又染患。忽夢見在始興果心寺浮圖上立。有人推下云。乞汝八十餘年命。因即痊愈。到大業十三年。年八十二歲。後不知所終。

Shi Huizhi, whose clan is unknown, was a native of Shixing. From his youth, he had a taste for the Way, diligently listening and practicing, reciting the Lotus Sūtra more than three thousand times in all. At the age of twenty-three, while attending lectures on the vinaya, he suddenly contracted an epidemic illness. After several decades of days, he dreamed that someone led him to a walled compound, painted red and white just like an official residence. Entering the gate, he immediately saw a nobleman, eight or nine chi tall, wearing a crimson-purple robe and a black silk cap; he was said to be King Yama. The king asked, "What virtuous deeds have you performed, Master?" Zhi replied, "Since youth, I have recited the Lotus Sūtra." The king said, "You may recite it." Zhi then found himself ascending a high seat facing west, and recited the second roll of the Lotus Sūtra; when he reached the passage in the "Parable" Chapter, "It is as if an elder had a great mansion...", he stopped. The king promptly rose and said, "Dharma Master, you may return." He ordered two men to escort him; one was surnamed Chen, and the other's name was not remembered. Escorting him out to the roadside, they led Zhi into a bramble thicket, cut Zhi's body into two halves, each held one half, brought them to the riverbank and washed them, and then cast them onto the opposite bank. Thereupon he awoke, and his illness also abated. Within a few days he had recovered as before, and was able to listen to and recite [the teachings]. Moreover, when he was fifty-five, his body again contracted an illness. He suddenly dreamed that he was standing atop the pagoda of Guoxin Temple in Shixing, and someone pushed him down, saying, "I grant you more than eighty years of life." Thereupon he immediately recovered. By the thirteenth year of the Daye reign era (617 CE), he was eighty-two years of age; his end was subsequently unknown.