弘贊法華傳 8.29

8.29

釋萬相。俗姓杜氏。雍州萬年人也。幼枝塵澤。遍師名德。戒珠朗徹。學海沖深。諷誦法華。兼敷義理。凡講十餘遍。而福慧是資。慈柔宅性。工誨誘。巧方便。頃以興善佛殿。忽屬災焚。輪奐再成。相有其力。又於殿之北面。造鐫石法華一部。莊嚴偉麗。頗稱奇絕焉。曾於檐下誦經。忽有白雉。馴伏左右。以手取之。初不驚擾。隨相來去。向餘十日。又於房後木。見金銅龕像。無何而至。青雀一雙。兩邊侍立。相收得像。鳥忽飛去。或爐中火炭。自然而出。或床後薦間。異香頻發。又於中夜靜坐。忽然似夢。見西北天中明星千許。久觀變為寶塔。高廣嚴飾。望之無際。又見東北七星。大踰尋仞。瞻覩未已。遂見七佛從星中出。金儀端粹。朗照赫然。相恒願見七佛及多寶佛塔。夢中悲喜交襟。禮拜讚歎。少選之間。倏焉而滅。其所誦凡四千餘遍。將終之際。令門人雅勝等。稱普賢菩薩名。俄自云。普賢菩薩來。右脅而卒於興善寺。春秋七十四。

Shi Wanxiang, whose secular surname was Du, was a native of Wannian in Yongzhou. In his youth, he severed worldly attachments and took renowned virtues everywhere as his teachers. The pearl of his precepts was bright and clear, and his sea of learning was deep and vast. He chanted the Lotus Sūtra and also expounded its principles, lecturing on it more than ten times in all. He took merit and wisdom as his resources; gentle compassion resided in his nature, and he was skilled at teaching and guidance, adept in expedient means. Not long before, when the Buddha Hall of Xingshan [Monastery] was suddenly consumed by fire, Wanxiang contributed his efforts to rebuild it magnificently. Furthermore, on the north side of the hall, he had a complete copy of the Lotus Sūtra carved in stone, which was grand, beautiful, and widely acclaimed as extraordinary. He once chanted the sūtra beneath the eaves, and suddenly a white pheasant tamely submitted beside him. When he took it with his hand, it was not startled at all, and followed Wanxiang back and forth for more than ten days. Furthermore, upon a tree behind his room, he saw a gilt-bronze shrine image that arrived out of nowhere, with a pair of green birds standing in attendance on both sides. When Wanxiang retrieved the image, the birds suddenly flew away. At other times, charcoal embers in his brazier emerged naturally, or wondrous fragrances frequently wafted from between the mats behind his bed. Furthermore, sitting in quiet in the middle of the night, suddenly as if in a dream, he saw about a thousand bright stars in the northwestern sky. Watching them for a long time, they transformed into a jeweled stūpa, lofty, vast, and adorned, stretching boundlessly to sight. He also saw seven stars in the northeast, each exceeding several fathoms in size. Before he had finished gazing at them, he saw seven Buddhas emerge from the stars, their golden appearances upright and pure, shining brightly and brilliantly. Wanxiang had always vowed to see the seven Buddhas and the Prabhūtaratna Stūpa; in the dream, joy and sorrow mingled in his heart, and he bowed in homage and praise. In a short while, they abruptly vanished. What he recited totaled more than four thousand times. As his end approached, he bade his disciples Yasheng and others invoke the name of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Presently, he himself said, 'Samantabhadra Bodhisattva has come,' and lying on his right side, he passed away at Xingshan Monastery at the age of seventy-four.