弘贊法華傳 8.31

8.31

釋智藏。俗姓費氏。本夏州人也。少出家。住大興善寺。每誦法華。聲辯清徹。令人樂聞。其誦多以千遍為眼。甞損心吐血經數日。寺僧季謩。告藏曰。傳聞。損心。用小便和麵作漿。服之即差。藏云。誓於千遍之內。不以穢物熏經。此雖為藥。終乖宿志。藏乃掃灑庭除。捧經置案。燒香旋遶。禮拜祈誠。爾夜忽如睡夢。見一梵僧。與藏取水。和麵作漿。授之令服。藏飲之未半。欻然即悟。乃心力倍常。還尊舊貫。貞觀九年。甞有夏州僧石法師。聞藏誦經。奉蘇三斤。以充供養。藏盛以一器。初日。以銅匙。取中心桃許。明日更取。乃見舊處。融蘇凝滿。即復飲之。於是。從夏至秋。日取如故。藏私心慶悅。始悟醍醐。自出到八月。分此舊蘇。與同寺僧。靈卿音禪師為響說之。又每聞異香。及彈指之響。屢為幽人。喚之令起。而前後所誦。一萬餘遍。但以戒足少虧。不獲深悟。識者恨之。年八十有八。終於淨影寺焉。儀鳳三年十一月二十三日也。

Shi Zhicang, whose secular surname was Fei, was originally a native of Xiazhou. He left home in his youth and resided at Da Xingshan Monastery. Whenever he chanted the Lotus Sūtra, his voice and articulation were clear and penetrating, causing people to delight in listening. His chanting usually took a thousand repetitions as its benchmark. Once he suffered chest injuries and spat blood for several days. A monastery monk, Jimo, told Zhicang, 'It is said that for chest injuries, mixing urine with flour to make a gruel and taking it will bring recovery.' Zhicang said, 'I have vowed that within the thousand repetitions, I will not defile the sūtra with impure substances. Although this is medicine, it would ultimately go against my longstanding resolve.' Zhicang thereupon swept the courtyard, held the sūtra, placed it on a table, burned incense, circumambulated, and bowed in sincere prayer. That night, suddenly as if in a dream, he saw an Indian monk who fetched water for Zhicang, mixed flour to make gruel, and handed it to him to drink. Before Zhicang had drunk half of it, he suddenly woke up, whereupon his mental energy doubled beyond the ordinary, and he resumed his former practice. In the ninth year of Zhenguan (635), Dharma Master Shi, a monk from Xiazhou, heard Zhicang chant the scripture and offered three catties of clarified butter (sū) as an offering. Zhicang placed it in a vessel. On the first day, using a bronze spoon, he took a peach-sized amount from the center. The next day when he went to take more, he saw that the original spot was full again with congealed clarified butter, so he drank it again. From summer to autumn, he took from it daily as before. Zhicang secretly rejoiced in his heart, only then awakening to [the nature of] ghee (tīvrā/daḍhi-ghṛta). When the eighth month arrived, he shared this old clarified butter with fellow monks of the monastery; Chan Master Lingqingyin spoke of it as an echo [of the Dharma]. Furthermore, he frequently smelled wondrous fragrances and heard the sound of snapping fingers, and was repeatedly called by unseen spirits to rise. In total, what he chanted exceeded ten thousand times. However, because his foot of precepts was slightly deficient, he did not attain deep awakening; those who knew of it lamented this. At the age of eighty-eight, he passed away at Jingying Monastery on the twenty-third day of the eleventh month in the third year of Yifeng (678).