弘贊法華傳 9.13

9.13

有一老僧。失其名。住并州石壁寺。禪觀為業。貞觀年末。房楹上有二鴿鶵。老師每以餘食飼之。後雖漸長。羽翼未成。乃並學飛。俱墮地而死。僧因收葬。經旬日後。僧夜夢有二小兒。告曰。兒等。為先有少罪。遂受鴿身。比來聞師讀法華經。及金剛般若。得受人身。兒等。今於此寺側十餘里某村某甲家。託生為男。十月之外。當即誕育。僧乃依期。往視見此家。一婦雙生二男。因作滿月齊。僧呼二姟子曰。鴿兒。兩兒並應曰諾。一應之後。歲餘始言也。

There was an old monk whose name is lost. He lived at Shibishan Temple in Bingzhou, practicing dhyāna contemplation as his vocation. At the end of the Zhenguan era, there were two young pigeon chicks upon the pillars of his room. The old master always fed them with leftover food. Later, though they gradually grew larger, their feathers and wings were not yet fully formed. They attempted to learn to fly together, and both fell to the ground and died. The monk accordingly gathered and buried them. More than ten days later, the monk dreamt at night of two young boys who told him: 'Because we previously incurred a minor offense, we underwent rebirth in pigeon bodies. Recently, hearing the master read the Lotus Sūtra and the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā, we were able to receive human bodies. We are now being conceived as boys in the household of so-and-so in a certain village more than ten li beside this temple. After ten months, we shall be born.' The monk then, following the appointed time, went to observe, and saw that a woman of this household had given birth to twin boys. Thereupon he held a full-month vegetarian feast. The monk called to the two infants, saying: 'Pigeon boys!' Both boys responded together, saying, 'Yes!' After that single response, it was more than a year before they began to speak.