弘贊法華傳 1.18

1.18

Xiao Jing, Chancellor of the Directorate of Education under the Tang, was a native of Lanling, a great-great-grandson of Emperor Wu of the Liang, and the fifth son of Xiao Kui, King of Liang. After the Liang fell and he entered the Sui, his elder sister became the empress of Emperor Yang. Though born and raised amidst nobility and prosperity, his family deeply revered the Buddha's Dharma. During the Daye era, he chanted the Lotus Sūtra himself and, in accordance with the text of the sūtra, made a Prabhūtaratna Stūpa using sandalwood. The stūpa was about three feet high, and he also made a wooden image of Prabhūtaratna, which remained unfinished after several years. One morning, when his nephew Xiao Quan rose in the residence, he suddenly saw in the grass of the front courtyard a sandalwood stūpa canopy, beneath which was a brass Buddha image of extraordinary craftsmanship and solemn, dignified Indian countenance. Its eyeballs were made of silver, with the pupils clear, bright, and lustrous, as if natural. Quan marveled at it and ran to tell Jing. Jing looked at it with startled joy, took the canopy back, and tried placing it atop the Prabhūtaratna Stūpa; it fitted perfectly, as though made for it of old. Although the color of the wood differed slightly, the shape of the stūpa became even more wondrous. When he placed the Buddha image inside the stūpa, it also matched as if originally crafted for it. Jing rejoiced and sighed in admiration, considering it an effect evoked by his sincere devotion. Inside the garments of the Buddha image, there were more than a hundred relics (śarīra). Jing's daughter, who was a nun, and others who were young secretly doubted that relics could not be broken by a hammer, so they took thirty of them to test and struck them on a stone with an axe. The relics scattered, leaving no trace behind. The daughter searched and picked them up from the ground, finding only three or four, while the rest could not be seen anywhere. Filled with dread, she reported this to Jing. Jing went to look inside the stūpa, and all the relics were there just as before. From that time on, Jing chanted the Lotus Sūtra once a day until the end of his life. In the twelfth year of the Zhenguan era, his illness grew severe. Empress Xiao, along with his younger brothers and nephews, came to visit him. Jing met with them, had each of them light incense, and then bid them farewell together. He kept only his younger brother Xiao Yu, Duke of Song, and his daughter who was a nun, instructing them to light incense and chant the sūtra. After a short while, he said to the nun: 'I am about to depart. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva has come to welcome me and is in the eastern courtyard; master, you may go welcome him.' The nun went to welcome him as instructed, but before she returned, Jing said: 'That courtyard is impure, so he is unwilling to enter; I must go to him myself. Live well, all of you.' Thereupon he bid farewell to Yu and the others, rose, knelt upright with palms joined, facing directly toward the west, and shortly thereafter passed away. His testamentary instructions ordered: 'Bear me alone upon a single cart; enshroud me in the clothes upon my body; women shall not attend the funeral procession; do not sacrifice with meat; dig the pit just deep enough to submerge the coffin.' Court and countryside alike sighed in admiration at his broad-mindedness, and his family reverently carried it out. In ancient times, the Mahāsattva Samantabhadra possessed boundless spiritual power, manifesting astride the elephant king to verify the Lotus. This may be the expedient response of a former Buddha, or the gracious transformation wrought by one in the position of succession; it cannot be fathomed by the Seventh Ground, nor conceived by the Two Vehicles. Indeed, since the supreme and wondrous physical form illuminates the Way, subtle and exquisite icons surely move the mundane world. Following the form, one awakens to the spirit; by virtue of the traces, one contemplates the origin. The visage delightful to behold is truly a vital passage for guiding and uplifting.