弘贊法華傳 2.42

2.42

The above: Śramaṇa Bodhiruci of the Western Regions, translated in the Wei as Daoxi, was a native of northern India. Comprehensively versed in the Tripiṭaka and wonderfully penetrating dhāraṇī, his resolve was set on propagating the Dharma and widely extending its visibility and audition. He thereupon traveled by night through narrow passes, arriving from afar west of the Congling (Pamir) Mountains. In the beginning of the Yongping era of the Northern Wei, he came to travel in the eastern Xia (China). Emperor Xuanwu issued an edict extending an invitation and慰勞, providing abundantly for his needs, accommodating him in the great Yongning Monastery, and furnishing the four requisites to seven hundred Indian monks. The Emperor decreed that Bodhiruci serve as the chief master of translation. He translated the above treatise, with Śramaṇa Tanlin acting as scribe. In Bodhiruci's chamber, Sanskrit manuscripts of sūtras and treatises numbered perhaps ten thousand cases; the newly translated texts and rough scribal drafts filled an entire room. Yet in intellectual understanding he was matched with Ratnamati, while in spiritual awakening and quick intelligence he was thoroughly proficient in regional languages and also skilled in dhāraṇī arts, having no equal. Once he sat by a well-curb; the washing pitcher was empty inside, and his disciples had not yet arrived, so there was no one to draw water. Bodhiruci then held a willow branch, casually waved it into the well, and secretly recited a dhāraṇī; after merely a few recitations, the spring water welled upward until it reached the well-curb. He immediately scooped it with his bowl and used it for washing. The surrounding monks all witnessed it, none able to fathom his miraculous power. Bodhiruci said: 'This is merely an art commonly practiced in foreign lands; this land does not practice it, so you consider it holy.'