弘贊法華傳 5.5

5.5

Shi Sengyu was surnamed Zhou and was a native of Yuhang in Wuxing. He left home [for the monastic life] when he came of age (ruoguan). His pure practice was refined and unadulterated. In the fifteenth year of the Yuanjia reign (438), together with his fellow students the monks Tanwen, Huiguang, and others, he co-founded a vihāra on the southern ridge of Mount Lu, naming it Zhaoyin. Sengyu always considered that entanglements in the three evil paths arise on account of emotional attachment and physical form. If emotional attachment is about to be exhausted, then the physical form should also be relinquished. Why should the footsteps of Bhaiṣajyarāja alone be considered distant? Thereupon, he repeatedly made vows, resolving to burn his body. On the third day of the sixth month in the second year of the Xiaojian reign of the Song (455), he gathered firewood to make a shrine, invited the sangha to conduct a vegetarian feast, and took his leave of the assembly. On that day, clouds and mist gathered darkly, and dense rain fell steadily. Sengyu then vowed: 'If what I aspire to is clearly approved, may the sky become clear and bright; if there is no response, then let the downpour continue, so that these four assemblies may know that spiritual resonance is never dim.' When he finished speaking, the clouds cleared and the sky became bright and sunny. At the end of the first watch of the night, he entered the shrine of firewood, sat upright with palms joined, and recited the 'Chapter of Bhaiṣajyarāja'. As the flames closed in, his palms remained joined without parting. Monastics and laypeople who knew of it rushed over, filling the mountain, and all bowed their heads in homage, wishing to forge karmic affinities. Soon after, purple vapor was seen soaring into the sky, lingering for a long time before dissipating. He was then forty-four years old. Fourteen days later, twin parasol trees (tong) sprouted in Sengyu's chamber, with luxuriant roots and branches, both thick and thin, piercing the ground and towering straight up, thereby forming an extraordinary pair of trees. Those who understood considered that the precious Śāla trees brightly illuminated the nirvāṇa, and that Sengyu, being nearly of that caliber, was thus shown this miraculous proof. Hence, he was called the 'Śramaṇa of the Twin Parasol Trees'. Zhang Bian of Wu Commandery, who served as Changshi of Pingnan, witnessed this affair in person and composed a biography and encomium in full detail. The encomium says: