弘贊法華傳 8.29

8.29

Shi Wanxiang, whose secular surname was Du, was a native of Wannian in Yongzhou. In his youth, he severed worldly attachments and took renowned virtues everywhere as his teachers. The pearl of his precepts was bright and clear, and his sea of learning was deep and vast. He chanted the Lotus Sūtra and also expounded its principles, lecturing on it more than ten times in all. He took merit and wisdom as his resources; gentle compassion resided in his nature, and he was skilled at teaching and guidance, adept in expedient means. Not long before, when the Buddha Hall of Xingshan [Monastery] was suddenly consumed by fire, Wanxiang contributed his efforts to rebuild it magnificently. Furthermore, on the north side of the hall, he had a complete copy of the Lotus Sūtra carved in stone, which was grand, beautiful, and widely acclaimed as extraordinary. He once chanted the sūtra beneath the eaves, and suddenly a white pheasant tamely submitted beside him. When he took it with his hand, it was not startled at all, and followed Wanxiang back and forth for more than ten days. Furthermore, upon a tree behind his room, he saw a gilt-bronze shrine image that arrived out of nowhere, with a pair of green birds standing in attendance on both sides. When Wanxiang retrieved the image, the birds suddenly flew away. At other times, charcoal embers in his brazier emerged naturally, or wondrous fragrances frequently wafted from between the mats behind his bed. Furthermore, sitting in quiet in the middle of the night, suddenly as if in a dream, he saw about a thousand bright stars in the northwestern sky. Watching them for a long time, they transformed into a jeweled stūpa, lofty, vast, and adorned, stretching boundlessly to sight. He also saw seven stars in the northeast, each exceeding several fathoms in size. Before he had finished gazing at them, he saw seven Buddhas emerge from the stars, their golden appearances upright and pure, shining brightly and brilliantly. Wanxiang had always vowed to see the seven Buddhas and the Prabhūtaratna Stūpa; in the dream, joy and sorrow mingled in his heart, and he bowed in homage and praise. In a short while, they abruptly vanished. What he recited totaled more than four thousand times. As his end approached, he bade his disciples Yasheng and others invoke the name of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Presently, he himself said, 'Samantabhadra Bodhisattva has come,' and lying on his right side, he passed away at Xingshan Monastery at the age of seventy-four.