弘贊法華傳 8.31

8.31

Shi Zhicang, whose secular surname was Fei, was originally a native of Xiazhou. He left home in his youth and resided at Da Xingshan Monastery. Whenever he chanted the Lotus Sūtra, his voice and articulation were clear and penetrating, causing people to delight in listening. His chanting usually took a thousand repetitions as its benchmark. Once he suffered chest injuries and spat blood for several days. A monastery monk, Jimo, told Zhicang, 'It is said that for chest injuries, mixing urine with flour to make a gruel and taking it will bring recovery.' Zhicang said, 'I have vowed that within the thousand repetitions, I will not defile the sūtra with impure substances. Although this is medicine, it would ultimately go against my longstanding resolve.' Zhicang thereupon swept the courtyard, held the sūtra, placed it on a table, burned incense, circumambulated, and bowed in sincere prayer. That night, suddenly as if in a dream, he saw an Indian monk who fetched water for Zhicang, mixed flour to make gruel, and handed it to him to drink. Before Zhicang had drunk half of it, he suddenly woke up, whereupon his mental energy doubled beyond the ordinary, and he resumed his former practice. In the ninth year of Zhenguan (635), Dharma Master Shi, a monk from Xiazhou, heard Zhicang chant the scripture and offered three catties of clarified butter (sū) as an offering. Zhicang placed it in a vessel. On the first day, using a bronze spoon, he took a peach-sized amount from the center. The next day when he went to take more, he saw that the original spot was full again with congealed clarified butter, so he drank it again. From summer to autumn, he took from it daily as before. Zhicang secretly rejoiced in his heart, only then awakening to [the nature of] ghee (tīvrā/daḍhi-ghṛta). When the eighth month arrived, he shared this old clarified butter with fellow monks of the monastery; Chan Master Lingqingyin spoke of it as an echo [of the Dharma]. Furthermore, he frequently smelled wondrous fragrances and heard the sound of snapping fingers, and was repeatedly called by unseen spirits to rise. In total, what he chanted exceeded ten thousand times. However, because his foot of precepts was slightly deficient, he did not attain deep awakening; those who knew of it lamented this. At the age of eighty-eight, he passed away at Jingying Monastery on the twenty-third day of the eleventh month in the third year of Yifeng (678).