法華傳記 8.40

8.40

釋慧眺。姓莊氏。少出家以小乘為業。馳譽江漢。承象王哲公講。開三論心生不忍曰。三論明空講者著空。言訖舌出三尺。鼻眼兩耳。並皆流血。七日不語。有汰律師聞之曰。汝大癡也。一言毀經罪過五逆。可信大乘。方得免耳。乃令懺悔。舌還收入。便輿往哲所。誓惟聽大乘。後每講法華華嚴。用陳懺悔。甞在松林坐禪。見有三人。形服都雅。請受菩薩戒。受訖白曰。禪師利根。若不改心信大乘者。千佛出世。猶在地獄。聞此語重屬涕淚交流。大哭還寺。在哲房前。宛轉嗚咽。不能得語。更勸化俗士。造華嚴大品法華維摩思益各百部。終時感林樹變白可謂。過而能改焉。

Shi Huitiao was surnamed Zhuang. He went forth from the household life in his youth and took the Hīnayāna as his pursuit, his fame racing through the Jiang and Han regions. When he heard Master Zhe, the Elephant King, lecturing, explicating the Three Treatises, intolerance arose in his heart, and he said: "The Three Treatises explain emptiness, and those who lecture on them cling to emptiness." When he finished speaking, his tongue protruded three feet, and blood flowed from his nose, eyes, and both ears. For seven days he could not speak. Vinaya Master Tai heard of it and said: "You are greatly foolish! With a single word disparaging the sūtra, your sin exceeds the five heinous transgressions. Only if you can believe in the Mahāyāna can you obtain deliverance." He then ordered him to repent, and his tongue retracted back in. He was then carried by palanquin to Master Zhe's place, vowing only to listen to the Mahāyāna. Later, whenever he lectured on the Lotus Sūtra or the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, he used it to express his repentance. Once, while sitting in Chan meditation in a pine grove, he saw three persons of exceedingly elegant appearance and dress who requested to receive the Bodhisattva Precepts. Having received them, they addressed him, saying: "The Chan Master has sharp faculties; if you had not changed your mind and believed in the Mahāyāna, even when a thousand Buddhas appeared in the world, you would still be in hell." Hearing these words, tears streamed down his face once more, and he returned to the monastery weeping loudly. In front of Zhe's chamber, he rolled on the ground sobbing, unable to speak. He further exhorted and transformed laypeople, producing one hundred sets each of the Avataṃsaka, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, the Lotus Sūtra, the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, and the Viśeṣacintābrahma-paripṛcchā. When he died, the forest trees miraculously turned white. It may indeed be said of him that, having erred, he was able to reform.