法華傳記 9.12

9.12

并州石壁寺。有一老僧。禪誦為業。精進染行。貞觀末有鴿巢。在其房室楹上。哺養二雛。僧每有餘食。恒就巢哺之。鴿雛後雖漸長。羽翼未成。乃並學飛。墮地而死。僧收瘞之。經旬之後。僧忽夜夢。二小兒白之曰。兒等為先有小罪。遂受鴿身。此來聞讀誦法華經及金剛般若經。既聞妙法。得受人身。兒等今於此寺側十餘里其村其姓家。託生為男。十月之外。當即誕育。僧乃依期。往視見此家。一婦人同時誕育二子。因為作福月齋。僧呼鴿兒。並應曰諾。歲餘始言。鳥聞經尚成人身。況人情乎。

At Shibisi in Bingzhou, there was an elder monk whose practice was meditation and recitation, devoted to diligent cultivation. At the end of the Zhenguan era, doves nested on the pillar in his room and reared two fledglings. Whenever the monk had leftover food, he constantly approached the nest and fed them. Although the dove fledglings gradually grew larger, their wings were not yet fully formed. They attempted to fly together, fell to the ground, and died. The monk gathered and buried them. After a ten-day period had passed, the monk suddenly had a dream at night in which two young boys addressed him, saying, 'Because of minor past faults, we received bodies as doves. Recently, we heard the chanting and reciting of the Lotus Sūtra and the Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra. Having heard the wondrous Dharma, we have obtained human bodies. Now, more than ten li beside this temple, in such-and-such village and in the house of such-and-such family, we have taken rebirth as male children. After ten months, we will be born.' The monk went at the appointed time to look, and saw that a woman of this household had given birth to two sons at the same time. On that account, he held a fasting feast of the meritorious month for them. When the monk called, 'Dove children!', they both answered, 'Yes!' They began speaking when they were only a little over a year old. If birds who hear the sūtra still become human beings, how much more so for human minds!