法華傳記 9.14

9.14

長安縣蔚範良。家大富無繼子。祈長沙靈像。生一男子。生便發言。至三歲方辨世俗言詞。識知書典文。人皆謂神兒。無師自然誦通法華經第三第四兩卷。餘不能誦。父母亡死。厭世出家。名曰法𮗿。深解兩卷義趣。餘未明了。蔬食苦節。若誦若解。唯有二卷。不假功用。𮗿情懷疑網。欲知先業。祈誓多日。感夢云。前世罪業受鼠身。在逍遙園中。入翻經館。聞法華經第三第四餘未聞。間諸僧驅出。以彼聞法改報。生人間為男子。前已聞故。自然解了。餘未聞。無宿因故。不能誦得。亦不解義。今身修行。將來得悟。勤行受持。暫時不廢。億億萬劫得聞是經。努力莫空過。𮗿流淚悔過自責矣。

Wei Fanliang of Chang'an County was very wealthy but lacked an heir. He prayed to the numinous image of Changsha, and a boy was born. He began speaking as soon as he was born, and by age three he could distinguish ordinary speech and knew the graphs of the books and classics; everyone called him a divine child. Without a teacher, he naturally chanted through the third and fourth fascicles of the Lotus Sūtra, but could not recite the rest. When his parents died, he grew weary of the worldly life and left household life, taking the name Faxiang. He deeply understood the doctrinal meaning of these two fascicles, but the remainder was not yet clear to him. Living on a vegetarian diet and in austere discipline, whether in recitation or interpretation, it was only these two fascicles that came to him without effort. Xiang's mind harbor doubts and confusion, wishing to know his past karma. He prayed and made vows for many days, and was granted a dream that said: 'In your past life, by the karma of your offenses, you received the body of a rat in the Xiaoyao Garden. Entering the Sūtra Translation Hall, you heard the third and fourth fascicles of the Lotus Sūtra, but had not yet heard the rest when the monks drove you out. Because you heard the Dharma, your retribution was changed, and you were born into the human realm as a male child. Because you had previously heard them, you naturally understood them; because of the lack of past causes for what you had not heard, you could neither recite them nor understand their meaning. If you cultivate practice in your present life, you will attain awakening in the future. Diligently uphold it, without abandoning it even for a moment, and for kotis upon myriads of kalpas you will hear this sūtra. Strive hard, and do not let it pass in vain!' Xiang wept, repented his faults, and reproached himself.