華嚴經傳記 5.6

5.6

Śramaṇa Deyuan: his clan is unknown; he was a native of Tianshui. Having gone forth into homelessness in his youth, he constantly took the Avataṃsaka as his vocation, making reading, recitation, and dhyāna-contemplation his constant standard. He traveled widely among lecturing halls, subtly comprehending the ultimate tenets. Revering this profound scripture, he longed to unfold his sincere devotion. Thereupon he cultivated a pure garden, planting paper-mulberry trees along with aromatic herbs and various flowers. To enter the garden he first washed, and he watered the plants with fragrant water. When the paper-mulberry had grown for three years, their sweet perfume was densely suffused. He constructed a separate pure room, plastering the walls and floor with scented mud, and prepared pure sandalwood, immaculate vessels, bathing gear, and new garments. The craftsmen observed the fast, changing their clothes when entering or leaving, always rinsing their mouths and perfuming themselves with incense. They peeled the paper-mulberry to harvest the bark, steeped it in agarwood water, and guarded the purity while making the paper, completing it only when a full year had passed. He then raised a separate pure terrace and built another new chamber upon it; even the timber, beams, rafters, and tiles were all washed with fragrant decoctions, every matter being severe and clean. In the hall he placed an ivory seat of patterned cypress, arrayed all around with fragrant flowers. Above, he suspended a silken jeweled canopy hanging with bells and pendants, mingled with tassels of white sandalwood and purple agarwood, which served as desks for the scripture and as brush handles. Each day the scribes received the fasting precepts, bathed three times in fragrant decoctions, and wore floral crowns and pure robes, resembling celestials in appearance. Whenever about to enter the scripture chamber, incense was always burned along the flanking path, led in advance by Sanskrit chanting. Deyuan likewise, his person and attire austere and pure, respectfully guided them holding an incense burner, scattering flowers in offering, and only then was the copying begun. Deyuan knelt in contemplative concentration, fixing his gaze and devoting his mind. When only a few lines had been written, every single character gave off bright light, illuminating the entire cloister. The whole assembly saw it together, and there was none who was not moved to tears. Only after a long while did it cease. Furthermore, he moved a divine being brandishing a halberd to manifest in form and stand guard. Deyuan and the scribes saw it together, while other people did not perceive it. There was also a blue-clad youth of pure conduct who arrived out of nowhere, holding celestial flowers in his hands, suddenly offering them in veneration. Such spiritual inspirations, before and after, followed one another in close succession. Only after two years had passed was the copying finally completed. He contained it in a fragrant casket, set it within a jeweled curtain, placed it in that pure hall, and constantly rendered head-bowing veneration. Later, on an occasion when it was chanted, the casket emitted an extraordinary light. As for such cleanliness and veneration, it surpassed past and present; such omens of auspicious response were indeed rarely matched. This scripture was successively transmitted, down to the present day through five masters. When later people entered purity to chant it, there were occasional spiritual responses. It is now kept in the quarters of the monk Xianshou at the Western Dayuansi, where it is guarded and venerated.