釋門自鏡錄 1.36

1.36

釋僧範。姓季氏平鄉人。二十九出家。學行兼富。為時所尚。甞講法華經。輒有一僧。毀云。竭斗何所解。當即有神。特加打楚。死而復穌。又經宿他寺。正逢布薩。有僧昇座將欲竪義。乃曰。竪論法相深會聖言。何勞說戒。僧常聞耳。忽見一神。形長丈餘貌甚雄峻。來到座前問竪義者。今是何日。答是布薩日。神即以手搭之。拽于座下委頓垂死。次問上座搭拽同前。範自是至終竟無說欲。乃至疾重輿而就僧。所以重茲戒日樂見法身也。

The monk Sengfan was surnamed Ji and was a native of Pingxiang. He went forth into renunciation at the age of twenty-nine. Rich in both learning and practice, he was esteemed by the times. Once, when he was lecturing on the *Lotus Sūtra*, there was a monk who slandered him, saying: 'What does this spent vessel understand?' Immediately, a spirit gave him a severe beating; he died and was revived. On another occasion, when staying overnight at another monastery, it happened to be the day of the poṣadha. A monk mounted the seat, intending to defend a thesis, and said: 'Defending a treatise on the marks of phenomena accords deeply with the holy words. Why labor over reciting the precepts? The saṃgha hears them regularly.' Suddenly, he saw a spirit over ten feet tall, of extremely heroic and stern appearance, who came before the seat and asked the one defending the thesis: 'What day is today?' He answered: 'It is the day of the poṣadha.' The spirit immediately struck him with his hand, dragging him beneath the seat, where he lay battered and on the verge of death. He then asked the senior monk [the same], striking and dragging him in the same manner. From that time until the end of his life, Sengfan never once gave his consent by proxy [for poṣadha]; even when gravely ill, he was carried on a litter to join the saṃgha. This was because he valued this precept day and delighted in beholding the Dharma-body.