三寶感應要略錄 2.136

2.136

絳州有孤山。永徽年中。有二人僧。同坊而住。一名僧行。行三階佛法。二名僧法。行法花三昧。二人要期。若前亡者必告所。後僧行先亡。三年後。僧法祈請觀音。夢至地獄。猛火熾然。不可親近。鐵網七重。而覆其上。鐵扉四面開閉甚固。百千沙門犯淨戒。不調身心者。在中受苦。問此中有沙門僧行不。羅剎答曰有。又曰。欲見。答不可見。又曰。我等佛子。如何固惜。即時羅剎。以鋒貫炭示之。僧法見黑炭流泣。沙門釋子如何受苦。願欲見昔形。羅剎唱活。宛如平生。但身體燒爛。謂法曰。汝將救吾苦。法曰。如何救之。答為造法花經。法曰如何造耶。答一日之中。以可畢其功。法曰。貧道豈可一日中畢。答告苦不可忍。剎那難過。非一日猛利行。焉得苦息。夢覺即日。捨衣鉢資具。以書生四十人。一日寫之供養禮拜。其夜夢。僧行離地獄苦。近生忉利天矣。

In Jiangzhou, there was Mount Gu. During the Yonghui era, there were two monks living in the same quarter. One was named Sengxing, who practiced the Three Stages Buddhist teaching. The second was named Sengfa, who practiced the Lotus Samādhi. The two made an agreement: whichever died first would surely tell the other of his whereabouts. Later, Sengxing died first. Three years later, Sengfa prayed to Avalokiteśvara, and in a dream arrived at hell. Fierce flames blazed intensely, so that it could not be approached. Seven layers of iron netting covered it above. Iron doors on all four sides opened and closed very securely. Hundreds of thousands of śramaṇas who had violated the pure precepts and failed to regulate their body and mind were suffering within. He asked: 'Is there a śramaṇa Sengxing here?' A rākṣasa answered: 'There is.' He then said: 'I wish to see him.' The rākṣasa answered: 'He cannot be seen.' He said again: 'We are sons of the Buddha; why do you stubbornly begrudge it?' Immediately, the rākṣasa impaled a piece of charcoal on the tip of a blade and showed it to him. Seeing the black charcoal, Sengfa wept: 'How can a śramaṇa, a disciple of Śākya, suffer like this? I wish to see his former appearance.' The rākṣasa shouted 'Live!', and he appeared just as in life, though his body was burned and decayed. He said to [Seng]fa: 'Are you going to save me from my suffering?' [Seng]fa said: 'How may I save you?' He replied: 'Copy the Lotus Sūtra for me.' [Seng]fa said: 'How should it be copied?' He replied: 'Within a single day, the work must be completed.' [Seng]fa said: 'How could this poor monk finish it in a single day?' He replied, reporting: 'The suffering is unbearable; a single kṣaṇa is hard to endure. Without a single day of fierce and vigorous practice, how can the suffering be brought to an end?' Awakening from the dream, on that very day he gave up his robes, bowl, and implements, and employed forty scribes to copy it in a single day, making offerings and prostrations to it. That night, he dreamed that Sengxing had left the suffering of hell and had been born nearby in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven.