三寶感應要略錄 2.98

2.98

釋僧智京兆人。其母夢見吞銅香爐。而有身產生。生即唱大般若名字。人皆異之。至十歲。自然諳誦大般若經二百卷。餘無練習。每日為業。誦一百卷。內心怪謂余無宿習。祈念欲知。夢一人沙門來。語智曰。前世受弊牛身。主人負大般若經二百卷。驅向精舍。於深泥踏蹶。而終即生人間。以是因緣。諷誦二百卷。餘無練習。汝捨此身。將生雷音佛國。夢竟悔謝矣。

The monk Sengzhi was a native of Jingzhao. His mother dreamed of swallowing a bronze incense burner, after which she became pregnant and gave birth. As soon as he was born, he chanted the title of the Mahāprajñā[pāramitā], and everyone was astonished by it. By the time he was ten years old, he naturally knew and recited two hundred scrolls of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra by heart, with no other practice. Making it his daily practice, he recited one hundred scrolls. Wondering inwardly, he thought: "I had no previous habituation in this life." Praying in his thoughts to understand, he dreamed of a monk who came and said to Sengzhi: "In a previous life, you received the wretched body of an ox. Your master loaded you with two hundred scrolls of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra and drove you toward a vihāra. You stumbled in deep mud and died, immediately being born into the human realm. Due to these causes and conditions, you recite two hundred scrolls without any other practice. When you abandon this body, you will be born in the Buddha Land of Leiyin (Thunder Sound)." When the dream ended, he showed repentance and gratitude.