集神州三寶感通錄 3.20

3.20

The preface says: For the propagation and protection of the Three Jewels, each has its respective domain. The two ranks of Buddha and Saṃgha demonstrate whence master and disciple derive; the single gate of audible teaching is truly the numinous storehouse of transformation and guidance. Thus Buddha and Saṃgha appear and disappear in accordance with the conditions of beings' faculties and consciousness, while the Dharma is constantly present as the means for dispelling afflictions and extinguishing defilements. For this reason, verses spoken upon abandoning the body are forever inscribed on mysterious cliffs, and the textual words of the bequeathed Dharma are gathered together in dragon palaces. Truly, it is through the reverence of the three holy ones relying on the toil of protective nurturing, and through both the unseen and manifest realms bearing their grace, celebrating the excellent method of quieting inversions. Therefore, receiving, holding, reading, and reciting will inevitably call down auspicious portents; practicing as taught will without fail achieve sympathetic resonance. Past events in India are firmly established in common discourse, while observed conditions in the land of China are continually manifold. Shixing cast a scripture into a heap of fire, and the flames were extinguished without burning it; bandits stole birch-bark leaves from a guest hall, and their wrists grew so heavy they could not lift them. In some cases, an entire canon soared to the heavenly mansions; in others, a single volume showed auspicious signs before kings and ministers. In some instances, the seven disasters were averted through it; in others, the two wishes were fulfilled because of it. Such cases are legion; if not related, they would seldom be heard, so I venture to record them by dynasty to present them to later generations. Does not the scripture say? ‘It is given for those of faith; if there is doubt, it is not spoken.’ When a rock opens to let an arrow enter, it is caused by the mind's determination; when water flows yet ice permits passage, doubts of the heart are abruptly resolved. If such things are still commonly handed down among scholars and the vulgar, how much more so for wisdom that breaks through layered emptiness and the Way that transcends all existences! Where the mental compass points, it plumbs the calculations and reaches the infinitesimal; the confluence of causes and conditions is like a shadow following the form, and classes of auspicious signs surpass mere imperial tallies. As its significance should not be kept in obscurity, I have set down and gathered them. Yet when examining past events, most derive from biographies and records: tales of anomalies and unseen omens, displays of marvels and verifiable responses. These are numerous and may be fully examined. Fearing their texts might be difficult to access, I have summarily set forth a few of them, together with what has been examined in present days, to preserve and show that sympathetic resonances indeed have their instances.