道宣律師感通錄 1.9

1.9

I also asked: "Regarding the auspicious Longguang statue south of the Yangzi, people transmit that Kumārajīva brought it, having obtained it in Funan; how was it?"
He replied: "It was not Kumārajīva. This was obtained by Emperor Xiaowu of Song when he campaigned against Funan. In the past, during the three hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, the great arhat of Northern India, Upagupta, exerted divine power together with craftsmen: over three hundred years, he chiseled a great rocky mountain to establish Buddha caves. From top to bottom there were five tiers in all. The upper tier was over three hundred feet high, where he requested Bodhisattva Maitreya to indicate the spot to make a sandalwood statue. Master Xuanzang's biography says it was over one hundred feet high, while the *Records of Sacred Traces* says it was eighty feet tall, with feet matching at eight feet, and on the six days of purification it regularly emitted light. When it was first being made, the arhat took the craftsmen up to the heavens, only completing it after going three times. The second was ox-head candana; the third gold; the fourth jade; the fifth a bronze statue. Ordinary mortals are now restricted to the lower tier, while the four upper tiers are closed. The stone caves are clear and translucent, so that one can see a person's viscera.
In the sixth century, there was the arhat Fanazhe (Bhadrika). His birth mother was in the country of Funan. Mindful of his mother's heavy kindness, he took the wooden sandalwood statue from the upper tier and caused his mother to make offerings to it. When his mother passed away, she was reborn in Yangzhou, went forth from the household to dwell at Xinxing Temple, and attained realization of the third fruit. When Emperor Xiaowu of Song campaigned against Funan, he obtained this statue and brought it to the capital, which was also due to the arhat's supernatural power. His mother is alive even now, frequently traveling to Luofu, Tiantai, the Western Regions, and other places. In the past, Faxian made a second journey to the west; there is a five-fascicle record that briefly recounts these circumstances. How could one say that Master Kumārajīva carried it on his back when coming?"