法苑珠林 15.26

15.26

宋尼慧木者。姓傅氏。十一出家持小乘戒。居梁郡築弋村寺。始讀大品日誦兩卷。師慧超甞建經堂。木往禮拜。輒見屋內東北隅有一沙門。金色黑衣足不履地。木又於夜中臥而誦習。夢到西方見一浴池有芙蓉華。諸化生人列坐其中。有一大華獨空無人。木欲登華。攀牽用力不覺誦經。音響高大。木母謂其魘驚起喚之。木母篤老。口無復齒。木常嚼哺飴母。為以過中不得淨潄。故年將立不受大戒母終亡後。木自除草開壇請師受戒忽於壇所見天地晃然悉黃金色。仰望西南見一天。人著襈衣衣色赤黃。去木或近或遠尋沒不見。凡見靈異祕不語人。木兄出家聞而欲知。乃誑誘之曰。汝為道積年竟無所昭。比可養髮當訪出門。木聞甚懼謂當實然。乃粗言所見。唯靜稱尼聞其道德。稱往為狎。方便請問。乃為具說。木後與同等共禮無量壽佛。因伏地不起。咸謂得眠。蹴而問之。木竟不答。靜稱復獨苦求問。木云。當伏地之時。夢往安養國見佛為說小品。已得四卷。因被蹴即覺。甚追恨之。木元嘉十四年。時已六十九。

During the Song, the nun Huimu, surnamed Fu, went forth from the household at age eleven and upheld the Hīnayāna precepts. She resided at Zhuyicun Temple in Liang Commandery. When she first read the *Larger Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra*, she recited two fascicles each day. Her teacher Huichao once erected a scripture hall, and whenever Mu went to pay homage there, she would consistently see in the northeastern corner of the room a śramaṇa of golden hue wearing black robes, his feet not touching the ground. Furthermore, while lying down at night reciting and practicing, Mu dreamed of going to the West, where she saw a bathing pond with lotus blossoms and many transformed beings seated in rows within them. There was one large blossom that was empty with no one in it. Mu wished to climb onto the blossom, but as she strained and exerted herself to haul herself up, she unknowingly recited the scripture with a loud, ringing voice. Her mother, thinking she was having a nightmare, was startled awake and called out to her. Mu's mother was very old and had no teeth left in her mouth; Mu would constantly chew food to feed her mother, and because doing so past noon prevented her from purifying and rinsing her mouth, she did not receive the full precepts even as she approached the age of thirty. After her mother died, Mu cleared the weeds herself, set up an ordination platform, and invited masters to confer the precepts. Suddenly, at the ordination platform, she saw heaven and earth blaze forth entirely in a golden hue. Looking up toward the southwest, she saw a heavenly being wearing trimmed robes of reddish-yellow color, appearing now close to Mu and now far away, and soon vanishing from sight. Whenever she witnessed such divine anomalies, she kept them secret and spoke of them to no one. Mu's elder brother, who had also gone forth, heard of this and wished to know, so he deceptively coaxed her, saying: "You have practiced the Way for many years, yet after all, you have experienced no illumination. You should grow out your hair, and we will find a family to marry you into." Hearing this, Mu was terrified, thinking it was truly so, and thus roughly recounted what she had seen. Only the nun Jingcheng heard of her virtue, and coming to be close with her, tactfully inquired of her, whereupon Mu related it to her in detail. Later, while Mu was bowing with her peers to the Buddha of Immeasurable Life, she lay prostrate on the ground and did not rise. All thought she had fallen asleep and prodded her to ask, but Mu gave no reply at all. Jingcheng again pleaded and asked her in private. Mu said: "When I was lying prostrate on the ground, I dreamed I went to the Land of Peace and Sustenance (Sukhāvatī) and saw the Buddha preaching the *Smaller Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra* for me; I had already received four fascicles when, being kicked, I immediately awoke, which I deeply and bitterly regret." In the fourteenth year of the Yuanjia reign era (437 CE), Mu was already sixty-nine years of age.