法苑珠林 19.66

19.66

晉沙門釋法安者。廬山之僧遠法師弟子也。義熙末陽新縣虎暴甚盛。縣有大社樹下有築神廟。左右民居以百數。遭虎死者夕必一兩。法安甞游其縣暮投此村。民以懼虎早閉門閭。且不識法安不肯受之。法安徑之樹下坐禪通夜。向曉有虎負人而至。投樹之北。見安如喜如跳。伏安前。安為說法授戒。虎踞地不動。有頃而去。至旦村人追死者至樹下見安大驚。謂其神人故虎不害。自茲以後而虎患遂息。眾益敬異。一縣士庶略皆奉法。後欲畫像山壁。不能得空青。欲用銅青而又無銅。夜夢人迂其床前云。此中有兩銅鍾。便可取之。安明即掘得。遂以成像。後遠法師鑄像。安送一勸助。餘一武昌太守熊無患借觀之。遂留不改。宋孝明。江陵長沙寺沙門慧遠者。本名黃遷。即禪師慧印之弟子也。印每入定見。遠是印之先師。雖應為蒼頭故度為弟子。常寄江陵楊家行般舟。勤苦歲餘頗有感變。一日十會通見遠身。而般舟之處行道如故。自剋終日。至期果卒。久之現形多寶寺僧曇珣曰。明年二月二十三日。當與天人相迎。言已不見。珣於是日設大法會。建捨身齋。其日苦氣。自知必盡。三更中聞空中樂聲香煙甚異。珣曰。遠公之契至矣。尋爾神逝。

The śramaṇa Shi Fa'an of the Jin was a disciple of Master Daoyuan of Mount Lu. At the end of the Yixi era, tigers ran extremely rampant in Yangxin County. The county had a great shrine tree under which a spirit temple was built, surrounded by hundreds of civilian households. Every night, one or two people were killed by tigers. Fa'an once traveled through that county and arrived at this village at dusk. Fearing the tigers, the villagers had closed their gates early, and not knowing Fa'an, they refused to admit him. Fa'an went straight beneath the tree and sat in meditation throughout the night. Toward dawn, a tiger arrived carrying a human victim and dropped it north of the tree. Seeing Fa'an, it appeared joyful and leapt, crouching before him. Fa'an expounded the Dharma and conferred the precepts upon it; the tiger squatted on the ground without moving, and after a while departed. At dawn, the villagers tracking the deceased came beneath the tree, saw Fa'an, and were greatly astonished, considering him a spiritual man and for that reason unharmed by the tiger. From that time on, the tiger trouble ceased entirely. The multitude revered him even more as extraordinary, and virtually all the scholars and commoners of the county took up the Dharma. Later, he wished to paint images on the mountain cliff, but could not obtain azurite; he wished to use copper patina, but lacked bronze. At night, he dreamed of a man who bent down before his bed, saying, ‘Here there are two bronze bells; you may take them.’ The next morning, Fa'an dug and found them, using them to complete the images. Later, when Master Yuan cast an image, Fa'an sent one bell to assist him; the remaining one was borrowed for viewing by Xiong Wuhuan, Grand Administrator of Wuchang, who then kept it and did not return it. Under Emperor Xiaoming of the Song, there was śramaṇa Huiyuan of Changsha Temple in Jiangling, whose original name was Huang Qian, a disciple of Dhyāna Master Huiyin. Whenever Yin entered samādhi, he saw that Yuan had been Yin's former teacher; although he was destined to be a servant, Yin nonetheless ordained him as a disciple. He regularly lodged at the Yang family in Jiangling to practice the pratyutpanna-samādhi. After more than a year of diligent toil, there were remarkable responses and transformations: in a single day, across ten different gatherings, Yuan's body was simultaneously seen, yet at his place of pratyutpanna, he was practicing the Way as before. He set the day of his own death, and when the time came, he indeed passed away. After a long time, he manifested his form to the monk Tanxun of Duobao Temple, saying, ‘On the twenty-third day of the second month next year, I shall welcome you together with devas.’ Having spoken, he vanished. On that day, Xun held a great Dharma assembly and established a body-abandonment vegetarian retreat. On that day he suffered from shortness of breath and knew his life was surely ending. In the third watch, heavenly music was heard in the void and extraordinary fragrant smoke arose. Xun said, ‘Master Yuan's appointed time has arrived!’ Shortly thereafter, his spirit departed.