法苑珠林 24.61

24.61

宋費崇先者。吳興人也。少頗信法。至三十餘精勤彌篤。至泰始三年受菩薩戒。寄齋於謝慧遠家。二十四日晝夜不懈。每聽經常以鵲尾香鑪置膝前。初齋三夕見一人容服不凡。徑來舉鑪將去。崇先視膝前鑪。猶在其處。更詳視此人見提去甚分明。崇先方悟是神異。自惟衣裳新濯了無不淨。唯坐側有唾壺。既使去壺。即復見此人還鑪坐前。未至席頃猶見兩鑪。既至即合為一。然則此神人所提者蓋鑪影乎。崇先又當聞人說。福遠寺有僧欽尼。精勤得道。欣然願見未及得往。屬意甚至。甞齋於他家。夜三更中忽見一尼容儀儼若。著赭布袈裟正立齋席之前。食頃而滅。及崇先後觀此尼。色貌被服即牕前所覩者也（右此驗出冥祥記）。

Song-dynasty Fei Chongxian was a native of Wuxing. In his youth, he had some faith in the Dharma, and past the age of thirty his diligence grew ever more earnest. In the third year of the Taishi era, he received the bodhisattva precepts and stayed for a retreat at the home of Xie Huiyuan, persevering without remiss day and night for twenty-four days. Whenever he listened to the sūtras, he would always place a magpie-tail censer before his knees. On the third night of the retreat, he saw a person of extraordinary countenance and attire come straight forward, pick up the censer, and carry it away. Chongxian looked at the censer before his knees, and it was still in its place. Looking more carefully at this person, he saw the censer being carried away quite distinctly. Only then did Chongxian realize this was a divine anomaly. He reflected to himself that his clothes were freshly washed and completely free of impurity; only by his seat was there a spittoon. Having ordered the spittoon removed, he immediately saw this person returning the censer before his seat again. Before it reached the mat, he still saw two censers; once it arrived, they merged into one. Could what this divine person carried have been merely the shadow of the censer? Chongxian had also heard people say that at Fuyuan Temple there was a nun named Sengqin who had attained the Way through energetic diligence. He joyfully wished to see her, but had not yet been able to go, keeping her deeply in his mind. Once while observing a retreat at another person's home, in the middle of the third watch of the night, he suddenly saw a nun of solemn demeanor wearing an ochre cloth kāṣāya standing upright before the retreat mat, vanishing after the duration of a meal. When Chongxian later saw this nun, her facial features and clothing were precisely what he had beheld before the window. (This verification is extracted from the *Signs from the Unseen Realm*.)