法苑珠林 38.56

38.56

勅僧智琮慧辯。鴻臚給名住會昌寺。初開舍利二十餘人同共下鑿。及獲舍利諸人並見唯一人不見。其人懊惱自拔頭髮苦心邀請。乃置舍利於掌。雖覺其重不見如初。由是諸人恐不見骨不敢覩光。寺東雲龍坊人。勅使未至前數日。望寺塔上有赤色光周照遠近。或見如虹直上至天。或見光照寺城內赤如晝。旦具以聞寺僧歎訝曰。舍利不久應開。此瑞如貞觀不異。其舍利形狀如小指。初骨長可二寸。內孔正方外楞亦爾。下乎上漸內外光淨。以指內孔恰得受指。便得勝戴以示大眾。至於光相變現不可常准。于時京邑內外道俗連接二百里間。往來相續皆稱佛德。一代光華。京師慈恩寺僧慧滿。在塔行道。忽見綺井覆海下。一雙眼睛光明殊大。通召道俗同視亦然。皆懾然喪膽。更不敢重視。至顯慶五年春三月下。

...an imperial edict commanded that the monks Zhicong and Huibian be given registration by the Court of State Ceremonial to reside at Huichang Temple. When first opening for the śarīra, more than twenty people chiseled down together; and when the śarīra was obtained, everyone saw it except for one single person. That person, distraught, tore out his hair and earnestly prayed; when the śarīra was placed upon his palm, although he felt its weight, he still could not see it as before. For this reason, people feared not seeing the bone and dared not look at the light. A few days before the imperial envoys arrived, the people of Yunlong Ward, east of the temple, looked toward the temple stupa and saw a red light illuminating near and far; some saw it straight up to the sky like a rainbow, while others saw the light illuminate the temple city, red as daylight. In the morning they reported this fully, and the temple monks sighed in wonder, saying: 'The śarīra will soon be opened; this omen is no different from that in the Zhenguan era.' The śarīra was shaped like the first bone of a little finger, about two inches long, with a square hole inside and the outer edges likewise; it was flat at the bottom and tapered at the top, pure and bright inside and out. Inserting a finger into the hole, it received the finger snugly, so one could respectfully bear it on the head to show the great assembly. As for the transformations of its light and signs, they could not be uniformly measured. At that time, clergy and laity inside and outside the capital stretched over a distance of two hundred li, continuously coming and going, all praising the Buddha's virtue—a glory of the age. Monk Huiman of Cien Temple in the capital was practicing the Path at the stupa, when he suddenly saw beneath the coffered ceiling a pair of eyes whose radiance was exceptionally huge; he summoned both clergy and laity to look together, and it was the same. All were terrified out of their wits and dared not look closely again. In the third month of the spring of the fifth year of the Xianqing era (660), an imperial edict...