法苑珠林 5.28

5.28

宋侖氏二女。東官曾城人也。是時祖姊妹。元嘉九年。姊年十歲。妹年九歲。里越愚蒙未知經法。忽以二月八日。並失所在。三日而歸粗說見佛。九月十五日又失。一旬還作外國語。誦經及梵書。見西域沙門便相開解。明年正月十五日忽復失去。田間作人云。見其從風徑飄上天。父母號懼祀神求福。既而經月乃反。剃頭為尼。被服法衣。持髮而歸自說。見佛及比丘尼曰。汝宿世因緣應為我弟子。舉手摩頭髮因墮落。與其法名。大曰法緣。小曰法綵。臨遣還曰。可作精舍。當與汝經法也。女既歸家即毀除鬼座。繕立精廬夜齋誦。夕中每有五色光明。流泛峯嶺若燈燭云。女曰。此後容止華雅音制詮正。上京風調不能過也。刺史韋朗就里並迎供養。聞其談說甚敬異焉。於是溪里皆知奉法（右一出冥祥記）。

The two daughters of the Lun family under the Song dynasty were natives of Zengcheng in Dongguan. They were elder and younger sisters at that time. In the ninth year of the Yuanjia reign era, the elder sister was ten years old and the younger sister was nine years old. In their remote southern village, they were simple and ignorant, knowing nothing of the sūtras and Dharma. Suddenly, on the eighth day of the second month, both vanished. After three days they returned, speaking vaguely of having seen the Buddha. On the fifteenth day of the ninth month, they vanished again, returning after ten days speaking foreign languages and reciting sūtras and Sanskrit texts. When they saw śramaṇas from the Western Regions, they could mutually converse and explain things. On the fifteenth day of the first month of the following year, they suddenly disappeared once more. Laborers in the fields said they saw them drifting directly up into the sky riding the wind. Their parents wailed in fright, sacrificing to spirits to seek blessings. After a month had passed, they returned, having shaved their heads as nuns and wearing Dharma robes, carrying their hair as they came back. They recounted that they had seen the Buddha and bhikṣuṇīs, who said: 'By past karmic conditions, you ought to be my disciples.' The Buddha raised his hand and stroked their hair, which fell away, and bestowed Dharma names upon them: the elder was named Fayuan, and the younger was named Facai. As he was sending them back, he said: 'You may build a vihāra, and I shall bestow upon you the sūtras and Dharma.' When the girls returned home, they immediately destroyed the spirit altars and erected a vihāra, fasting and chanting by night. In the evenings, there was often a five-colored light floating across the mountain ridges like lamps and torches. The girls said that thereafter their deportment was refined and elegant, their speech and demeanor upright, such that the manners of the capital could not surpass them. The regional inspector Wei Lang came to their village to welcome and make offerings to them, and upon hearing their discourse, he was deeply reverent and amazed. Thereupon, the entire mountain valley came to know and revere the Dharma. (The preceding one is from the Ming xiang ji).