法苑珠林 14.41

14.41

At the beginning of the second year of Longshuo, the Emperor again ordered Huize to go to Bingzhou to requisition corvée labor and wealth to repair the old temples. Ze, together with the assistant magistrate of Wutai and leading more than twenty people, went straight to the Central Terrace, where they saw a stone image on the edge of the cliff waving its body and hands. When they reached the image's location, it was merely a square stone. Sorrowfully reproaching himself for not having beheld the true body, he was filled with lamentation for a long time. He ordered the laborers to repair the two stūpas along with the image of Mañjuśrī. Lingering beside the stūpas, he suddenly heard the striking of a bell resounding between the stūpas, beaten continuously without cessation. He also repeatedly smelled a fragrant, unusual scent wafting in. Monastics and laypeople all marveled and sighed that this was unprecedented. He then went to the Western Terrace, and from afar he saw a monk riding a horse, galloping very swiftly eastward up the mountain. Ze and the others stood waiting for him to arrive, but after a long time he did not reach them. When they went forward to meet him, he transformed into a dead tree stump. Their regrets were endless. Thus, although the sympathetic resonance of images and marks is at times hidden and at times manifest, the sounds and vibrations of the bell are heard continually. This mountain is three hundred li square; its southeastern foot connects with the Northern Sacred Peak (Mount Heng), and its northwestern foot is the Heavenly Pool. Within it are Mount Foguang, Mount Xianhua, the Prince's Stūpa, and six ancient temples. There are the surviving traces and meditation caves of Dhyāna Master Jietuo and Dhyāna Master Sengming; their flesh bodies have not decayed for ten years already, sustained by the power of samādhi, unfathomable to any but sages and worthies.