法苑珠林 16.71

16.71

The Song bhikṣuṇī Shi Huiyu was a native of Chang'an. She diligently cultivated religious practice, and was fully conversant with the scriptures and precepts. She once saw a red and white light at the temple of Minister Xue in Chang'an over the course of more than ten days. On the eighth day of the fourth month, a śramaṇa from Liuchong Temple came to visit this temple and, at the place where the light had shone, obtained a golden image of Maitreya, slightly over one foot high. Huiyu later crossed south to Fan and Ying and resided at Lingshou Temple in Jiangling. In the tenth month of the fourteenth year of the Yuanjia era, she saw at night a purple light flaring brilliantly from a tree east of the temple, illuminating the entire grove. She told her fellow students Miaoguang and others, but none of them could see it. For over twenty days, Huiyu saw it constantly. Later, the temple abbot, Shi Fahong, prepared to build a meditation platform beneath the tree; looking up amid the branches, he obtained a seated golden image, also said to be about a foot high. (This one miracle is taken from the Mingxiang ji.)