法苑珠林 17.26

17.26

I, Yan of the Song, was in Jiaozhi during my childhood. In that land was a Master of the Dharma named Xian, a monk of virtue and conduct, who conferred the five precepts upon me and presented me with a golden image of Avalokiteśvara for worship. Its form and make were different from modern ones, nor did it resemble the very ancient sort; it had been cast and engraved during the Yuanjia era with extraordinary craftsmanship, having an appearance of genuine beauty. I took it with me and returned to the capital; at that time I was still a boy losing my milk teeth, and together with my two younger brothers, I was constantly devoted and dedicated without wearying. Later, when repairing and renovating our dilapidated cottage, there was no room to house it, so I deposited it in Nanjian Temple in the capital. At that time, the common people were competing to cast coins, and there were also those who stole and melted down golden images to supply the minting. The image had been at the temple for several months when I took a midday nap and dreamed of seeing it standing at the corner of my seat, which I thought very strange. The sun was already setting, so I immediately galloped off to welcome it back. That night, over ten images in Nanjian Temple were all stolen and lost. Long after that, at dusk the image emitted light, illuminating about three feet of ground; its golden radiance surged forth, brilliant and dazzling to the eye. My brothers and our servants—more than ten people in all—witnessed it together. At that time I was young and did not immediately make a written record; by the time I came to compile this account, I had forgotten the date. It was in the autumn of the seventh year of the Daming era of the Song. By the end of the Taishi era, I moved to Wuyi, and an acquaintance monk temporarily lodged this image at Daobao Temple. I briefly travelled to Jiangdu at that time, while this monk went on to Jingchu, and I did not know where the image was. Nearly ten years passed, and I always feared that the divine treasure had parted from me along with our karmic connection. Toward the end of the Shengming era of the Song, as I travelled and was delayed beyond the Gorges, passing directly through Jiangling, I met this śramaṇa and finally learned the image's whereabouts. That year I returned to the capital and went immediately to Daobao Temple to seek it out. The temple abbot, Master Ai, said: 'There is no such deposited image here.' I withdrew, fearing that this monk had been reckless and that the image would be lost forever, feeling deeply despondent. That night, I dreamed of a person telling me: 'The image is at Daobao Temple; Master Ai has simply forgotten it. I shall find it for you.' I saw him lead me to the temple, open the hall with his own hands, and see the image on the east side of the hall among numerous small images, distinctly and clearly recognizable. At dawn I went to the temple, told Master Ai in full about what I had dreamed, and requested [him to search]. Master Ai then opened the hall for me, and indeed found this image on the east side of the hall, just as seen in the dream. I thus got the image back. It was on the thirteenth day of the seventh month in the first year of the Jianyuan era. The image is now regularly worshipped by me, hoping that it will forever serve as a ferry and bridge. When I restored this matter, I was deeply moved in my heart, and tracing these verifications, I composed this record. Truly, nothing touches human sentiment more closely than holy images; the occurrences of auspicious verifications mostly arise from this. A scripture states: 'Those who cast, carve, paint, and depict resembling forms are thereby able to move and emit light.' Today, the two images of Śākya and Maitreya in the Western Regions manifest radiant efficacy as if miraculous—is it not because they have attained the true likeness? Now in the Huaxia lands, standard representations repeatedly show divine responses; perhaps also the living beings of those years, moved by their karmic conjunctions, availed themselves of wood and stone to manifest the subtle and mysterious, without it having to depend strictly on physical likeness to be so. Thus, sinking stones floating on the deep opened the conversion of Min and Wu; dusted gold liquefying relieved the calamity of Peng and Song. As for the rest of the numerous instructions across diverse regions, though difficult to discuss in detail, in general the great sages have faithfully won allegiance. As for scriptures and stūpas manifesting efficacy, their doctrinal import is also the same; the matter does not follow a different thread, so I append it to the end. (The two verifications above are taken from the Mingxiang ji.)