法苑珠林 19.72

19.72

Recently in Dengzhou there was a śramaṇa named Daoqin. North of the prefecture, leaning against a mountain cliff, he searched and fully saw [a monastery] as he went around and toured it: it was indeed an inhabited temple with all implements fully provided, but he saw no people. When he went down to search again, he lost the way back. Thereupon he built a hut beside the road. As for those who plan to seek the Baofu Cliff on Mount Jie, southeast of Fenzhou, the mountain-dwelling monks have frequently seen śramaṇas traveling through the air. Furthermore, south of Liangzhou at the Hongya Caves, the stele and temple built by Juqu Mengxun still exist. There is a clay statue of a holy monk that often walks the Way by itself; when people come, it stops, and when people leave, it immediately walks again. Therefore, the footprints beside it are distinctly displayed, but the assembly cannot see it. (The author says: As recorded in the thirty fascicles of the Ming seng zhuan, the fifteen fascicles of the Liang Gaoseng zhuan, the forty fascicles of the Tang Gaoseng zhuan, and the historical biographies of the hundred schools, there were several thousand eminent monks of both ordinary and holy rank whose accumulated merits were extraordinarily distinctive and revered by both clergy and laity. Some have been scattered among various chapters, while others were omitted because the texts were too voluminous; here I have listed a few to show and make known the virtues of the Saṃgha.)