法苑珠林 28.43

28.43

the Emperor, who had him brought into the inner palace and paid him reverent homage. The entire palace took refuge in him and asked to receive the precepts. In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, without any illness or suffering, he gave parting instructions to his disciples, charging them to uphold and practice the Dharma he had lived by. Having finished speaking, he sat cross-legged as usual and passed away at Yishan Temple in the southern suburbs, at the age of eighty-four. When he was about to expire, a pair of birds suddenly flew into his room, chirping with sharp and mournful grief. He was thereupon conveyed in a seated posture to the northern plateau of Fanchuan, where a cave was excavated to place him. The clergy and laity of the capital together grieved and donned mourning clothes; people and horses stretched across the countryside, their wailing shaking the earth. The colour of his flesh remained unchanged, growing all the more fresh after a month; he remained seated upright for three weeks, his dried skeleton not falling apart. From his death until now, a wondrous fragrance has constantly emanated around his corpse, smelled by all who go there. His fellow students and disciples, fearing violation from outside, hid it within a niche so they would not fear theft from without. On auspicious days, the four assemblies attend offerings in overflowing numbers. (The above eight verifications are from the Tang Biographies of Eminent Monks.)