法苑珠林 35.70

35.70

At Nanjian Temple in the Song capital, there was Shi Daojiong, surnamed Ma, a man of Fufeng. When he first left the household life, he was a disciple of Daoyi. When Yi was ill, he often sent Daojiong and four others to Mount Huo in Henan to gather stalactites. Entering the cave several li, straddling wood to cross water, three men drowned. The torches were also lost. Jiong judged there was no way of deliverance. Jiong habitually recited the Lotus Sūtra; he relied solely on the sincerity of this practice, and also contemplated Guanyin. After a moment, he saw a light like a firefly; chasing it without catching up, he finally succeeded in exiting the cave. Thereupon he advanced in cultivating meditation practice, his moral conduct ever more renewed. He frequently performed the Samantabhadra fasting ritual several times, all having auspicious responses. He either saw a Central Asian monk enter and sit, or saw a man riding a horse arrive; neither exchanged greetings before abruptly disappearing. Later, together with a fellow student, he traveled south to the upper capital to observe the customs. Crossing the river by ice at night, midway the ice broke and three men sank and drowned. Jiong again placed sincere refuge in Guanyin; he then felt as if there were an unstable object beneath his feet, and again saw a red light ahead. Riding the light, he reached the shore. Arriving at the capital, he stayed at Nanjian Temple, constantly taking Pratyutpanna[-samādhi] as his practice. Once, entering meditation in the middle of the night, he suddenly saw four men driving a chariot to his room, calling for him to board. Jiong unconsciously and suddenly saw himself at the Shen Bridge behind the commandery. He saw a man sitting on a folding chair on the road, with several hundred attendants. Seeing Jiong, he arose in surprise and said: 'He is merely a man of meditation!' The man then said to his attendants: 'Just now I merely ordered you to know his location; why did you abruptly trouble and summon the Dharma master?' Thereupon he bowed, took his leave, and had someone send Jiong back. Returning to the temple, he knocked on the gate; only after a long time did it open. Entering the temple, he saw his room was still locked. None of the assembly could fathom it. In the twentieth year of Yuanjia of the Song, Yiqing, King Kang of Linchuan, took him along to Guangling, where he died. (The one proof above comes from the Liang Biographies of Eminent Monks.)