法苑珠林 62.84

62.84

The śramaṇa Zhizang of Kaishan Temple on Mount Zhong in the Liang had the secular surname Gu and was a native of Wu in Wu Commandery. There was a rustic old woman skilled in physiognomy who predicted good and ill fortune for people, failing not once in a hundred times. She said to Zhizang, 'The Dharma Master's intelligence and eloquence surpass the world, and his fame spreads across the empire. The only pity is that your life is not long; you may only reach thirty-one.' At that time, he was twenty-nine years old. Hearing of this brief retribution, he immediately halted his lectures and explanations, and devoted all his sincerity to cultivating the Path. He made a great vow not to go out of the temple gates. He then searched the canon, obtained the Diamond Prajñā Sūtra, and upheld, read, and recited it, dedicating his life to serving it. When he reached the late year of his predicted misfortune, he bathed with fragrant water and recited the sūtra in a pure room to await the arrival of death. Presently, he heard a voice in the room say, 'Good son, your thirty-first year was the period when your retribution was to end. By the power of the Prajñā Sūtra, your lifespan has been doubled.' Later, Zhizang left the mountains and went to test the previous physiognomist. She was greatly shocked, stood up, and said, 'For what reason are you still in this world? Previously I saw the marks of a short lifespan, but this year there are none at all. Śramaṇas truly cannot be physiognomised!' Zhizang asked, 'How long can I reach now?' She replied, 'Your appearance shows a noble mark of the Dharma; your age will be sixty and more.' Zhizang said, 'Fifty years of life would already not be dying young; how much more to exceed it!' He then told her the reason. The physiognomist was delighted and reverently convinced. Later, she predicted the end of his lifespan. Thereupon, monastics and laypeople in the Jiangzuo region vied to recite this sūtra, and many experienced auspicious signs; these sympathetic resonances were opened through Zhizang. On the fifteenth day of the ninth month in the third year of the Putong reign era, he passed away at his home temple, at the age of sixty-five. (The two proofs above are from the Liang Biographies of Eminent Monks.)