法苑珠林 96.20

96.20

Under the Song, at Zhaoti Temple on Mount Lu, there was Shi Sengyu, whose secular surname was Zhou, a native of Yuhang in Wuxing. In his youth he left the household, and his practice was pure and unadulterated. In the tenth year of Yuanjia, together with his fellow students Tanwen, Huiguang, and others, he built a hermitage on the southern ridge of Mount Lu, naming it Zhaoyin ('Summoning the Recluse'). Yu had always considered that fetters to the three destinies (trividhadurgati) arise because of bodily form. When mental passions are nearly exhausted, the bodily form should also be abandoned. Why should Bhaiṣajyarāja's path be far away? Thereupon, he repeatedly made vows and agreed to burn his body. On the third day of the sixth month in the second year of Xiaojian of the Song, he gathered firewood to form a niche, invited the monastic community to hold a feast, and bid farewell to the assembly. On that day, dense clouds and mist gathered, and a heavy rain poured down. Yu then vowed: 'If my resolve is to succeed, the sky should clear; if there is no sympathetic resonance, let it pour, so that these fourfold assemblies may know that divine response is not obscure.' When he finished speaking, the clouds parted and the sky cleared. At the end of the first watch of the night, he entered the wooden niche, joined his palms, sat upright, and recited the 'Bhaiṣajyarāja Chapter'. Even as the flames surrounded him, his joined palms did not separate. Monastics and laypeople who learned of this came rushing in ever greater numbers; they all bowed their heads in prostration and wished to forge a karmic bond with him. Everyone saw purple vapors rise into the sky, ceasing only after a long time. He was forty-four years old at the time. Fourteen days later, a pair of paulownia trees sprouted in Yu's chamber, their roots and branches lush and equal in size, rising straight up through the soil to become marvelous trees. Those with deep discernment regarded them as the precious sāla trees, distinctly manifesting parinirvāṇa, showing this confirmation because of Yu's attainment. Consequently, he was called the 'Twin Paulownias Śramaṇa'. Zhang Bian of Wujun, serving as Senior Clerk of Pacifying the South, witnessed the event in person and composed a biography and eulogy, saying: