法苑珠林 97.59

97.59

In the Jin dynasty, in Luoyang, there was Shi Heluojie, originally a native of Xiangyang. Having left home [for the monastic life] in his youth, he could recite two million words of the scriptures. He was by nature unattached and profound, observant of the precepts and moral discipline, graceful in his conduct, and of handsome appearance. He practiced dhūta austerities extensively, sleeping alone in mountains and wilderness. In the ninth year of the Taikang reign period of Emperor Wu of the Jin, he made a brief visit to Luoyang. At that time an epidemic was raging severely; everyone he incanted over was cured. In the first year of the Yuankang reign period of Emperor Hui of the Jin, he entered and dwelt in a stone chamber on Mount Louzhi to practice dhyāna. Because this chamber was far from water, the people of that time wanted to excavate a mountain stream for him. Heluojie said: 'There is no need to trouble yourselves.' He then rose, and with his left foot stomped against the western stone wall of the chamber; the wall sank in, submerging his toes. Once he pulled his foot out, water issued forth from within, pure, fragrant, sweet, and delicious, never failing through the four seasons. All who came to drink from it had their hunger and thirst stopped and their diseases eliminated. In the eighth year of the Yuankang reign period, he sat upright and passed away. His disciples cremated him according to the customs of the realm. Though the pyre burned for several days, his corpse still sat amid the flames, never turning to ash. Thereupon they moved it back inside the chamber. Later, a man from the Western Regions named Zhu Ding, styled Anshi, traveled to that land during the Xianhe reign period of the Jin, and went in person to look, seeing the corpse sitting upright and composed, though he had passed away more than thirty years earlier. Ding later arrived at the capital and transmitted this to the monastics and the laity.