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Lotus Sutra Stories
S027Peace & Well-being

Lady Shen: Listening Steadily within the Household

Person:Lady Shen

Period:Southern Song, early Shaoxing era (Mingzhou)

Early Shaoxing era of the Southern Song; the entry is associated with Mingzhou.

Reading preferences

以下依所列原典轉述;神異內容均為原書所載。

故事

《法華經顯應錄》說,紹興初年,伍家有一位姓沈的新婦。她的婆婆每天早上誦《法華經》,她謹慎侍奉;只要展卷,便來聽受,有時一兩品,有時一卷,久久不厭倦。

這段並沒有說沈氏自己已能通部背誦,也沒有說她是僧尼。書中留下的受持方式,是在家庭生活裡持續聽聞,而不是一定要先具備讀寫能力或大量功課。

後來她患病,對婆婆說,因婆婆誦經,自己得以聽聞;如今世間因緣將盡,不能繼續侍奉,希望他世在諸佛會中相見。她並留下一頌。原書接著記她跏趺而逝,婆婆向天童宏智禪師敘述其事,禪師讚喜,並把自己的龕給了她;火化後,又有骨中堅固子的感應記載。

「他世諸佛會中相見」是原文的願語,未指定西方極樂。本稿保留聽經、親屬互動與告別的脈絡,也讓臨終與舍利敘事維持原書所報告的性質,不加上未載的往生判定。

編者省思(非原典)

共同聽一小段經文、讓家人自由選擇是否參與,可以是今天的延伸思考。原書記的是婆媳間的個別故事,不是要求家庭成員必須共同修持的規範。

Samantabhadra's Exhortation: Four Dharmas for Obtaining the Sutra — Read story

Samantabhadra's Exhortation: Four Dharmas for Obtaining the Sutra

Samantabhadra Bodhisattva; Śākyamuni BuddhaWithin the Lotus Sutra narrative (the assembly on Vulture Peak)

In the sutra's final chapter, Samantabhadra arrives from the eastern realm of the Buddha Jewel-Majesty-Virtue-Sovereign-King to ask how beings will obtain the sutra after the Tathāgata's passing. The Buddha names four dharmas; Samantabhadra then vows to protect upholders of the sutra in the later evil age, manifesting mounted on his six-tusked white elephant, and teaching back any line or verse they forget.

Peace & Well-beingScriptural narrativeDraft translation1 primary witness
Kumārajīva: The Translator Whose Tongue Did Not Burn — Read story

Kumārajīva: The Translator Whose Tongue Did Not Burn

KumārajīvaEastern Jin / Later Qin (344–413)

The Kuchean monk Kumārajīva, invited to Chang'an by Yao Xing, translated the Lotus Sutra at Caotang Monastery. Before dying he vowed that if his translations were without error, his tongue would remain unburnt after cremation — and so it proved. Both response-compilations used by this site open with him.

Peace & Well-beingDraft translation2 primary witnesses
Master Fatai: The Sutra That Fell into the River and Did Not Get Wet — Read story

Master Fatai: The Sutra That Fell into the River and Did Not Get Wet

FataiSui dynasty (Meizhou)

Fatai of Meizhou in Sui times constantly recited the Lotus Sutra and copied it out by hand. Sent to Yizhou for mounting, the scroll fell from the Zao bridge into the water and could not be found; he wept and searched along the bank — then saw a bundle on a small islet. It was the sutra, held up by grass and branches, without a single wet spot. Mounted with sandalwood rollers and returned, it filled the room each night with uncanny fragrance. Master Biao, visiting his recitation hall at night, saw a crowd kneeling with palms joined — and withdrew in a sweat.

Peace & Well-beingDraft translation2 primary witnesses
The Monk Fada: 'When the Mind Awakens, It Turns the Lotus Sutra' — Read story

The Monk Fada: 'When the Mind Awakens, It Turns the Lotus Sutra'

Fada; the Sixth Patriarch HuinengTang dynasty (Caoxi)

Fada of Hongzhou left home at seven and spent his life reciting the Lotus Sutra. Visiting the Sixth Patriarch at Caoxi, he was asked what the sutra's purport was; told to unfold and read it, he had barely begun the Parable chapter when the Patriarch stopped him, expounded the 'one great matter' as the Buddha's insight — 'your own mind itself, nothing else besides' — and gave the verse 'when the mind is deluded it is turned by the Lotus Sutra; when the mind awakens, it turns the Lotus Sutra'. Fada wept, awakened, and confessed: 'Three thousand recitations of the sutra — undone by one sentence at Caoxi.'

Peace & Well-beingDraft translation1 primary witness