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Lotus Sutra Stories
S021Peace & Well-being

Yan Gong: Making Sutra Copies with Care

Person:Yan Gong

Period:Sui (Yangdu)

Sui; a native of Danyang, with a home in Yangdu.

Reading preferences

以下依所列原典轉述;神異內容均為原書所載。

故事

隋代丹陽人嚴恭,全家信奉佛法,平常持誦《法華經》。原書記他讀到〈見寶塔品〉後,盼能見到經中諸佛,夜夢一位自稱法脫的僧人,勸他解說、書寫、流通與供養此經。

嚴恭起初發願造一百部,尚未完成便病重,又增願造千部。書中接著說他病癒,於楊都住宅設立造經堂。取得紙筆時以清淨心為要,不行欺詐;堂中常有十餘位書生,他供給所需,親自檢校,並不以勞苦為辭。

同一條還傳述經款失而復現、異僧贈金、神人資助,以及漂來的經函等感應,並記造經累至三千部。這些是原書對造經事業的宗教性敘述,不能當成已核實的財務或印行統計。

嚴恭後來發願,每個字都經眼、每個字都用心。原書說子孫仍傳承此業,人稱「恭法華」;隋末盜賊相約不入其里,鄉里也因而受益。這段家庭造經故事所留下的,是受持之外,供給、校對及流通的長期工作。

編者省思(非原典)

讀誦、校對與協助他人取得經本,都可能是護持的一部分。今日可從細讀一段、核對一字做起,不必把原書的大數量當成成就高低的衡量。

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