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卷二傳十四廣陵僧果尼
僧果。本姓趙名法祐。汲郡修武人也。宿殖誠信純篤自然。在乳哺時不過中食。父母嘉異。及其成人心唯專到緣礙參差。年二十七方獲出家。師事廣陵慧聰尼。果戒行堅明禪觀清白。每至入定輒移昏曉。綿神淨境形若枯木。淺識之徒或生疑。
及元嘉六年。有外國舶主難提。從師子國載比丘尼來。至宋都住景福寺。後少時問果曰。
此國先來已曾有外國尼未。答曰。未有。又問。先諸尼受戒那得二僧。答但從大僧受。得本事者乃是發起受戒。人心令生殷重是方便耳。
故如大愛道八敬得戒五百釋女以愛道為和上。此其高例。果雖答然心有疑。具諮三藏。
三藏同其解也。又諮曰。重受得不。答曰。戒定慧品從微至著。更受益佳。到十年舶主難提。
復將師子國鐵薩羅等十一尼。至先達諸尼已通宋語。請僧伽跋摩於南林寺壇界。次第重受三百餘人。十八年年三十四矣。時宴坐經日。維那故觸。謂言已死。驚告寺官寺官共視。見果身冷肉強。唯氣息微轉。始欲舁徙。便自開眼語笑尋常。於是愚者駭服。不知所終也
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2.14 (Tsai no.27) Seng-kuo
The nun Seng-kuo (Fruit of the
Sangha) (b. 408) of Kuang-ling
Seng-kuo's secular surname was Chao; her given name
was Fa-yu. Her family was originally from Hsiu-wu in Chi Commandery [in north
China].
Because she had established genuine faith during a
former life, pure devotion was natural to her in her present life, and, even
when she was an infant at breast, she did not transgress the monastic rule of
not eating after mid-day.
Her father and mother both marveled at this. When
Seng-kuo grew up, although she was of one mind about what she wanted to do, the
karmic obstructions were mixed and multiform. Therefore she was twenty-seven
years old before she was able to leave the household life, at which time she
became a disciple of the nun Hui-ts'ung of Kuang-ling [on the north bank of the
Yangtze River northeast of the capital]. Seng-kuo cultivated an intelligent and
solid observance of the monastic regulations, and her meditative practice was
so free from distractions that each time she entered into concentration she
continued thus from dusk to dawn. Stretching in spirit to the pure realm of the
divine, her body stayed behind looking as lifeless as dry wood, but some of her
disciples of shallow understanding were doubtful of her yogic ability.
In the sixth year of the yüan-chia reign period (429), a foreign boat captain
named Nan-t'i brought some Buddhist nuns from Sri Lanka to the capital of the
Sung dynasty.
The Sri Lankan nuns stayed at
Luminous Blessings Convent.
Not long after taking up residence there, they
asked Seng-kuo, "Before we came to this country, had foreign nuns ever been
here?"
She replied, "No, there have not been any."
They asked again, ["If that is the case] how did
the Chinese women who became nuns receive the monastic obligations from both
the Assembly of Monks and the Assembly of Nuns [as they are required to do
according to the rules?]"
Seng-kuo replied, "They received the obligations
only from the Assembly of Monks."
"Those women who went through the ritual of
entering the monastic life began the reception of the monastic obligations.
This reception was an expedient to cause people to
have great respect for the monastic life. Our eminent model for this expedient
is the Buddha's own stepmother, Mahāprajāpatī, who was deemed
to have accepted the full monastic obligation by taking on herself, and
therefore for all women for all time, the eight special prohibitions incumbent
on women wanting to lead the monastic life. [These she accepted from the Buddha
only.] The five hundred women of the Buddha's clan who also left the household
life at the same time as Mahāprajāpatī considered her as
their instructor."
Although Seng-kuo agreed, she herself had a few
doubts [about the validity of the rituals that had been observed in China
regarding women leaving the household life]. Therefore she asked the central
Asian missionary monk Gunavarman [who was an expert on the subject].
He
agreed with her understanding of the situation.
She further inquired of him, "Is it possible to go
through the ritual [of accepting the full monastic obligation] a second
time?"
Gunavarman replied, "[The Buddhist threefold action
of] morality, meditation, and wisdom progresses from the slight to the obvious.
Therefore, receiving the monastic obligations a second time is of greater
benefit than receiving them only once."
[Four years later] in the tenth year (433),
Nan-t'i, the ship captain, brought eleven more nuns from Sri Lanka, including
one named Tessara.
The first
group of nuns, who by this time had become fluent in Chinese, requested the
Indian missionary monk Sanghavarman to preside over the ritual for bestowing
the monastic rules on women at the ceremonial platform in Southern Grove
Monastery.
That day more than
three hundred women accepted once again the full monastic obligation [this time
from both the Assembly of Monks and the Assembly of Nuns].
One time, in the eighteenth year (441), when she
was thirty-four years old, Seng-kuo sat in meditation for a whole day. [Because
she had sat so long and her body was still and lifeless like dry wood] the
administrator of the meditation hall tried to rouse her but could not and
therefore said that she had died.
Alarmed, she summoned the other officers
of the convent who, on examining Seng-kuo, perceived that her body was cold and
stiff. Her breath was so slight as to be unnoticed, and they were on the point
of carrying her away when she opened her eyes and talked and laughed like her
usual self. Thereupon, those foolish ones [who had doubted her] were startled
into accepting her achievements in meditation.
It is not known how or when she died.
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