The Venerable Vighna \u7dad\u7947\u96e3\u5c0a\u8005<\/p>\n
High Sanghan Vighna was from India. His grandfather and father were both externalists who cultivated the worship of fire. Fire for them was the supreme ultimate, and they kept a fire constantly burning in their home, respecting, revering, and worshipping it as one would the Buddha.<\/p>\n
One day a Shramana\u2014a monk\u2014who cultivated dharmas of the Lesser Vehicle and was an expert in the use of extremely efficacious mantras, passed by Vighna\u2019s household at dusk and asked to spend the night. He received permission from Vighna\u2019s father, but because the family cultivated an externalist way, they were reluctant to welcome the Shramana.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are we going to do with him?\u201d they worried. They finally told him, \u201cYou can stay here, but not in the house; you\u2019ll have to sleep outside.\u201d They were taking precautions lest someone try to destroy their religion.<\/p>\n
Applying his spiritual penetrations, the Shramana recited a \u201cfire-extinguishing mantra\u201d and their object of worship, the fire on their altar, died. This alarmed everyone in the family. They knew they had done something wrong. In panic, they rushed outside, and so as to repent, they bowed before the Shramana. He was then invited inside to spend the night.<\/p>\n
Inside, the Shramana recited a \u201cfire-producing mantra,\u201d and the altar fire suddenly reappeared. The family of fire worshippers thought, \u201cThis is strange. We\u2019ve been serving fire for a long time, but we don\u2019t have his spiritual penetrations. It\u2019s miraculous!\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon seeing these awe-inspiring feats which far surpassed those of his family, Vighna believed in the Shramana and wished to leave the home life to follow him and cultivate the Way. His parents, recognizing the power of the Shramana, gave their consent. After he left the home life, Master Vighna concentrated on reading and reciting Sutras. In one day he was able to read and learn to recite from memory twenty or thirty thousand words.<\/p>\n
In the third year of the reign period Huangwu (\u9ec3\u6b66), in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, Master Vighna went to the state of Wu where he studied Chinese\u2014remarkably slowly! Neither he, nor his companion L\u00fc Yan (\u5f8b\u708e), could master the language, but nonetheless, they proceeded to force some translations. How did they do it? They used dictionaries to look up every word. Since they translated in this way, their writing was stilted and cumbersome. They translated many short Buddhist Sutras this way.<\/p>\n
The only existent copies were written out in large characters, and these Sutras were lost when the original copies disintegrated. Nevertheless, the merit of these two Dharma Masters is great. Having previously been followers of an externalist way, they took refuge with the Triple Jewel and translated Sutras at a time when no Chinese translations of Sutras existed. It was much more difficult to translate then, than it is today, when scientific devices help speed the process. Although Master Vighna\u2019s ability with the Chinese language was not very good, he dared to translate, and his courageous efforts should be remembered by all of us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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