18. Tao-shou
[OMITTED]
The nun Tao-shou (Longevity of the Way) of Jeta Grove Convent
in Chiang-ling
No one knows where Tao-shou's family originally came from. Of pure
and gentle character, she was commended for her reverence and filial
piety. When she was yet a child, she accepted the five fundamental
precepts of a Buddhist householder, and not once did she commit an
offence against them.
In the yüan-chia reign period (424-453) of Sung, Tao-shou was in
mourning for her father, and as a result she grieved herself sick but felt
no pain or discomfort. For several years she remained sickly and skeletal,
not responding to any medical treatment. Therefore she vowed
that, if she were cured, she would leave the household life to become a
nun. After making the vow she gradually recovered, and in fulfillment
of her vow she left the household life and became a nun in Jeta Grove
Convent, where her practice of austerities was unequaled.[34] She
chanted the Flower of the Law Scripture three thousand times and frequently
saw glorious omens.[35] For example, in the middle of the night
on the seventh day, ninth month, of the sixteenth year of the yüan-chia
reign period (439), a jeweled canopy [such as the kind placed over
images of the Buddha] descended and hovered over her.[36]
[34]
This convent is named after the Jeta Grove given to the Buddha by a
wealthy devotee to use as the site of a monastery.
[35]
Chanted the Flower of the Law three thousand times. Kumārajīva's version
in the Taishō edition has sixty-two pages, and Chu Fa-hu's seventy. Considering
the length of the text, it could have taken her eight years, nonstop,
one second per word to chant the Flower of the Law three thousand times.
[36]
This suggests that she was to be compared with the Buddha.
