菜梅开莲兆瑞

公住持云栖寺。备材鸠工。亲操劳役。建筑僧坊。完成后。每年皆传戒法。讲经教。坐禅香。丙寅戒期中。殿前老枯梅树。开白莲花数十朵。前后菜圃中。青菜皆开青莲花。华中皆有化佛。俨然如。我今卢舍那。方坐莲华台。周匝千华上。复现千释迦。

宣化偈曰：

枯梅开莲华。主林神助发。
诸佛来加护。千叶千释迦。

Witnessing the auspicious omen of greens and plum trees blooming with lotuses

As the Abbot of Yun Ch'i (Cloud Abode) Monastery, the Master prepared construction materials, assembled workmen, and himself joined in the painstaking labor of reconstruction. A new monastery was built. Upon its completion, the precepts were transmitted every year, the teachings of the sutras were explained, and there was practice of dhyana meditation. During the precept ceremony of 1926, the old and withered plum trees in front of the main hall blossomed with a large number of white lotus flowers. Throughout the vegetable garden, the greens bloomed into green lotuses. In each of the flowers was a majestic transformational Buddha. re-enacting the following Sutra passage:

Now I, the Buddha Nishyanda, sit here atop the lotus dais.
All around, upon a thousand flowers, appear a thousand Shakyan Lords.

The gatha says:
The withered plum trees bloomed with lotuses
Appearing through the aid of the forest-ruling spirits.
Buddhas came to protect the location.
There were thousands of Shakyamunis upon thousands of lotus petals!