丹墀雙鐵樹開花

庚午九十一歲。所有一切就緒。春戒期。請文質和尚為羯磨。講梵網經時。方丈室前丹墀中。兩株鐵樹盛開花朵。據傳此樹。乃閩王與聖箭祖師各手植一株。甚難生長。千年始開華一次。以彰其瑞。公有偈誌。優曇缽羅非凡品云云。

宣化偈曰：

菩薩演法眾護持。放光現瑞正及時。
空中傳報龍天讚。鐵樹開華世稀奇。

Witnessing a pair of cycad trees blooming in the courtyard

At ninety-one years of age in 1930, the Master continued to transmit the precepts in the spring as he had done every year. He requested the Venerable Master Wen Chih to be the Karmadana, While he was lecturing the Brahmajala (Brahma Net) Sutra, two feathery palm trees in the courtyard in front of the Abbot's quarters bloomed with many lush blossoms. Tradition states that both the king of the state of Min and Patriarch Sheng Chien (Sagely Arrow) had each planted one of the trees. Their growth had been very slow, for it normally takes that kind of tree one thousand years to bloom. Because of the auspiciousness of the event, the Master wrote a verse, one line of which says:

Udumbara flowers are not at all a common sight.

The gatha says:
The Bodhisattva proclaims the Dharma; the masses protect and maintain it.
An auspicious appearance emitting light - the time for it was ripe.
The news was communicated in the sky; the dragons and gods praised it.
The cycad trees bloomed with flowers - strange and rare indeed!