律相感通傳 1.48

1.48

He replied, "In the time of Kāśyapa Buddha, there was a bodhisattva named Libin who saw that the people of this land did not believe in karmic retribution and engaged in slaughter. At that time, in the place where he dwelt, there were tens of thousands of households that did not esteem the Buddha's Dharma. To save them, the bodhisattva founded a saṅghārāma for them, and Great Brahma Heavenly King crafted the body of the image with his own hands. After it was initially completed, the bodhisattva's spiritual power could make this image indistinguishable from a true Buddha, walking about and preaching the Dharma to instruct and transform the people. Although receiving this guidance, they still did not believe and accept it. The bodhisattva then displayed an act of terror: lifting a great rock in his hand roughly the size of the village, he threatened to crush them beneath it. The bodhisattva pretended to be fearful and exhorted them to transform; the people thereupon suddenly had a change of heart and came to have faith and reverence for the Buddha. All their slaughtering tools transformed into lotus flowers, and throughout every street and lane, flowers bloomed as if planted; only then did the auspicious image withdraw its spiritual powers. The bodhisattva also exhorted the laymen and laywomen to build seven monasteries, spanning one hundred and four li north to south and eighty li east to west, filling the mountains and extending across the valleys, with monastic quarters and Buddha halls everywhere. Only after thirteen years was it completed. At that time, twenty thousand people went forth as renunciants and lived in the seven monasteries for three hundred years. Because the power of their present karma was great, the evil deeds they had done previously were experienced lightly in that lifetime without falling into hell. But those previously harmed by them, who were in the evil destinies, made an evil vow: 'Those who harmed us—before they achieve sainthood, we shall harm them; if we do not inflict harm upon them, their evil karma will be exhausted and we will have no way to exact retribution!' Together they spat forth great fire, burning down the monasteries and dwellings, and the villages were simultaneously incinerated. Even if any managed to escape with their lives, they were drowned and killed by logs and water, leaving not a single survivor. At that time, before the monasteries were destroyed, the mountain deity took up this image and held it far away in the air. After the monasteries were destroyed, he placed it inside a stone chamber to make offerings. After many months and years had passed, the stone grew and the chamber vanished, until Liu Sahe bowed to the mountain and revealed the image. That Sahe was in his previous life originally the bodhisattva Libin. As for his body and head being in separate places, that involves other circumstances."