樂邦遺稿 2.45

2.45

The Song Dynasty Biographies of Eminent Monks records: 'The scholar Qi Junzuo of Wu commandery diligently studied to write poetry, and was often in distress while traveling between Wu and Chu. During the Yuanhe era, he passed through Qiantang, intending to beg for food at Tianzhu. When he reached Gushan, he was so hungry that he could not go forward, and so he wept overlooking a stream. Suddenly, an Indian monk looked at him, smiled, and said: "Dharma Master and graduate, have you had your fill of the taste of traveling?" Zuo said: "I have had my fill indeed. Why do you address me as Dharma Master?" The monk said: "Do you not remember lecturing on the Lotus Sūtra at Tongde Temple?" Zuo said: "I do not." The monk then took a date out of his pouch and gave it to him to eat. Zuo thereupon became aware of his past-life events of expounding the sūtra. The monk said: "Of the five of us at that time, only I alone attained deliverance, while you alone have become a frozen and starving scholar." Zuo said: "For over forty years, I have eaten only one meal a day and wrapped my body in coarse hemp; my fortune has not been complete." The monk said: "Because from atop the lion seat you widely expounded divergent errors and caused later students to generate doubts. Your precepts were flawed and your body bent; it is right that the retribution should be so." Having spoken, the monk was seen no more. Zuo then went to Lingyin Temple, left household life to become a monk, and changed his name to Jiankong. Later, he established noble conduct and moral integrity, and died.'