大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 1.94

1.94

任觀察，內貴中賢士，徽廟極眷之。任傾心釋氏，遍參知識，每自嘆息曰：「余幸得為人，而形體不全，及不識所生父母，想前世輕賤於人，招此報應。」遂發誓，遇休沐還私宅，屏絕人事，炷香禮佛，刺血寫《華嚴經》一部，每一字三拜，願來世識所生父母。忽一日有客相訪，任出遲，客怒云：「人客及門，何故不出？」任笑曰：「在家中寫一卷赦書。」客詰其故，任以實對，遂取經示之云：「此是閻老子面前，喫鐵棒吞鐵丸底赦書。」客悚然驚駭，回舍亦自寫一部。

Surveillance Commissioner Ren was a worthy man among the court eunuchs; Emperor Huizong favored him greatly. Ren devoted his mind to the Buddhist teaching and widely studied under good spiritual friends. He would often sigh to himself, saying, “I am fortunate to have obtained human form, yet my physical body is incomplete, and I do not know the parents who gave birth to me; I think that in a previous life I held others in contempt, incurring this retribution.” Thereupon he made a vow that whenever he had leave to return to his private residence, he would shut off human affairs, light incense, pay homage to the Buddha, and prick his own blood to copy an entire fascicle of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, making three prostrations for every single character, wishing to recognize in a future life the parents who gave birth to him. Suddenly, one day a guest came to visit him, and Ren was late coming out. The guest said angrily, “A guest has arrived at your door, why do you not come out?” Ren smiled and said, “I was at home writing a scroll of pardon.” The guest asked him the reason, and Ren replied with the truth, and then fetched the sūtra to show him, saying, “This is a scroll of pardon for eating iron rods and swallowing iron balls before Old Man Yama.” The guest was awestruck and alarmed; returning to his lodge, he also copied a fascicle himself.