大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 1.94

1.94

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.