宋高僧傳 19.16

19.16

釋如一，不知何許人也。開元末為僧，典床座。俄有僧遍身瘡疥，衣服襤縷，巡遶寺中。僧眾覩之，無不厭惡。唯一見而憫焉，延入常住別堂，安置度夏。夏末辭去，一問：「去何所？」答曰：「歸庵中。」又問：「庵在何也？」「只在大乘寺東。」一曰：「某日前方自彼來，勿見庵處。」曰：「不信，但來相訪。」「某兩日後專來。」一遂往，果見前僧在巖口相候，因携手入一精舍，樓閣森聳，殿堂交錯，且非人間景物。三日遣一公下山——迴首見悉是巖石，方知聖寺耳。一由是倍力修進，願預聖流云。

Śramaṇa Ruyi was a man of unknown origin. At the end of the Kaiyuan era (713–741) he became a monk and was in charge of bedding and seats. Suddenly, a monk covered all over with sores and scabs, clad in tattered garments, came circumambulating the monastery. When the assembly saw him, none failed to feel disgust. Only Ruyi felt compassion upon seeing him, invited him into a separate hall of the permanent monastery, and settled him there to pass the summer retreat. At the end of the summer, the guest monk bid farewell to leave. Ruyi asked, "Where are you going?" He replied, "Returning to my hermitage." Ruyi asked again, "Where is the hermitage?" He said, "Just east of Dacheng Temple." Ruyi said, "I came from there just the other day, and saw no trace of any hermitage." The monk said, "If you do not believe it, simply come visit me." Ruyi said, "I will come specifically in two days." Ruyi then went, and indeed found the former monk awaiting him at the mouth of a cliff. Taking him by the hand, they entered a monastery where multistoried pavilions loomed high and halls and chambers intersected, not at all a scenery of the human realm. After three days, the monk sent Ruyi down the mountain—when Ruyi looked back, everything was merely bare cliff and rock, and only then did he realize it was a monastery of holy beings. From this, Ruyi redoubled his efforts in spiritual cultivation, aspiring to join the holy ranks.