神僧傳 1.19

1.19

The monk Kang Falang studied at Zhongshan. During the Yongjia era, he traveled west with a bhikṣu to Tianzhu, crossing over more than a thousand li of the Flowing Sands. Along the road they saw a ruined stupa; no halls or pavilions remained, and mugwort filled their eyes. Falang and his companion went off the road to gaze and pay homage, and saw two monks living separately beside it: one was reciting a sūtra, while the other suffered from dysentery, his room filled with foul filth. The one reciting the sūtra paid him no heed at all. Grieved, Falang and his companion took pity, cooked gruel for him, swept the room, and washed his clothes. On the sixth day, the sick man grew increasingly exhausted, his dysentery pouring out like a spring. Falang and his companion tended to him together. That night, Falang and his companion both thought the patient would certainly not survive until morning. When they went to see him the next dawn, his countenance was radiant and joyful, and his symptoms had vanished completely; moreover, the filth in the room had all turned into fragrant flowers. Falang and his companion then realized that he was an adept who had attained the Way, testing people. The sick man said, 'The bhikṣu in the next room is my upādhyāya; he long ago attained the wisdom of the Way. You may go pay homage to him.' Falang and his companion had previously resented the sūtra-reciting śramaṇa for lacking compassion; hearing this, they bowed in homage and repented their fault. The reciter said, 'Your sincere intentions have both arrived, and you will both enter the Way. Master Lang, your past study and karma are shallow; you will not attain your vow in this life.' He said to Lang's companion, 'Huiruo, your roots are planted deeply; you shall attain your vow in this present life.' He therefore retained him. Falang later returned to the mountains and became a great Dharma master, revered by both clerics and laypeople.