神僧傳 5.8

5.8

Shi Daoshun—it is not known where he came from. He resided quietly among forests and springs, shielding the Way and living in seclusion. His speech was always smiling, and his discourse was lofty and pure. He once stayed at Mount Yangtou in Zezhou, the place where Shennong determined medicinal herbs, where he built a thatched hut. He kept no other stores, ate only one meal a day, and sat constantly all year round. He moved snakes and mice to live together beneath his rope chair, each bearing and nurturing their young without harming or disturbing each other. Tigers also came to crouch beside him, and he would preach the Dharma to them. When someone came to stay, he would tell the tiger to leave, or say to it: 'People will come tomorrow; you need not come.' Exactly as Shun said, the tiger would not appear. The attendant lived together with the tigers, treating them as familiarly as domestic dogs without ever fearing them. Shun wore tattered rags, virtually without worth, and walked barefoot through forests and wilderness regardless of morning or evening. In the beginning of the Kaihuang reign-period, he suddenly visited settlements to preach the Dharma and convert the villagers; they all gathered in great numbers to receive the teachings. Only to one woman did he refuse to confer the precepts, telling her: 'You are destined to be reborn among cattle, and the sign has already appeared. The precepts cannot save you; only if your karma were indeterminate could I rescue you.' At the time, some disbelieved his words, considering him to be deluding the multitude, and all doubted. Shun, wishing to resolve the matter for the assembly, said to them: 'Those who do not believe, try stepping on her cow tail's karmic shadow, and she surely will be unable to stand up.' He then stepped with his foot on the empty ground behind the woman's skirt, saying: 'This is the tail's shadow.' The woman tried to stand up as bade, but could not. The multitude was astonished and believed. They asked Shun: 'How can this karmic retribution be eliminated?' That woman's family had accumulated tens of thousands of piculs of grain; terrified of the bad karma, she renounced it all at once. Shun used it all to cultivate merit on her behalf and had her repent. Only after repeatedly doing so, when the bad karma was overcome, did he confer the precepts upon her. At times he stayed in leper villages and accepted alms from lepers. Seeing those with running sores oozing pus, he would put his mouth to them and suck them clean, harboring no revulsion in his heart. Sometimes he washed their clothes, or purified their mental karma, taking this as his personal duty; he did so with joy, never once knitting his brows. Later he roamed around Honggu in Linlü, and went north to Mount Jin, Panting, and other mountains, practicing Chan meditation in hidden monasteries. Where he ended his life is unknown.