弘贊法華傳 7.27

7.27

Shi Huizhi, whose clan is unknown, was a native of Shixing. From his youth, he had a taste for the Way, diligently listening and practicing, reciting the Lotus Sūtra more than three thousand times in all. At the age of twenty-three, while attending lectures on the vinaya, he suddenly contracted an epidemic illness. After several decades of days, he dreamed that someone led him to a walled compound, painted red and white just like an official residence. Entering the gate, he immediately saw a nobleman, eight or nine chi tall, wearing a crimson-purple robe and a black silk cap; he was said to be King Yama. The king asked, "What virtuous deeds have you performed, Master?" Zhi replied, "Since youth, I have recited the Lotus Sūtra." The king said, "You may recite it." Zhi then found himself ascending a high seat facing west, and recited the second roll of the Lotus Sūtra; when he reached the passage in the "Parable" Chapter, "It is as if an elder had a great mansion...", he stopped. The king promptly rose and said, "Dharma Master, you may return." He ordered two men to escort him; one was surnamed Chen, and the other's name was not remembered. Escorting him out to the roadside, they led Zhi into a bramble thicket, cut Zhi's body into two halves, each held one half, brought them to the riverbank and washed them, and then cast them onto the opposite bank. Thereupon he awoke, and his illness also abated. Within a few days he had recovered as before, and was able to listen to and recite [the teachings]. Moreover, when he was fifty-five, his body again contracted an illness. He suddenly dreamed that he was standing atop the pagoda of Guoxin Temple in Shixing, and someone pushed him down, saying, "I grant you more than eighty years of life." Thereupon he immediately recovered. By the thirteenth year of the Daye reign era (617 CE), he was eighty-two years of age; his end was subsequently unknown.