弘贊法華傳 8.20

8.20

Śramaṇa Xuanzhen, whose secular surname was Ping, was originally a man of Shouchun. He went forth from home at an early age, traveled to the region of Yangzhou, and lived at Yongfu Monastery. He recited the complete Lotus Sūtra without ever slacking or pausing. Once on an autumn moonlit night, while upholding and reciting this scripture and having reached halfway through the seventh fascicle, a monk in an adjacent room suddenly got up to go to the privy. He saw the form of a giant man in the courtyard. Turning his head to look in all four directions, he saw a spirit standing firmly in the sky. This monk stood still, gazing up in reverence, without moving another step. After a long while, when the text of the scripture came to an end, the spirit suddenly disappeared. From then on, that monk learned to recite and uphold it, never slacking for the rest of his life.