弘贊法華傳 9.10

9.10

Liu Hongren, when he was eighteen years of age, was a student of the National Directorate. Along with ten of his fellow students, he went to a physiognomist to seek predictions of fortune and misfortune. The physiognomist accurately set down the timing of their wealth, nobility, poverty, and lowliness, as well as the number of years and months of their natural life spans. He said to Hongren, "When you reach the age of fifty-one, you will surely die on the eleventh day of the fourth month of that year." At that time Hongren served as Magistrate of Jiaxing County in Suzhou. The other nine men all met with fortunes and misfortunes without deviation, just as the physiognomist had spoken, and all the fortunes and misfortunes of Hongren from age eighteen onward had been verified. Now he was precisely fifty-one years old. Knowing that he would surely die when the date arrived, on the first day of the fourth month he went to the prefecture to bid farewell to his fellow officials. At that time, Prince Yuanjia of Han was the Prefect of Suzhou. He asked the reason, and Hongren explained the matter in full. The prince instructed him to cultivate merit. When the eighth day of the fourth month arrived, Hongren fell gravely ill. The prince invited monks and nuns from various temples to recite the Lotus Sūtra one thousand times for Hongren. On the eleventh day, the prescribed number of sūtra recitations was completed; the monks further read it another one hundred times for Hongren. Hongren broke out into a profuse sweat, his illness was completely cured, and he recovered to health as normal. Thus we truly know that the power of merit is indeed immeasurable.