弘贊法華傳 9.13

9.13

There was an old monk whose name is lost. He lived at Shibishan Temple in Bingzhou, practicing dhyāna contemplation as his vocation. At the end of the Zhenguan era, there were two young pigeon chicks upon the pillars of his room. The old master always fed them with leftover food. Later, though they gradually grew larger, their feathers and wings were not yet fully formed. They attempted to learn to fly together, and both fell to the ground and died. The monk accordingly gathered and buried them. More than ten days later, the monk dreamt at night of two young boys who told him: 'Because we previously incurred a minor offense, we underwent rebirth in pigeon bodies. Recently, hearing the master read the Lotus Sūtra and the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā, we were able to receive human bodies. We are now being conceived as boys in the household of so-and-so in a certain village more than ten li beside this temple. After ten months, we shall be born.' The monk then, following the appointed time, went to observe, and saw that a woman of this household had given birth to twin boys. Thereupon he held a full-month vegetarian feast. The monk called to the two infants, saying: 'Pigeon boys!' Both boys responded together, saying, 'Yes!' After that single response, it was more than a year before they began to speak.