法華傳記 4.48

4.48

Shi Huida was a native of Taiyuan. He recited the Lotus Sūtra more than five thousand times; whether walking or sitting, in all deportment, his voice never ceased. He was especially mindful of the lives of living beings; looking straight ahead with lowered gaze, if there were insects or vermin on the ground, he would turn his body aside to avoid them and did not dare step over them. When someone asked about it, he replied, 'Between them and myself, saṃsāra is uncertain. Might they not attain correct enlightenment before me? How could one rashly slight them?' In the fourth month of the eighth year of the Zhenguan era (634 CE), he sat cross-legged, reciting the Lotus Sūtra, and passed away. People thought he had entered samādhi, and left him for five nights; since it seemed he had departed forever, yet there was no foul decay, they placed him, couch and all, inside a cave.