往生西方淨土瑞應傳 1.41

1.41

The monk Fazhi lived on Mount Tiantai and took buddhamanasikāra as his practice. By nature he was mostly coarse and hasty, unconstrained by vinaya deportment. People would constantly say to him, “Committing a duṣkṛta offense brings nine hundred years in hell.” Immediately upon hearing the sūtras state that a single invocation of Amitābha Buddha eradicates the grave sins of birth and death of eighty koṭis of kalpas, he believed it, and day and night practiced buddhamanasikāra at the Tuṣita Terrace of Guoqing Monastery. The people of the time did not believe him. Suddenly, he bid farewell everywhere to monastics and laity: “I wish to attain rebirth.” He had relatives and acquaintances arrange a single day's vegetarian feast. When the midpoint of the night arrived, he died without illness. A golden radiance illuminated several hundred li. Wild pheasants cried out in fright, and boatmen on the river thought that dawn had broken.