冥報記 2.8

2.8

監察御史范陽盧文厲。初為雲陽尉。奉使荊州道覆囚。至江南。遇病甚篤。腹脹如石。飲食不下。醫藥不瘳。文厲自謂。必死。無生望。乃專心念觀世音菩薩。經數日。怳惚如睡。忽見一沙門來。自言是觀世音菩薩。語文厲曰。汝能專念。故來救。今當為汝去腹中病。因手執一木把。用將其腹。腹中出穢物三升餘。極臭惡。曰差矣。既而驚寤。身腹坦然。即食能起。而痼疾皆愈。至今甚強。寶與監同為御史。自說云爾。

Lu Wenli of Fanyang, an Investigating Censor, was originally the Defender of Yunyang. While sent on an imperial mission to review prisoners on the Jingzhou Circuit, he arrived in Jiangnan and fell gravely ill: his belly swelled as hard as a stone, he could neither eat nor drink, and medicine brought no cure. Wenli thought to himself that he would surely die with no hope of living, so he single-mindedly meditated on Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. After several days, dazed as if in sleep, he suddenly saw a śramaṇa arrive, who said of himself that he was Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. He said to Wenli, "Because you were able to focus your mind single-mindedly, I have come to save you. Now I shall remove the illness inside your belly for you." Holding a wooden handle in his hand, he used it to scrape his belly; more than three sheng of foul matter came out from his belly, extremely stinking and disgusting. He said, "You are cured!" Thereupon Wenli woke with a start, his body and belly feeling tranquil and at ease. He was immediately able to eat and get up, and his chronic illness was entirely cured; to this day he remains very robust. Bao, who served together with the censor as an investigator, personally recounted this as such.