冥報記 1.10

1.10

At the end of the Eastern Wei, some men of Ye went together into the Western Mountains to mine for silver. Before they had all emerged from the cavern, it collapsed. One man was at the back; because stones blocked the opening, he could not get out, but he was uninjured. At the site of the cave-in, there was a small fissure that had not closed, through which a faint trace of sunlight could be seen. This man thought to himself that there was no way he would survive, so he single-mindedly recollected the Buddha. When his father heard that his son had been crushed and there was nowhere to retrieve his corpse, his household was moreover impoverished and lacked the means to cultivate posthumous merit, he carried a bowl of coarse rice to a Buddhist monastery to sponsor a meal for one person. Most of the monks pursued rich offerings, and none was willing to take the meal on his behalf. Carrying the rice, the father wept bitterly. One monk took pity on him and accepted the invitation; when he finished eating, he recited a blessing and then departed. On that day at noon, while the son was in the cave, he suddenly saw a śramaṇa enter through the narrow, lit opening of the fissure, carrying a bowl of rice which he handed to the man. Having eaten it, he was no longer hungry; he merely sat upright in right mindfulness. After more than ten years, Emperor Wen of Qi ascended the throne and built a cool pavilion in the Western Mountains. As the artisans cleared away the collapsed stones, they discovered that the man in the cave was still alive. They brought him out and returned him home. His parents were startled and overjoyed, and [the son] subsequently retired to practice disciplined conduct. (Lu Chengye, Marshal of Yongzhou, related this to me, [Tang] Lin, saying it was transmitted by Jiang, Assistant in the Palace Library.)