釋門自鏡錄 2.58

2.58

玄𮗿俗姓王。長安人也。幼入緇門。少參流俗。雖霑法雨。不萌焦種。曾為眾差充同州莊直歲。乃弗思業累。暢此無厭。私用眾胡麻三十碩大豆二十碩。既苞藏積歲。莫知陳懺。至永昌年中。忽遇苦患。自見身在火坑中。又有大蛇欲來吞噉。身色紅赤。兩脚焦爛。宛轉號叫。酷毒難聞。僧眾見之。毛竪流汗。中少醒。即遣傍守一人代書。并召引寺僧景先。先時身在。𮗿已見先在火坑內。𮗿罄割衣資克己陳懺。經二十日。乃見冥官將五六百人器仗來取。𮗿但知叩頭叩頭於是而卒。于時華嚴法師在中講說。道俗數百咸悉知之。

Xuanzhe's secular surname was Wang; he was a native of Chang'an. In his youth he entered the monastic order, but was lightly engaged in secular pursuits. Though touched by the Dharma rain, the charred seed did not sprout. Once dispatched by the assembly to serve as annual prefect of an estate in Tongzhou, he did not consider the burden of karma and indulged his insatiable greed, misappropriating thirty shi of the assembly's sesame and twenty shi of large soybeans. Having concealed this for years, he never confessed or repented. In the Yongchang reign era, he suddenly fell gravely ill, seeing himself in a pit of fire, with a great serpent coming to swallow him. His body was fiery red and his two feet charred and rotten; he rolled about screaming, his agony dreadful to hear. The monastic assembly saw it, their hair standing on end and sweat pouring. When he briefly regained consciousness, he had someone standing by write on his behalf, and summoned Jingxian, a monk of the monastery. Jingxian was alive at the time, but Xuanzhe had already seen him inside the pit of fire. Xuanzhe gave up all his robes and goods, exerting himself in confession and repentance. After twenty days, he saw an underworld official leading five to six hundred men with weapons coming to take him. Xuanzhe could only kowtow repeatedly, and thereupon died. At that time, Dharma Master Huayan was lecturing within the monastery; several hundred monastics and laity all witnessed it.