釋門自鏡錄 1.74

1.74

The monk Zhibao was a native of Hedong. He entered monastic life in his youth and was famed for his moral conduct. His noble achievements and abundant deeds are fully recorded in the biographies of monks. Yet he was by nature unyielding and stern, lacking in kindness and compliancy. When he was about to die, he told his friend Huiman: “I am about to die. But as for my future retribution, my spirit cannot transcend higher; it seems I will become a spirit guarding the monastery and dwell in the Buddha hall of the western courtyard. I have repeatedly applied the Dharma to dispel it, but in the end I cannot be free of it.” Having spoken these words, his breath ceased. From then on, people rarely climbed alone to the Buddha hall of the western courtyard; whenever it had to be opened, everyone shivered with their hair standing on end. More than a hundred days later, an old woman, carrying wine and meat within her clothes, was going to present them to a monk. When she reached the monastery gate, she was suddenly harmed by the spirit: she fell dead upon the ground, and her vessels were scattered. The monastic assembly feared him and knew that his omen had come to pass.