釋門自鏡錄 2.23

2.23

Shi Daoyuan: it is not known what kind of man he was. He resided at Xue Monastery in Liangzhou. By nature loose and unrestrained, he did not cultivate minor rules of deportment, indulging himself in attending drinking banquets. In the third year of Wuping, he suddenly dreamed of a great man who gnashed his teeth and rebuked him: 'You are a renunciant, yet your face and appearance are like this! Hastily indulging in wrongdoing, why do you not take a mirror to look at yourself?' Daoyuan awakened in alarm, sweating profusely. At dawn, looking at his reflection in a basin of water, he saw black spots beside his eyes. Thinking they were dirt, he washed and wiped them, and his eyebrows fell out. Thereupon he repented and reproached himself, reflecting on this calamity and punishment. He completely reformed his habitual ways, changing his appearance and altering his resolve: wearing tattered robes and broken sandals, taking one meal a day, maintaining the long fast, and strictly upholding the vinaya rules. In the dusk and dawn he practiced repentance, his tears flowing incessantly. After more than a month, he again dreamed of the former person, who smiled and said: 'To know one's fault and be able to reform is wisdom indeed. I pardon your former offense; do not continue it again.' Daoyuan awakened in startled joy, sweat covering his whole body. His face became moist and lustrous, and his eyebrows gradually grew out. Daoyuan, having repeatedly met with retribution, truly knew the three times of existence, and dedicated his whole heart to venerating the Dharma, becoming a monk of disciplined practice.