三寶感應要略錄 3.51

3.51

佛滅度後八百年中。憍薩羅國中。疾疫流行。病死半分。經歷三年。不得免難。王臣共議。立誓祈請十方世界天上天下有大悲者。必來救護。爾時夢見。聖像具足十一面。身黃金色。光明照耀。舒手摩王頂言。我以十一面。守護王國。夢覺告臣。王臣人民。一日中造十一面觀音像。一時免難。以是已後一百年中。未遭此難矣。

During the eight hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, an epidemic broke out in the realm of Kosala, and half the population fell ill and died. For three years they could not escape the calamity. The king and ministers conferred together and made a vow, praying to those of great compassion above and below the heavens throughout the worlds of the ten directions to surely come to save and protect them. Then the king saw in a dream a sacred image endowed with eleven faces, its body golden in color and radiating brilliant light. Reaching out a hand, it stroked the king's crown and said: “With my eleven faces, I shall guard and protect the royal realm.” Waking from the dream, he informed his ministers. In a single day, the king, ministers, and people made an image of Eleven-Headed Avalokiteśvara, and all at once were spared the calamity. For one hundred years thereafter, they never encountered such a disaster.