三寶感應要略錄 2.13

2.13

A man of the capital surnamed Wang, whose given name is lost (another record gives his name as Dingzang), had no practice of the precepts and had never cultivated good. In the first year of the Wenming era [684], he died due to an illness. Two men led him to the gate of hell. Wang originally served Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, and he saw a monk who said he was Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha. He then taught Wang to recite a one-line verse, the text of which ran: / 'If one wishes to fully know / all the Buddhas of the three times, / one should contemplate thus: / mind creates all the Tathāgatas.' / The bodhisattva said: 'Being able to recite this can overturn hell.' Wang recited it completely, and thereupon entered to see King Yama. The king asked, 'What merit does this person possess?' The reply was, 'He upholds only a single four-line verse, fully as recorded above.' The king then pardoned and released Wang. When he recited this verse, all those undergoing suffering within reach of his voice gained liberation. Wang revived after three days and merely told this to the various śramaṇas (the so-called single verse is the text from the chapter on the clouds of immeasurable bodhisattvas gathering to preach the Dharma in the Yama Heavenly Palace, in the twelfth fascicle of the Avataṃsaka).