三寶感應要略錄 2.136

2.136

In Jiangzhou, there was Mount Gu. During the Yonghui era, there were two monks living in the same quarter. One was named Sengxing, who practiced the Three Stages Buddhist teaching. The second was named Sengfa, who practiced the Lotus Samādhi. The two made an agreement: whichever died first would surely tell the other of his whereabouts. Later, Sengxing died first. Three years later, Sengfa prayed to Avalokiteśvara, and in a dream arrived at hell. Fierce flames blazed intensely, so that it could not be approached. Seven layers of iron netting covered it above. Iron doors on all four sides opened and closed very securely. Hundreds of thousands of śramaṇas who had violated the pure precepts and failed to regulate their body and mind were suffering within. He asked: 'Is there a śramaṇa Sengxing here?' A rākṣasa answered: 'There is.' He then said: 'I wish to see him.' The rākṣasa answered: 'He cannot be seen.' He said again: 'We are sons of the Buddha; why do you stubbornly begrudge it?' Immediately, the rākṣasa impaled a piece of charcoal on the tip of a blade and showed it to him. Seeing the black charcoal, Sengfa wept: 'How can a śramaṇa, a disciple of Śākya, suffer like this? I wish to see his former appearance.' The rākṣasa shouted 'Live!', and he appeared just as in life, though his body was burned and decayed. He said to [Seng]fa: 'Are you going to save me from my suffering?' [Seng]fa said: 'How may I save you?' He replied: 'Copy the Lotus Sūtra for me.' [Seng]fa said: 'How should it be copied?' He replied: 'Within a single day, the work must be completed.' [Seng]fa said: 'How could this poor monk finish it in a single day?' He replied, reporting: 'The suffering is unbearable; a single kṣaṇa is hard to endure. Without a single day of fierce and vigorous practice, how can the suffering be brought to an end?' Awakening from the dream, on that very day he gave up his robes, bowl, and implements, and employed forty scribes to copy it in a single day, making offerings and prostrations to it. That night, he dreamed that Sengxing had left the suffering of hell and had been born nearby in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven.