三寶感應要略錄 3.49

3.49

In Lu commandery there was an orphaned girl who lived on the former grounds of a vihāra. Amid a wheat field she found a piece of rotten wood resembling a sacred image, which she took and placed in her thatched hut. The place in the wheat patch from which the rotten image came grew lush and flourishing. The girl considered this to be the power of the image, and took the best portion of what she ate to make offerings to it. Later she fell ill and died, but after a day and a night she revived. She donated her house and land to the vihāra, and with her own flesh and eyes [in mind] had an image of Avalokiteśvara made, weeping as she made offerings to it. People found this strange and asked the reason. The girl answered: “When I died, I saw two men gather me onto a fire-cart and bear me away. Suddenly there was a śramaṇa whose five limbs were damaged. He said to the men holding the cart, ‘I will take this person's place; she is my dānapati.’ The men holding the cart placed the cart on the ground, joined their palms, and said: ‘Mahāsattva, please spare us; we cannot fathom the king’s sincerity, so we must release this woman.’ Thereupon the śramaṇa mounted the fire-cart, and [another] śramaṇa brought me back home. At that time I said to the śramaṇa, ‘Master, who are you that saves me?’ He answered, ‘I am Avalokiteśvara. Do you not recognize that the rotten wood in the wheat field is my image?’ and so forth. Having seen this benefit, I simply did not begrudge my fields and house.”