集神州三寶感通錄 1.19

1.19

At Wangzhuang Village in Huayang Township, Qishan County, Qi Prefecture, there was a man named Tuo Xuansi. He was by nature coarse and unruly, lacking all faith. When his mother and elder brother heard that the śarīra had arrived from the Eastern Capital and was about to be entombed and sealed, Xuansi would not allow them to go. His mother and brother disregarded his words; they went to the site of the śarīra, paid reverence, and returned home. Xuansi said angrily: "What merit can there be in this? If the śarīra has merit, the Buddha image in our home must also have merit." He immediately took the image to burn it, [saying]: "What numinous efficacy does it have?" His mother and brother rushed to save it, but the lower half had already burned. At that very moment, Xuansi collapsed. When he later awoke, he said: "I suddenly came to a place resembling hell; large birds flew down to peck out my eyes and eat my flesh, and I fell into a great fire pit, suffering agonizing burns. When I stroked my face with my hand, my eyebrows and whiskers fell off; when I looked at heaven and earth, there was no brightness at all." His relatives watching by his side said: "You committed this sin yourself; no one can take your place." Xuansi's consciousness could not respond to others; he only said: "Fire is burning my heart!" and ran wildly to and fro. He also appeared as if being beaten, weeping in anguish and distress, and kept crying: "I repent! I repent!" running day and night without ever being able to stop. On the thirteenth day of the second month, his relatives brought him to the stūpa site. At that time, more than a hundred monks, including the Great Worthy Dharma Master Xingqian of the capital, were preaching the Dharma to the assembly. Palace Attendant Pei, several hundred bhikṣuṇīs, and five to six thousand laypeople all saw Xuansi cast his five limbs to the ground before the śarīra, weeping and lamenting to repent for his sin of disbelief, as well as repenting for violating nuns' pure conduct, beating and cursing monks, and stealing and eating monastic fruit. After he repented, his sleep and dreams gradually became peaceful, so it is said. As for that Buddha uṣṇīṣa bone, the state ransomed it with precious treasures, calculating the treasures at an estimated value of four thousand bolts of silk; they then paid for it in raw silk matching that amount. The uṣṇīṣa bone is said to remain inside the palace to this day.