經律異相 37.27

37.27

Formerly there was a person who did not believe in sins and blessings. When he was already fifty years old, he dreamt of a killer ghost coming to take him. Waking up in terror, he sought a master to divine the dream. The master cast the hexagrams and omens, saying, "There is a killer ghost that certainly wishes to harm you within no more than ten days. If you wish to avert this, from now on and during these ten days, receive the Buddha's five precepts, burn incense, light lamps, hang silk banners and canopies, and have faithful devotion toward the Three Jewels; then you may escape this death." He thereupon followed this method with single-minded devotion. When the killer ghost arrived at the door and saw him performing merits, it was unable to harm him. The ghost immediately fled. Because of this, the man lived to the full age of a hundred years, and upon death he was reborn in heaven. (Extracted from the Miscellaneous Sūtra of Parables.)