法苑珠林 47.41

47.41

齊梁州薛河寺釋僧遠。不知何許人。為性疏誕不修細行。好逐流宕歡宴為任。以齊武平五年。夢見大人。𪙑齒責之曰。汝是出家人。面目如此。蓬縱造惡。何不取鏡自照。遠忽覺驚悸流汗。至曉以盆水自照。乃見眼邊烏點。謂是垢污便洗拭之。眉毛一時隨手落盡。因自咎責。奈此殃譴。遂改常習返形易性。弊衣破履一食長齋。遵奉律儀。昏曉行悔。悲淚交注。經一月日。又夢前人。含笑謂曰。知過能改。是謂智人。赦汝前愆勿復相續。忽驚喜覺流汗遍身。面目津潤眉毛漸出。遠於一身頻感兩報。信知三世苦樂不虛。自後竭情時不暫怠。鄉川所歸卒於本土。

At Xuehe Temple in Liangzhou under the Northern Qi, there was the Śramaṇa Shi Sengyuan. It is unknown where he was from. By nature he was careless and unrestrained, paying no heed to minor matters of conduct, and was fond of drifting along with the crowd and indulging in revelry. In the fifth year of the Wuping reign period of the Qi, he saw a giant in a dream who gnashed his teeth and scolded him, saying, “You are a person who has gone forth from the household life, yet your face and countenance are like this! With dishevelled hair you commit evils; why do you not take a mirror and look at yourself?” Yuan suddenly awoke, startled and sweating profusely. At dawn, he looked at his reflection in a basin of water and saw black spots beside his eyes. Thinking they were dirt, he washed and wiped them, whereupon his eyebrows all fell out under his hands at once. He blamed and reproached himself, wondering how to bear such a karmic calamity. He thereupon changed his regular habits, altering his appearance and transforming his character. In tattered robes and broken sandals, he maintained a single meal daily in long-term fasting, strictly observed the monastic rules, and performed repentances at dusk and dawn, his sorrowful tears streaming down. After a month had passed, he dreamed of the same person again, who smiled and said to him, “One who knows his transgressions and is able to reform is called a wise man. I forgive your former faults; do not continue them again.” He woke up startled and joyful, his whole body bathed in sweat. His face and eyes grew moist, and his eyebrows gradually regrew. Yuan in a single lifetime repeatedly experienced two retributions; he truly knew that the suffering and joy of the three periods of time are not in vain. From then on, he exhausted his devotion without pausing for a single moment. He was revered by his locality, and passed away in his native place.