法苑珠林 36.12

36.12

Liu Chenzhi of the Song was a native of Pei Commandery. He was once in Guangling when he met a śramaṇa, who said to Chenzhi, “You have an aura of illness, but you should not die. You may prepare food worth one or two hundred coins to offer to the saṃgha, and you will avoid this peril.” Chenzhi had never believed in the Dharma, and felt anger and arrogance in his heart. The śramaṇa said, “You ought to be reverent and faithful; do not be angry.” Moving twenty paces away, he suddenly vanished. After seven days, Chenzhi fell ill with a pestilential qi; he was in critical condition and nearly died. On the ninth day, during the daytime, as if in a dream yet not a dream, he saw a five-tiered stūpa resting on his chest, with about twenty monks circumambulating the stūpa and making prostrations. He woke up because of this, and at once obtained great benefit; his illness gradually healed. Later, while residing in the capital, a śramaṇa whom he had never known before suddenly entered his door and said, “You have a karmic connection with the Dharma; why do you not make vigorous progress?” Chenzhi then recounted what he had met previously. The monk replied, “That was Piṇḍola.” Having spoken, he left, and no one knew where he went. In the summer of the seventeenth year of the Yuanjia reign (440 CE), at Guangling, Chenzhi saw from afar numerous banners and canopies in front of the Vihāra of Huiwang, yet there were no statues or images. He hurried over to look, but by the time he reached the gate, they abruptly vanished altogether. (The above one verification is from the Mingxiang ji.)