法苑珠林 47.41

47.41

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.