法苑珠林 7.57

7.57

the World-Honoured One, the teacher who liberates human beings.' Before long, he ordered the people in the evil destinies all to come out and listen to the sūtra. At that time, it was said there were one million and nine thousand people who all emerged from the hells and entered a city of a hundred leagues. Those who arrived here were the congregation who honored the Dharma and were seated; though their practice had been deficient and perilous, they were still to attain deliverance, and so the sūtras and teachings were opened for them. Within seven days, according to the greater or lesser amounts of good and bad they had originally done, they were released and freed in graded stages. Before Tai departed, he had already seen a thousand people ascend into the empty sky and leave. Leaving this hall, he saw another city, more than two hundred leagues square, called the City for Receiving Transformed Bodies. Those whose investigations and punishments in the hells were completed were to receive transformed retributions in this city. Tai entered the city and saw several thousand earthen and tiled houses, each with rooms and lanes. Right in the middle was a tiled house with a high couch, balustrades, and painted decorations. There were several hundred bureaus where clerks were cross-checking documents, saying: 'Those who took life shall become dayflies, born in the morning and dead by evening. Those who robbed and stole shall become pigs and sheep, to be slaughtered and sliced by men. Those who were lewd and licentious shall become cranes, ducks, roe deer, and musk deer. Those who indulged in double-tongued speech shall become kites, owls, and horned owls. Those who withheld debts shall become camels, mules, oxen, and horses.' When Tai finished his inspection, he returned to the place of the Water Official. The presiding officer said to Tai, 'You are a gentleman of noble birth; what fault or transgression brought you here?' Tai replied, 'My grandfather and brothers were all of the two-thousand-bushel rank. When recommended for testing by the Ducal Ministry, I declined and did not go; I cultivated my mind and contemplated good, remaining untainted by manifold evils.' The presiding officer said, 'You have no faults or transgressions; that is why we employed you as Chief Controller of the Water Bureau. Had it not been so, you would be no different from the people in the hells.' Tai asked the presiding officer, 'What practices must a person perform so that after death they receive happy retribution?' The presiding officer merely replied, 'Disciples who honor the Dharma, vigorously maintain the precepts, obtain happy retribution without penalty or reprimand.' Tai asked again, 'If someone committed transgressions before practicing the Dharma, can they be eradicated after one honors the Dharma or not?' He answered, 'They are all eradicated.' When he had finished speaking, the presiding officer opened a rattan chest and examined Tai's life span; there were still thirty years remaining on his count, so he sent Tai back. Upon taking leave, the presiding officer said, 'Now that you have seen the retribution for sin in the hells like this, you should inform worldly people and cause them all to do good. Good and evil follow a person just like shadow and echo; can one fail to be careful?' At that time, fifty to sixty of Tai's relatives from both inside and outside the clan had been attending to Tai, and they all heard Tai speak. Tai wrote the account himself to show people of the time. It was the thirteenth day of the seventh month in the fifth year of the Taishi reign of the Jin dynasty (269 CE). Thereupon, on behalf of his grandparents and two younger brothers, he invited the saṃgha and held a great gathering for blessings, and ordered all his descendants to change their minds, honor the Dharma, and be encouraged to strive with vigor. When people of the time heard that Tai had died and revived, having witnessed much regarding sin and blessing, they came one after another to visit and inquire. At that time, ten men, including Grandee of the Center Sun Feng of Wucheng and Marquis within the Passes Chang Gong and Hao Boping, gathered together at Tai's residence. They questioned him minutely, and none were not filled with dread; they all immediately honored the Dharma.