釋氏要覽 3.322

3.322

Recent popular customs dictate that on noxious festivals such as the Double Fifth, people always fill a basin with water, insert willow branches inside, and place it before the door to ward off evil. According to the Abhiṣeka-sūtra: "In the past, the people of the city of Vaiśālī suffered an epidemic. There was a young monk named Chanti (Kṣānti?) who, upholding the Buddha's instruction and keeping the Mahā-divine mantra, went to ward it off for them, and all the afflicted recovered. This Chanti lived in that country for twenty-nine years, and the people were peaceful. When he passed away, the people again suffered an epidemic. Longing for Chanti, the people went to where he had lived, but saw only the tooth-cleaning wood (dantakāṣṭha) he had chewed, which had been cast to the ground and grown into a forest. Under the forest was a spring. The people ladled its water, snapped off willow branches to sweep and sprinkle [the water], and all the sick recovered; the poisonous vapours dispersed and vanished, repelling all evil and making all affairs auspicious."