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37 Emperor Wudi of the Liang Dynasty Goes to the Land of Extreme Bliss through Ceaseless Cultivation I heard not the morning orioles, Nor the rain in the temple garden. When I woke, the peppered rice was ready.1 And the moon still shining over the hills. This poem was written by an acolyte by the surname of Fan, with the Buddhist name Puneng, who cultivated his inner nature in Guanghua Monastery in Xuyi County during the reign of Emperor Ming [r. 494–98] of the Qi dynasty [479–502]. In his previous existence, he was a white-necked earthworm born in the front yard of the cell of Abbot Datong of Thousand Buddhas Monastery. In his hours of meditation, Abbot Datong intoned only the Lotus Sutra. The earthworm happened to be one endowed with intelligence . Every time it heard the chanting of the sutra, it stretched out its head and listened. For three years, the abbot intoned the sutra and the earthworm listened. One day, the abbot emerged from his meditation room to partake of a vegetarian meal and to pay homage to the Buddha. As his eyes happened to rest on the excessively overgrown weeds in front of his cell, he called a young novice to hoe up the weeds. Having weeded the middle section of the yard, the novice moved to one corner of the wall. With a mighty wave of the arm, he struck his hoe several inches deep into the ground. He realized too late that the earthworm was right there and had been cut in two. “Amitabha!” exclaimed the novice. “How sinful it was of me to have killed a life!” He dug up some earth and buried the earthworm. We shall speak no further of this. With the strength he had gained while listening to the sutras, the earthworm gained human form and was born into the Fan family. After the loss of his parents when he had grown into adulthood, he left secular life to live in Guanghua Monastery, serving Abbot Empty Valley as kitchen attendant. An honest man, he lived near the kitchen, boiled tea, and cooked meals, 643 attending to the needs of the abbot as best he could. He treated all other monks in exactly the same way. Though illiterate, Puneng had learned some sutras by heart, but the Lotus Sutra was the one text that he could recite from beginning to end without the least e ort. Whenever he had a moment to himself during the day, he would intone the sutras to cultivate his soul. After living for over thirty years in the monastery, he heard that Abbot Datong of Thousand Buddhas Monastery had willed his own death. Full of admiration for the blissful way the abbot died, he thought of an idea and said to Abbot Empty Valley, “I have lived in this monastery for many years. For all my life, I have observed a vegetarian diet. Never have I entertained the least bit of greed, nor have I ever wasted any of nature’s resources. Today, I would like to leave you and depart from this life. Would you please kindly pray for a good place of reincarnation for me?” With these words, he fell on his knees. “Rise and listen to me,” said the abbot. “Though you have cultivated your inner nature, you have not yet gained enlightenment. If you choose to go, be sure to live a quiet life and avoid the trap of wealth and rank. (The trap of wealth and rank is where all evil comes from.) Should you fall victim to a moment of weakness, you will not even be granted transmigration.” Thus admonished, Acolyte Fan bade farewell to the abbot and went to the kitchen, where he took a bath and changed into clean clothes. After paying homage to the Buddha, heaven and earth, and his parents, he took leave of the other monks and, stepping into a monk’s co‹n, sat down with his legs folded in lotus position, closed his eyes, and was gone. The monks chanted sutras for him and asked some laborers to carry the co‹n to a vacant lot. They were about to get the abbot for the cremation ceremony when a bell was heard pealing from the hall. Hastily the abbot sent someone to say, “Do not light the fire.” Immediately thereafter, the abbot arrived at the scene in a sedan-chair and had the lid of the co‹n opened...

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