Note: This is another in the monthly excerpts from “Tales of the Lotus Sutra.”

The Buddhist monk Jingjian. Details of his background are unknown, but he left home as a young boy and for the most part lived on mounts Chonggao and Longmen. He recited the Lotus Sūtra in its entirety as many as thirteen thousand times. Internally he applied himself zealously to the contemplation of the wondrous [truth], thereby becoming quite skilled in the essentials of dhyāna. However, due to having recited [the sūtra] for such an extended period of time, his physical strength was exhausted [to the point on distress].

After [he had suffered from this illness] for more than twenty years, one day children began to gather and chatter raucously on the north side of his hut. This caused him to feel even more stressed and dispirited. Jian could not figure out where they came from. At that time a white-haired codger appeared, dressed in a short coat and skirt of crude white silk. Every day he would come and inquire [of Jian’s health], asking: “How are the dhyāna master’s four elements doing today?” To which Jian would usually reply, “I am feeling progressively more run down. Moreover, I have no idea where all these children are coming from; but daily their disturbance grows worse. I don’t think I can bear it much longer.”

The old man instructed, “Master, you should go and sit near the spot where they play. Wait for them to take off their clothes and enter the river to bathe. Then take one of the boy’s garments and come back [to your hermitage]. When he comes to reclaim it, don’t give it back to him. If he curses you, be sure not to respond. I, your disciple, will come to speak with him.”

Jian set out to do as the old man instructed. He went and waited for the children to take off their clothes and enter the pool to bathe. Then he snatched up one of the boy’s garments and returned promptly to his hut. When the child came after him looking for his robe, Jian recalled the old man’s cautions and refused to hand it over. The child bad-mouthed and slandered the dhyāna master in the most vile way, even extending his remarks to his ancestors. But the master showed no response. Soon the old man arrived and said to the lad, “[I command you to] enter the master’s chest.” At first the boy was unwilling to do as he was told. But the old man pressed him repeatedly, until he proceeded to enter Jian’s chest and vanish within his belly. The old man asked the master, “How do your four elements feel now?” To which Jian replied, “My vital energy (qi) is far better than ever before.” The old man thereupon took his leave [and disappeared].

From that day forward Jian felt physically robust and at ease, and his practice of dhyāna and recitation doubled in intensity. Those who understand this sort of thing say that surely this was the work of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra (“Universal Worthy”). The bodhisattva had the [local] mountain spirit compel the seminal essences of different medicinal herbs to transform into the child and become absorbed into [Jian’s] body, thereby curing Jian of his illness. Jingjian was the master who instructed dhyāna master Mo in the arts of dhyāna.

We do not know where and how he ended his days.