Prevod

Long ago, as the monk Haiyun was traveling along a road, he met a boy a little over ten years old. “What sort of boy are you?” the monk asked. “I am merely a traveler on this road,” the boy replied. “Have you read the Lotus Sutra?” asked the monk. “I have never even heard the name of this thing you call the Lotus Sutra,” said the boy. “Then come with me to my dwelling, and I will teach it to you.” The boy agreed to do as he was told and accompanied the monk to his dwelling on Mount Wutai, where Haiyun taught him the Lotus Sutra. While the boy was learning the sutra, a young monk often came to converse with Haiyun, though the boy did not know who he was. “Do you know that young reverend who comes here so often?” Haiyun asked him. The boy said that he did not. “He is Manjushri, who dwells on this mountain. He comes to speak with me.” Yet even with this explanation, the boy did not know who Manjushri was and therefore thought nothing of him. Haiyun warned the boy, “Never, under any circumstances, approach a woman. Keep your distance, and do not become familiar with one.” One day, while the boy was out on an errand, he met a beautiful woman on the road, richly made up and riding a gray horse. “Please take my horse by the bridle,” she said. “The road is so terribly rough that I fear I shall fall.” The boy paid no heed and continued on his way. Then the horse reared, and the woman fell headlong to the ground. “Help me!” she cried reproachfully. “I feel I am about to die!” Still he would not listen, thinking, “My master told me not to go near a woman.” He returned to Mount Wutai and told Haiyun what had happened. “But I paid no heed to her and came straight back,” he said. “You have done very well,” Haiyun said in praise. “That woman must have been Manjushri in disguise, testing your resolve.” In time, the boy finished reading the entire Lotus Sutra. Then Haiyun said, “Now that you have read the Lotus Sutra through to the end, you must become a monk and receive the precepts.” He accordingly made the boy a novice. “I cannot confer the precepts upon you myself,” he said. “There is a monk named Lun at Chanding Temple in the Eastern Capital who has lately received an imperial decree authorizing him to confer them. You must go to him. But there is a reason why I shall not see you again.” And he wept without ceasing. “Once I have received the precepts, I shall return at once,” the boy said. “What makes you speak this way? Why do you weep so?” “There is simply something that grieves me,” Haiyun replied, still weeping. Then he instructed the boy, “When you reach the master who will confer the precepts, if he asks where you have come from, tell him, ‘From the monk Haiyun on Mount Qingliang.’” With tears in his eyes, he saw the boy on his way. Following his instructions, the boy went to Master Lun and asked to receive the precepts. Just as Haiyun had foretold, Lun asked where he had come from. When the boy answered as he had been instructed, Lun was astonished. “How wondrous!” he exclaimed, bowing in reverence. “Mount Wutai is the dwelling place of Manjushri alone. You, young novice, have met the spiritual guide Haiyun and have often been in the presence of Manjushri himself!” His reverence knew no bounds. After receiving the precepts, the boy returned to Mount Wutai. But when he looked for the dwelling where he had stayed, he found no sign that anyone had ever lived there. Weeping, he searched the whole mountain, but in the end he could not find it. The monk who was Upagupta’s disciple, though wise, had been weak in resolve and had drawn near a woman. This boy, though young, was steadfast and would not approach one. Thus Manjushri, recognizing his worth, instructed him and brought him into the Buddha’s Way. Therefore, people of this world must not break the precepts.