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Pridiga meniha Čūina božanstvu varuhu

This, too, happened long ago. The monks of Mount Hiei invited Bishop Chūin to preside at a service honoring the Lotus Sutra at the Second Shrine of Hiyoshi. His chanting was beyond compare. Toward the end, he said, “The guardian deity bids me speak these words,” and raised his voice to recite the passage, “This sutra is difficult to uphold, but if anyone upholds it even for a moment, I rejoice, and all the buddhas do likewise.” When he reached the words “all the buddhas,” however, he said, “The guardian deity bids me say: ‘I rejoice, and all the gods do likewise.’” The great throng of monks assembled there cried out with one voice, opening and waving their fans. Now, on another occasion, someone had the sacred images of Hiyoshi Shrine unveiled and was holding a thousand-day series of sermons before each of them. When the turn came for the Second Shrine, a monk repeated this passage without changing a single word. Someone told Chūin what had happened, and the archbishop burst out laughing. “That is a line Chūin himself used on such-and-such an occasion!” Then, chuckling again, he said, “Indeed, I call the sermons people give these days ‘dog-shit sermons.’ A dog eats human shit and then shits it out itself. The preachers these days take Chūin’s sermons and preach them, so I call theirs dog-shit sermons.”