Human bodies are difficult to obtain: once, when Buddha Shakyamuni was walking with Śāriputra, an eagle chased a pigeon. The Buddha covered the pigeon with his shadow, and the pigeon had no fear. Śāriputra covered the pigeon with his shadow, and the pigeon was still afraid and panicked. Śāriputra asked the Buddha, "You and I are no longer greedy, hatred, and delusional, so why do the pigeons behave differently?" The Buddha said, "Your habit of greed, hatred, and delusion is not over, so the pigeons are still scary." The Buddha asked Śāriputra again: How many lifetimes has this pigeon been a pigeon? After Śāriputra entered meditation, he saw that in the past 80,000 great kalpas, this pigeon was all a pigeon, and he would not be able to see anything beyond 80000 kalpas. The Buddha asked Śāriputra again, how long will it take for this pigeon to be able to escape from the pigeon's life experience in the future? After Śāriputra entered meditation, he saw that in the next 80,000 kalpas, the pigeon could not escape the pigeon's life experience, and he would not be able to see anything beyond 80000 kalpas in the future. The Buddha told Śāriputra: "After this pigeon has gone through the time limit that any Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddhayāna can see, it will go through great kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges, during which time it will be a dove. After that, when the sin karma is eliminated, it will be reincarnated in the five realms to obtain a human body. After another five hundred lifetimes, he will gain the root of wisdom. At that time, there will be a Buddha who will save countless sentient beings and enter Nirvana without remainder. When the Buddha's legacy is alive, the reincarnated man from this dove can follow it at home with Five precepts (not killing, not stealing, not committing sexual misconduct, not lying, not drinking alcohol). He will hear from the bhikkhus the merits of chanting the Buddha, and he will first make up his mind that he will become a Buddha himself in the future. Then, in three asamkhya kalpas, he will practice the six paramitas, and after he has attained the ten realms, he will become a Buddha, save countless sentient beings, and enter Nirvana without remainder. - "Commentary on the Great Perfection of Wisdom"
There are many things that logically cannot happen, but often do. And after careful consideration, it is completely reasonable. People often do not understand certain things, they think it is impossible, which is too stubborn.
In Xian County, two such incidents have occurred in recent years.
One is: Han Shouli's wife Yu, who is very filial to her husband's grandmother. In the year of Qianlong Gengchen (1760), her husband's grandmother was blind in both eyes. Yu tried every means to ask a doctor to take medicine for her, and prayed for her in front of the gods and Buddhas, but nothing worked. Later, a sly person said to Mrs. Yu, "You cut a piece of flesh on yourself, set it on fire, and ask God to bless you, and your grandmother's eyes will be healed."
She didn't know that she was fooling her, but she actually did as he said. After more than ten days, the old lady's eyes really recovered.
Of course, it is stupid to be easily deceived by others, but it is precisely because of her pure and honest heart that she is particularly sincere, and because of her sincerity, she has moved ghosts and gods to help relieve her difficulties. This is beyond reason, but it also has reason.
The second is: there is a beggar named Wang Xisheng. His feet are shriveled and curled. One day, when he found two hundred taels of silver on the road, he hid the sack in the grass and sat by himself to guard it, waiting for the owner to claim it. After a while, the owner of the business, Zhang Jifei, rushed to look for it. Wang Xisheng asked about the situation, and after hearing that the type of lost property and the amount of money he answered were exactly the same, he returned the money bag to him. Zhang Jifei thanked Wang Xisheng thousands of times, and gave him some money to reward him, but Wang Xisheng refused to accept it. Zhang Jifei also expressed his willingness to take him home and support him for the rest of his life. Wang Xisheng thanked me and said, "I am disabled, this is my karma created in my previous life, and it is a punishment from God. If I go against the will of God and enjoy what I have now, I will suffer even greater disasters in the future." After saying this, he left resolutely. .
Later, when Wang Xisheng was sleeping in Pei Shenggong's temple, a drunk man suddenly pulled his legs hard, causing him to suffer unbearable pain. After the drunken man left, his crooked feet were straightened, and he could stand up and walk. From then on, he made a living by himself, and he died in the year of Qianlong Ji Mao (1789).
Zhang Jifei was originally a disciple of my ancestors, and I have met him once. He told the story of Wang Xisheng picking up the silver and returning it to the owner, and told it in great detail.
Wang Xisheng has done a good deed, and he should have received some remuneration. However, he is happy and does not accept unexpected rewards. So the gods changed his fate as his reward. Isn't this unreasonable, yet reasonable?
My predecessor Ge Jizhou once recorded these two stories in the Xianxian annals. Some lecturers criticized him for writing such bizarre stories into the county annals. In my opinion, the county annals compiled by Mr. Ge, except for the sentence of Ji Xian and the loss of Wang Sheng's son, which he could not bear to give up, the whole book is rigorous in style and quite written by historians. He wrote the above two stories into the county annals, just to show that the noble character of every husband and wife is enough to move the gods. It can be used to sharpen the vulgar and inspire people to be kind. This cannot be regarded as unprincipled loading the novelist's rhetoric into the local annals.
Huchisi Village, forty miles east of Hejian County. There lived a farmer surnamed Yu, whose family was well-off and had a decent life. One night, when Yu was out for some reason, several robbers jumped from the eaves of Yu's house and slashed the door open with a big axe. At that time, there were only women and children in the family. They were so frightened that they lay on the bed and shivered. They just resigned themselves to fate. In the midst of this emergency, the two bulls raised by his family suddenly roared and jumped into the house, raising their horns to fight against the robbers. In the case of swords and axes, the two bulls fought more and more bravely. The robbers were injured one after another, and finally fled away in embarrassment. There are reasons why these two bulls are so desperate to protect their masters. It turned out that in the year of Qianlong Guihai (1743), there was a great famine in Hejian County. Many cattle farmers can't buy feed, and most of them sell their cattle to slaughterhouses. When the two bulls were driven to the door of the slaughterhouse, they lay on the ground and roared sadly, refusing to move forward. When Yu saw these two bulls, he felt pity. Yu actually took off his clothes, went to the pawn shop to exchange money, redeemed the two bulls, and endured the cold to drive the bulls home. Therefore, there is a certain reason why the bulls can swear to serve their masters in times of crisis. However, the robbers committed crimes in the house, and the bulls were kept in the cowshed in the outer courtyard. How could they know that something dangerous happened in the courtyard? Moreover, the bull is a behemoth, and its movements are not vigorous and agile. How can they break out of the solid bullpen and jump into the wall? There must be some kind of power behind it. And it must be ghosts and gods who are in charge of this happening. This story was told to me by Liu Dongtang during the winter of Qianlong Yi Chou (1745) in Hejian Township. Liu Dongtang is a native of Huchisi Village. He said he had also seen the two bulls with his own eyes, and they both still had several scars on their bodies. -Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage"