pig skin on your back." He was scared stiff and said to me, "Oh no! Pigs are filthy and useless!" Then he woke up.
When I showed up at his house the next day, the nephew asked his uncle, "Do you recognize that monk?" His uncle said, "Yes, I knew him before he practiced filial piety beside the grave." Then the nephew said, "Last night I dreamed that this person came to our house, and now he is actually here."
His uncle was excited. "Really?" he said. "What did you dream?" After he related the dream, his uncle said, "This person has the Way and he has brought it to our house. The two of us must certainly seek the Way from him." After talking, they went into the room where I was sitting, closed the door, and knelt before me to request the Way.
"Have you both gone insane? I said. "What do you want from me? I'm just the same as you. I don't understand the Way."

"We know you cultivate filial piety," they said. The uncle, who knew that I had cultivated filial piety beside my mother's grave, had wanted to meet me, but had never found the time. He said, "We know you have brought the Way to our home, for my nephew had a dream last night. In the dream, you peeled a pig skin off his body."
"You're confused," I said. "He's not a pig. How could I peel a pig skin off him?"
"But it's true," he said, "and no matter what, you have to teach us how to cultivate!"
"I can't teach you to cultivate, but if you want to find a teacher, I can help you look."
"We've looked everywhere, but we haven't found one. Wherever we go it's always the same. They all have a big reputation, but no genuine skill."
"I can take you around," I said. They had wanted to bow to me as their teacher, but I didn't know if they really had faith in me. I never did anything casually.

I took them to meet Great Master Chang Ren and many other great cultivators. But after meeting with them, they were always dissatisfied. After sending them everywhere for two years, they still insisted on taking me as their teacher. But I was still a novice monk and did not want to take disciples. Finally, they knelt before me and refused to get up. "It's useless to talk about whether or not I have the Way," I said. "First learn to sit in full lotus and then I will teach you."
Then I taught them to sit in lotus posture. I instructed them to sit with their backs erect, not leaning to the front or back, or letting the head droop, but sitting with determination and resolve. They practiced sitting every day.
The nephew had no trouble, but the uncle's bones were old and he had big kneecaps, which stuck up about fifteen inches in the air when he tried to sit cross-legged. But the uncle kept trying. He pushed his knees down over and over. When I returned after seventy days, I noticed that his knees were swollen. They were so sore, in fact, that he couldn't even step over a cart rut.
"You shouldn't sit in full lotus," I told him. "Are you still practicing?"
"I am," said the uncle. "My knees are swollen, but I can sit in full lotus."
"You shouldn't continue," I told him. "You won't be able to bear it."
"What do you mean?" said the uncle. "I'm about to die and if I don't practice now, what will I do then? No matter what, I'm going to practice meditation. If I die, that's another matter, but as long as I'm still alive, I'm going to practice."
"Do what you like," I said, and left. When I returned a hundred days later, I noticed that the uncle's legs were no longer swollen. "You're not still sitting, are you?" I asked.

Guan Zhongxi smiled. "I can sit in full lotus," he said, "and no matter how long I sit, it doesn't hurt and my legs don't swell." Then I taught him how to apply effort in meditation. The uncle was incredibly happy and sat in meditation every day. After cultivating for three years, about three months before his death, he gathered his family together and said, "On such and such a day, at such and such a time, I'm going to leave; I'm going to die. The only wish I have is to see my teacher once again. But I don't know where he is now, and so I cannot see him." Then on the appointed day, he sat upright in full lotus, and without any illness, he died. That evening, many of the villagers had the same dream; they dreamed that they saw the uncle accompanied by two youths in dark robes, being taken to the West.
The uncle, originally a non-Buddhist, later studied the Proper Dharma and cultivated without fear of pain or suffering. Even if he died, he wanted to practice meditation, and so eventually he had some accomplishment. If he had stopped practicing when his legs swelled up, I don't think he would have accomplished what he did. Cultivators have to suffer for a time before they can realize infinite happiness. If you can't bear suffering temporarily, you can't attain eternal bliss. Guan Zhongxi is a good model for all of us. If we wish to obtain true samadhi and wisdom, to obtain eternal bliss, we must first undergo a period of suffering.

Well, the nephew didn't die, and one day as we were walking down the road, he suddenly knelt, clutched my sleeve, and begged to become a disciple. I said, "I have no cultivation. What's the point of taking refuge with me?" He said, "I'm determined to take refuge with you, no matter what." I brushed him off and left. After walking about a mile, I turned around and saw the boy still kneeling. I returned and saw that he was crying, and so I felt compelled to accept him as a disciple. He was my first disciple. He was truly filial and always thinking of his teacher.
Later I made a vow, because while I had no virtue and was not worthy of being a teacher of others, there were people who sincerely requested to take refuge with me. My vow was neither great nor small. I vowed that if any being who has taken refuge with me--whether human or nonhuman, or a god, dragon, or member of the eightfold division--has not become a Buddha, I will not become a Buddha. I will wait for him or her. This shows my sincerity towards my disciples. How they treat me after taking refuge is of no concern to me. In general, if you practice in accord with the teachings, you will definitely have the chance to become a Buddha. Why did I make such a vow? I feel that if someone takes refuge with me and I fail to help him realize Buddhahood, I have not done my job and am not worthy to be his teacher; I am not even fit to be his disciple.

Today I have told you the reasons I made this vow. After you take refuge with me, you must certainly advance vigorously in your practice. Don't be lax and lazy. Change your faults, reform yourselves, and proceed forward on the Bodhi path. If you fail to cultivate, you will delay your teacher from attaining Buddhahood.
After I failed to start a revolution in my youth, I left the home-life and later went around curing people's illnesses. Although I had studied the texts on Chinese medicine, I didn't use my medical knowledge to cure disease. I relied instead on the Shurangama Mantra and the Great Compassion Mantra. I used the Forty-two Hands and Eyes in the Great Compassion Mantra and the thirty-two dharmas in the Shurangama Mantra to subdue the heavenly demons and those of outside ways. I used the power of samadhi to capture and overcome those demonic and weird creatures. In this life alone, I have encountered countless demonic beings who transformationally appear in human form. When most people hear this, they don't believe it because they aren't aware of these strange and mysterious phenomena.
I remember there was a time in Manchuria when the Japanese had surrendered, but the Nationalist government had not officially taken power in Harbin, nor had the Communist party completely occupied Manchuria. Many demons, ghosts, and weird creatures appeared in the world at that time. These demonic beings had remained in hiding and had not dared to be so wild when we had a government. But during the period when we had no government, these demonic beings all came out of hiding. I remember one of the most important demons I met at that time was a several thousand year old demon. I will tell you her story now, but don't be afraid. She doesn't harm people anymore.

It is said that this big demon leader was a ghost in the Zhou dynasty, which was several thousand years ago. Since I haven't studied history very thoroughly, I'm not sure if it was three or four thousand years ago. This "As-you-will Demon Woman" did nothing but harm people back in the Zhou dynasty. She did things that transgressed the laws of heaven. Later a person who had spiritual powers shattered her with thunder, but didn't completely destroy her. She had been a ghost before, but then she cultivated and gathered her scattered energy and spirit back together, perfected her demonic skills, and turned into a demon that was invulnerable to thunder. In the interval when there was no government, she went around causing trouble and taking people's lives, because she wanted to increase her power and the power of her retinue. Each time she caused a person's death, the other demons would congratulate her: "You're really powerful!" It's similar to how other officials act toward an official who has just been promoted. A demon's power increases with the number of people it kills, until even ghosts have to follow its orders.

The "As-you-will Demon Woman" had killed ninety-nine people by then, and if she could capture the soul of one more person--killing a hundred people in all--she would become the most powerful demon king, and all the common demons would have to listen to her orders. She would be the leading demon, and all the souls she had captured would become her retinue and would have to obey her. She lacked only one more soul, so she went around looking for a victim. Later when she met me, she took refuge with the Triple Jewel and reformed herself. Thus she's an example of a demon who took refuge with the Buddha. I could write an entire book on this.

Twenty-seven years ago [1945], on the twelfth day of the second month, I passed through the Zhou family station in Manchuria. In the town there was a Virtue Society whose members met daily for lectures on morality. Since some of the members were my disciples, I would usually stay in the town for a few days when I passed through. This time I met a Chinese astrologer who cast people's horoscopes by looking at the eight characters (two for the year, two for the month, two for the day, and two for the hour) of their birth. His horoscopes were very efficacious. He cast my horoscope and said, "You should be an official. Why have you left home? Had you wanted to, you could have been a great official."
"I haven't any idea how to be an official," I said. "But I do know how to be a Buddhist monk, and so I have left home."
"What a pity," said the astrologer, and he looked at my hands. "At the very least," he said, "you could have been a top-ranking imperial scholar."
"No," I said. "I couldn't even have come in last."
He looked my hands again and said, "Oh, this year something very lucky will happen to change your life!"
"What could that be?" I asked.
"After the tenth of the next month you will be different from now," he replied.
"Different in what way?"
"Right now, all the people within 1000 li [350 miles] believe in you, but after the tenth of next month, everyone within 10,000 li [3500 miles] will believe in you."
"How can that be?" I asked.
"When the time comes, you will know," he said.