In the Tenpyō era there once lived a layman in Sagaraka district, Yamashiro province, whose name is unknown. At Koma-dera in the same district there was a monk named Eijō used to recite the Hoke-kyō all the time. It happened that the monk and the layman had been playing go for some time. Whenever the monk put down a stone, he said, “This is the Venerable Eijō’s hand of go.” The layman mocked and mimicked him, deliberately twisting his mouth and saying, “This is the Venerable Eijō’s hand of go.” He went on and on this way. Then, all of a sudden, the layman’s mouth was distorted. In fear, he left the temple holding his chin with his hands. He had hardly gone any distance before he fell on his back and died immediately. Witnesses said, “Though he did not persecute a monk, mocking and mimicking got him a twisted mouth and sudden death. What, then, must the penalty be if one vengefully persecutes a monk?” The Hoke-kyō* gives a passage to this effect: “A wise monk and a foolish monk cannot be discussed in the same breath. Similarly, a long-haired monk and a wise, unshaved layman cannot be treated alike and served with the same dishes. If one dares to do so, he will swallow an iron ball which is heated on red-hot copper and charcoal, and fall into hell.” (Page 185)

*These verses are not found in the Lotus Sūtra.