Note: This is another in the monthly excerpts from “Tales of the Lotus Sutra.”

The Buddhist monk Huijin had the secular surname of Qian, but no details are known of his background. He left home when he was a young boy and set up a fixed regimen of practice for himself at Lu grotto on Mount Kuang. No matter where he wandered or settled down, he kept up a constant recitation of the Lotus. This practice he maintained both day and night, never letting up except to take his meals or lie down to rest.

For reciting the sūtra he required a space of several paces in circumference. He would first purify [the ground] by sweeping and sprinkling, gather whatever flowers were in season at the time, and do his best to decorate [the sanctuary] resplendently. In the center, which was some five or six feet in width, he hung banners and offered incense [to the sūtra]. In a spot set apart [from the altar itself] he placed a single chair [for recitation]. After putting on a new and clean robe and venerating the buddhas of the ten directions, he would join his palms [in adoration] and assume the formal posture [for seated meditation]. Only then would he begin to recite [the sūtra].

One day, after he had completed some ten thousand recitations of the sutra, everything around him suddenly became hazy, like a cloud of mist. In this cloud he saw the three transformations [of the Lotus assembly], together with [the stūpa of Prabhūtaratna], the jeweled thrones [for the manifestation bodies of Śākyamuni Buddha], and their jeweled trees extending throughout the eight directions. Ever so faintly, the buddhas and bodhisattvas [of the assembly] appeared before his eyes. When he reached fifteen thousand recitations, he saw them all with perfect clarity. Where and how he ended his days is not known.