During the years of the Yuan Dynasty, there was an eminent monk in Mo County, Shandong Province, whose Buddhist name was "Faming" and was nicknamed "Black Painted Light" Bodhisattva.
Monk Faming was born in a small village. When he was young, because he was familiar with Buddhist scriptures and yearned for Buddhism, he became a monk at Chongfu Temple in Laizhou Prefecture.
After becoming a monk, he devoted all his energy to studying the Lotus Sutra. After a few years, he was able to recite the entire Lotus Sutra fluently.
In addition to reading scriptures, he also likes to go to various prefectures and villages to beg alms. If he meets a pregnant woman with a pregnant belly when he goes out, he will explain to the pregnant woman the chapter "Medicine of Medicinal Herbs" in the Lotus Sutra. .
All pregnant women who have listened to Monk Faming's sermons will have an easy and smooth delivery and will not suffer from dystocia. Therefore, people call Monk Faming the "divine monk". From
to the Yuan Dynasty, monk Faming came to live in Zhenjiang Prefecture. Once, Monk Faming took a timber merchant's big boat across the river. On the way, a strong storm arose, and the boat was about to be destroyed and everyone was killed.
The timber merchant was so frightened that he didn't know what to do. Monk Faming was not panicked at all. He said to the timber merchant: "If you chant the name of Guanyin Bodhisattva devoutly, you will be safe and sound."
The timber merchant hurriedly chanted: "Guanyin Bodhisattva bless, Guanyin Bodhisattva bless!" "What a coincidence, after a while the wind calmed down and the waves subsided, and the big ship crossed the river without any danger.
A few years later, monk Faming moved to Helin Temple. This year, there happened to be a severe drought with not much rain for two months. The crops were about to wither. The villagers tried all kinds of ways to pray for rain, but to no avail.
As the saying goes: Food is the most important thing for the people. When Monk Faming saw that the people were distressed for rain, he felt pity in his heart, so he picked up a lot of firewood, piled it into a circle, and then slowly walked in and sat inside.
Everyone didn’t know what he was going to do, but they saw Monk Faming suddenly burst into flames. Soon the wood around him was also ignited, and the fire was extremely fierce. Only then did everyone realize that Monk Faming was sacrificing his life for the people. rain.
Not long after the fire started, the sky suddenly became overcast with clouds, then strong winds and heavy rain began. The rain lasted for three days before it stopped, and the drought was relieved.
After the rain stopped, everyone came to the temple to see the remains of Monk Faming, and found that Monk Faming's "real body was sitting in danger" with no damage at all, but the skin all over his body became dark and shiny, as if it had been painted with Like a layer of black paint.
After the prefect of Zhenjiang learned of this, he wrote the feat of monk Faming sacrificing his life to pray for rain in a memorial and sent it to the court.
Not long after, the imperial court issued a decree to give Monk Faming the posthumous title of "Black Painted Light Bodhisattva", and his disciples enshrined his body in the temple to show their respect and memory.
