After Mr. Fan took office in Baodi Zhi County, he continued to practice seriously, and he prepared a hollow pamphlet called "Healing the Heart" to deal with the evil thoughts in his heart.
Every morning as soon as they went to work, the family handed this article to the office staff and put it on Mr. Fan's desk, asking him to record all the good and evil things he did every day. And imitating the practice of Zhao Yuedao during the Song Renzong period, he set up an incense case in the courtyard every night, wrote down the good and evil he had done in a day, and prayed to the heavens to report.
The so-called "gentleman is frank, and the villain is long-standing", it is precisely because Mr. Fan is a selfless and frank gentleman who has not done anything wrong, so he does not hide his mistakes and dares to say things to heaven. If you do something unseemly and don't dare to say it to people, where do you dare to say it to heaven?
After Mr. Fan became the county magistrate, his wife spent all day in the county court, relatively idle, and felt that there was nothing good to do, so she was very sad.
One day, she said to Mr. Fan: "In the past, when we were in our hometown, we often walked around with our neighbors, and it was easy to do good deeds. Now that you are an official, I rarely go out, and even if I go out, there are people everywhere I go, but there are fewer opportunities to do good deeds. When will you now promise ten thousand good deeds to be fulfilled? ”
After hearing these words, Mr. Fan was also very upset, and now that he had been a soldier, his wish had been fulfilled, but the ten thousand good deeds promised had not yet been completed, which was equivalent to still being in debt, and his heart was of course anxious.
The so-called "day has thoughts, night has dreams", Mr. Fan moved this idea during the day, and at night, he dreamed of a god man. He then told the gods, "I am now an official, but it is not convenient for me to do good deeds, and I am afraid that the ten thousand good deeds promised before will be difficult to complete." The man of God told him, "There is no need to worry about this, but the mere fact that you have reduced the food for the people has fulfilled your desire for ten thousand good deeds." ”
It turned out that there was indeed such a thing, and after Mr. Fan was appointed to Baodi Zhi County, he found that the former Zhi County collected rent according to the figure of two minutes and three cents and seven millimeters per mu of land. He felt that the burden on the common people was too heavy, so he reduced the rent of the land, and the reduction was very large, to one cent, four cents and six millimeters, so that the peasants in the whole county received his benefits. Why are there more than 10,000 farmers in Baodi County? Therefore, the good deed of reducing grain, the wish of ten thousand good deeds, has been fulfilled. The gods and men said it so accurately in the dream, so Mr. Fan was both surprised and suspicious. Suspect what? First, how did God's messengers know? Second, is there really such a great merit in doing this good deed?
Not long after having this dream, he happened to meet the Illusory Zen Master from Mount Wutai, so he asked the Zen master for advice and asked him if he could believe what the gods said in the dream.
The Master then told him, "As long as the good heart is sincere, it is true that one line can be a good deed." Moreover, if you can reduce taxes for the peasants in the county, it is not only the benefit of the farmers, but also the farmer's family, including parents, wives, children, etc., all benefit, so this goodness can be worth the ten thousand goodness."
After Mr. Fan understood this, he was very happy, so he donated his Feng Lu to offer 10,000 people fasting at Mount Wutai, that is, to invite 10,000 monks to dinner, and then asked Zen Master Xianyu to return to him for this matter.
Mr. Fan was born poor, and he was a clean official, and this time he invited ten thousand monks to dinner, which should have taken out all his life savings, so this is very rare, and ordinary people can't do it.