“I bowed low and thanked him.
“Then the black-coated scribe said, ‘I am sending this man away; see him safely off.’ The spirit soldiers took me with them, and while on the way I awakened with a start, and found that I had been dead for four days.”
Hong’s mind was filled with pride on this account, and he frequently boasted of it. His age and Second Degree of rank came about just as the Buddha had predicted.
His experience, alas! was used as a means to deceive people, for the Superior Man does not talk of these strange and wonderful things.
Yi Tan, a Chinaman of the Song Kingdom, used to say, “If there is no heaven, there is no heaven, but if there is one, the Superior Man alone can attain to it. If there is no hell, there is no hell, but if there is one the bad man must inherit it.”
If we examine Hong’s story, while it looks like a yarn to deceive the world, it really is a story to arouse one to right action. I, Im Bang, have recorded it like Toi-chi, saying, “Don’t find fault with the story, but learn its lesson.”