Upasaka Cao Lu Chuan told me about something happened to his married daughter: One summer day, sitting at her own home, she saw a snake chasing a pigeon on the capping of the garden wall before falling to the ground and killed by her family. A few days later, possessed by the spirit of the snake, she began raving and talking nonsense. When Lu Chuan went to visit her, he heard the spirit speak via his daughter: “I was the Chief of Jing Zhou Prefecture. But I got drown in the river after being chased by the rebel Gao Huan. Can you help me find out if my family is all safe now?”
Lu Chuan was shocked by what he heard, and he told the spirit: “The rebel Gao Huan was living in the Northern Dynasty, since then four more dynasties (Sui, Tang, Song, and Yuan) have gone by, and now we are in the Ming Dynasty!” Only then the spirit realized that he had been dead for quite a long time, that he was last reborn into the animal realm as a snake. So he said: “Well, being dead is at least better than being a snake. Now I only wish you could have a Rite of Repentance performed for me and dedicate the merits to me, then I’ll leave.”
Cao Lu Chuan then invited Venerable Ding Kong from Si Zhou Temple to perform the Rite of Repentance (aka Emperor Liang Repentance Service) and dedicated the merits to the spirit, along with an offering of food, and the following day his daughter was back to her normal self.
So we now know that repentance really generates merits!
by Grand Master Lian Chi (蓮池大師), the Eighth Patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism
禮懺功德 – 錄自明末蓮池大師《竹窗隨筆》(初筆)
姑蘇曹魯川居士為予言: 有女在夫家，夏坐室中，一蛇從牆上逐鴿，墮庭心，家人見而斃之。數日後，蛇附女作語。魯川往視，則云:「我昔為荊州守，高歡反，追我至江滸，遂死江中，我父母妻子不知安否? 」魯川驚曰:「歡六朝時人，今歷隋唐宋元而至大明矣!」鬼方悟死久，並知為蛇。曰:「既作蛇，死亦無恨，但為我禮梁皇懺一部，吾行矣!」乃延泗洲寺僧定空禮懺。懺畢，索齋，為施斛食一壇。明日女安穩如故。懺之時義大矣哉!
Buddha Mind 