土地公丘处机 The Earth Deity & Ancestor Qiu

This story of the Earth Deity, Tu Di [土地], and the Founding Ancestor Qiu [qiu zu 丘祖], is recounted in《Records
of the Golden Lotuses’ Immortals》[jin lian xian shi 金莲仙史]:

马丹阳觉得事情奇怪，就问丘处机：我和你在庙中冻饿了三天，就有土地托梦善人送来斋饭。师弟， 你是不是动妄念了？”丘处机不敢隐瞒，如实相告，因他饥寒难耐，难以守持，于是动了一念，希望 有人送些汤面暖身。可是没有想到，神明果然知道他的心念，真的就去善人家托梦了。马丹阳一听，怒道：“我事先有言吩咐于你，修道之人不可动心妄想。你今日起了一念，就摇动虚空神明到他家托梦，我和你现在日无寸进之功，反而受他的供养，有何福分能够承当？如果我和你一样，将来可是要变牛变马去还债的，倒不如现在各自分开，我回山东修养，任凭你天堂地狱之路，你就随
心所欲的去吧。

Ma Dan Yang [one of the Seven Realized Disciples of Wang Chong Yang], feeling that the matter was strange, asked Qiu Chu Ji [-Founding Ancestor Qiu-] directly:

You and I were freezing and hungry in the temple for three days, and it was exactly then that the Earth Spirit appeared in the dream of a benevolent person to get them to deliver vegetarian food to us. Younger religious brother, were you stirred by abstruse thoughts?

Qiu Chu Ji did not dare to hide anything. He told things as they really were, because his hunger and coldness were difficult to tolerate, difficult to safeguard and uphold. Therefore, stirred by one thought alone, he hoped for someone to bring him a few noodles in soup to warm up his body. But he had not thought that the Spirit Lights sure enough would know his Heart-Mind’s thinking, and would truly visit the home of a benevolent person to send them Spirit messages in a dream. When Ma Dan Yang heard this, he angrily replied:

I had spoken with you beforehand to give you instruction: people who cultivate the Dao are not allowed to stir their Heart-Mind and have abstruse thoughts. Today you gave rise to a thought, which has swayed the hollow void’s Spirit Lights to reach a person’s home and appear in their dream. Every day now, as a result, you and I [in our practice] will be unable to enter this Gong by even an inch. On the contrary, what good fortune will receiving the offerings made to him [the Earth Spirit] bring us now? If you and I were the same, but in the future wanted to transform into oxen and into horses in order to repay a debt [of karma], it would be better for each of us to separate. I will return to Shandong province to cultivate and nourish [-accomplish myself in self-cultivation-], for no matter whether your road leads to the Heavenly Hall or Earthly Prison, you go following your Heart-Mind [inclinations] and what it desires.