Gold Body
Japanese
Long, long ago there lived an extremely poor man in Kyoto.
"Only the Goddess of Mercy in Hasedera Temple (In Nara Prefecture) will help me from my misery." Thinking so, he made up his mind and visited the temple.
In front of the Buddhist deity of mercy, he knelt down, put his hands together, and prayed,
"The Goddess of Mercy, all I want is neither a high status nor a luxurious life, but a minimum necessity to live with. Please help me from desperate poverty."
From that time on, he visited the temple every month all the way from Kyoto to Nara and prayed in front of the statue for a better life. However, there had been no sign of her mercy for him.
One day, his wife said to him,
"What makes you visit that temple so often? It is no use praying to the goddess. We'll never be happy. You'd better stop doing it. It is a waste of time and energy."
"I don't blame you for complaining, but I am determined to keep visiting the temple for three years. I'm sure she will give us something good," he calmed her down.
Three years had passed since he had visited Nara for the first time. He was still in the depths of poverty. One day in December, he said in front of the statue,
"This is my last prayer. As you see, I'm still poor. My miserable life must be a preexistent penalty against me. You won't help me, will you? I'll give up my wish once and for all and decide to accept my present poor life, because it must be my destiny."
On his way back that night, when he trudged along his way to Kyoto, he was suddenly grabbed by the arm and taken into a dark empty lot and surrounded by several men.
They threatened to kill him if he refused their order. One of them pointed at a body which looked like about a ten-year-old boy, and ordered him in a deep, threatening voice,
"Take this body to a riverbank near by and throw it away."
The poor man trembled all over with terror. He lost all sense of what he was doing. He tried to carry the dead boy on his back, but the body was too heavy.
He asked them timidly,
"It seems that there is no way to carry the body to the riverbank by myself. Can I take him to my house first? I'll surely throw the body away with my wife tonight."
"Suit yourself." they shouted and left there soon.
The man finally managed to take the body to his house.
"What are you carrying on your back?" his wife suspected and asked him.
The man returned to his senses and told her about the whole story,
"That's why I told you," she said angrily, "You are one of the unluckiest men in this country! We are not allowed to keep the dead body at home forever. Let's go to the riverbank and throw it away immediately."
They tried to give it a lift. But surprisingly enough, it became heavier than before. They couldn't lift it even an inch. What was more, it was as hard as a rock. When he tried to hit it with a stone, it sounded like metal. They examined it carefully. To their great surprise, it was made of pure-gold.
"This must be a gift from the Goddess of Mercy!" He cried with joy.
They pulled it with all their strength to the recesses of the house to hide it. From the very next day, he broke it into pieces with a hammer and a chisel and sold the pieces little by little.
Soon he became as rich a man as anybody else in the country and had a chance to work at the Court.
The man visited the Hasedera Temple more often, and prayed to the Goddess of Mercy more devotedly. (2013/03/06 With Itaya)
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