A Story of an Old Buddhist Woman
Once there lived an old woman in a village.
She frequently visited a Buddhist temple nearby, asking the Buddha, Amida, and other deities to take her to the paradise as soon as possible, since she was alone, old and so poor without any relatives.
Every time she came to the temple, she donated some coins. But one day she thought that she would soon lose all of her coins. So, she got a thread through holes of coins to bind them. Then, when she visited the temple next time, the poor woman threw the threaded coins into an offertory box. After they jingled, hitting the bottom of the box, she pulled the thread up to take the coins back.
In this way, the pious woman could continue her paying respect to the Buddha and other holy Spirits for many days. She was convinced that this tricky practice should be overlooked and accepted by the Buddha and other gods and goddesses, since her faith was true and her poverty was also so true.
One day, the chief priest of the temple heard big jingling from the offertory box placed in front of the main hall. He was glad as he would get some coins. But the greedy priest found no coins in the box but saw an old woman going back home with coins threaded together.
Next time she came to the temple and stood before the offertory box to show her respect and repeat her wish to be taken to the paradise, the angry priest, hiding behind the sliding door of the main hall, cried, "Old woman, listen to me, since I am a holy spirit!" The old woman was so much startled but managed to answer, "Yes, sir, blessed Buddha!" He said, "Climb the big pine tree beside the pond to show your faith!" So, the old woman somehow climbed the tree and held fast a big branch with both the hands.
The big pine tree slanted toward the dark pond, so that her body was dangerously above the water. Then the malicious priest shouted, "Loose the grip of your left hand!" She opened her left hand. Then the malicious priest shouted, "Loose the grip of your right hand!" She opened her right hand to fall into the pond.
However, behold! The sky opened with rainbows and Buddhist gods accompanied by many Buddhist angels came down. They put a boat of many colors on the surface of the pond to take the poor woman floating in a faint into it. She awoke and saw the band of holy Spirits; she worshiped them in extreme joy. Then, they all together started to ascend into the heaven.
The bewitched priest observed all this proceeding. He was marveled at the great pageant deployed in front of him. So, he called a young servant monk. The priest told the boy to shout, "Climb the pine tree. Loose the grips of the hands!" As the boy shouted as was instructed, the superficial priest climbed the pine tree, opened his hands that were holding a big branch, and fell into the deep pond.
However, no help came from the heaven. The impious priest hit hard on the surface of the dark pond and then soon sank deep into the water.
This is an old story in Japan, specifically having been handed down orally in a certain local area until recently.
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Luk 9:7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;
Luk 9:8 And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again.
Luk 9:9 And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.