On the Immediate Penalty of Violent Death Incurred by an Ignorant Man Who Broke a Wooden Buddha Image a Village Child Had Made in Playing1
In the village of Hamanaka, Niki, Ama district, Kii province there was an ignorant man whose name is unknown. Born ignorant, he did not know the law of causation.

There was a path running along the mountain between Ama and Ate. It was called Tamasaka. If one climbs the mountain from Hamanaka, traveling due south, he will reach the village of Hata. Once a child of that village went into the mountain to collect firewood and played by that mountain path, carving a piece of wood into a Buddha image and piling stones into a pagoda. He placed the image in the stone pagoda and occasionally played there, making offerings.

In the reign of Emperor Shirakabe, an ignorant man laughed at the statue carved by the child in his play, chopping and breaking it with an axe. Hardly had he gone any distance when he threw himself on the ground, bleeding from the nose and mouth with both eyes plucked out, dying in an instant like the disappearance of an illusion.

Indeed, we learn that the Guardian of dharma is present. How could we not revere it? The Hoke-kyō explains it thus: “If children draw an image of Buddha with a twig, brush, or fingernail in their play, they will all attain Buddhahood. Or if they raise one hand and bow to worship a Buddha-image, they will attain the supreme stage of Buddhahood.” Therefore, be pious and faithful. (Page 262-263)

Tanaka no mahito Hiromushime was the wife of Oya no agatanushi Miyatc of Outer Junior Sixth Rank, Upper Grade, a govcrnor of Miki district, Sanuki province. She gave birth to eight children and was very rich. Among her possessions were cattle, slaves, money and rice, and fields. However, she lacked faith and was so greedy that she would never give away anything. She used to make a great profit by selling rice wine diluted with water. On the day when she made a loan, she used a small measuring cup, while on the day she collected, she used a big measuring cup. Or, when she lent rice, she used a lightweight scale, but, when she collected it, she used a heavyweight scale. She did not show any mercy in forcibly collecting interest, sometimes ten times and sometimes a hundred times as much as the original loan. She was strict in collecting debts, never being generous. Because of this, many people worried a great deal and abandoned their homes to escape from her, wandering in other provinces. There has never been anybody so greedy.

On the first of the sixth month in the seventh year of the Hōki era, Hiromushime took to her bed and was confined there for many days. On the twentieth of the seventh month she called her husband and eight sons to her bedside and told them about the dream she had experienced.

“I was summoned to the palace of King Yama, and told of my three sins: the first one consists of using much of the property of the Three Treasures and not repaying it; the second, of making great profits by selling diluted rice wine; the third, of using two kinds of measuring cups and scales, giving seven-tenths for a loan and collecting twelve-tenths for a debt. ‘I summoned you because of these sins. I just want to show you that you should receive a penalty in this life,’ said the king.”

She passed away on the same day she told of the dream. They did not cremate her for seven days but called thirty-two monks and lay brothers to pray to Buddha for her for nine days. On the evening of the seventh day she was restored to life and opened the lid of the coffin. When they came to look in it, the stench was indescribable. Her body above the waist had already turned into an ox with four inch horns on the forehead; her two hands had become ox hooves, with the nails cracked like the insteps of an ox hoof. The lower body below the waist was human in form. She did not like rice but grass, and, after eating, ruminated. She did not wear any clothes, lying in her filth. Streams of people from the east and west hurried to gather and look at her in wonder. In shame, grief, and pity, her husband and children prostrated themselves on the ground, making numerous vows. In order to atone for her sin, they offered various treasures to Miki-dera and seventy oxen, thirty horses, fifty acres of fields, and four thousand rice bundles to Tōdai-ji. They wrote off all debts. At the end of five days she died after the provincial and district magistrates had seen her and were about to send a report to the central government. All the witnesses in that district and province grieved over and worried about her.

She did not know the law of karmic retribution, being unreasonable and unrighteous. Thus, we know that this is an immediate penalty for unreasonable deeds and unrighteous deeds. Since the immediate penalty comes as surely as this, how much more certain will be the penalty in a future life.

One scripture says: “Those who don’t repay their debts will atone for them, being reborn as a horse or an ox.” The debtor is compared to a slave, the creditor to a master. The former is like a pheasant, the latter a hawk. If you make a loan, don’t use excessive force to collect the debt, for, if you are unreasonable, you will be reborn as a horse or an ox and made to work by your debtor. (Page 257-259)

Ki no omi Umakai was a man from the village of Kibi, Ate district, Kii province. Nakatomi no muraji Ojimaro was a boy from the village of Hamanaka, Ama district in the same province. Kinomaro no asomi lived at a port in Hidaka district in the same province, using a net to catch fish. Umakai and Ojimaro were given an annual payment for their labor by Maro no asomi, and both were driven hard day and night to catch fish by net.

In the reign of Emperor Shirakabe, on the sixth of the sixth month in the summer of the second year of the hare, the sixth year of the Hōki era, it suddenly blew hard and rained in torrents, so that the water flooded the port and floated various timbers and logs into the sea. Maro no asomi sent Umakai and Ojimaro to collect driftwood. Both man and boy made the collected timber into a raft on which they rode, trying to row against the current. The sea was extremely rough, breaking the ropes that held the raft together, and immediately the raft broke apart and drifted out of the port into the sea. The man and the boy each got hold of a piece of wood and drifted to sea on it. Both of them were ignorant, but they never ceased wailing, “Śākyamuni Buddha, please deliver us from this calamity!”

After five days, the boy was eventually cast by the waves onto the beach at a salt makers’ village, Tamachino no ura, in the southwestern part of Awaji province, in the evening. The other man, Umakai, was cast onto the same spot early in the morning on the sixth day. The local people, having asked them why they had been cast by the waves onto the shore, learned what had happened and took care of them out of pity, reporting it to the provincial magistrate. When he heard, he came to see them and gave them food because he was sympathetic.

In grief, the boy said, “As I have followed a man who kills, my suffering is immeasurable. If I go home, I shall be driven to begin killing again and never be able to stop.” Thus he stayed at the provincial temple in Awaji province becoming a follower of the monk of that temple.

Umakai, however, went home after two months. When his family saw his face and protruding eyes, they wondered and said, “He was drowned in the sea. The seventh seventh day has passed, and we have already offered a vegetarian feast to thank the Buddha for his benevolence. How could he come back alive so unexpectedly? Is it a dream, or is he a ghost?” Thereupon, Umakai told his family in detail what had happened, and they were sorrowful as well as happy. Awakened and disillusioned with the world, he entered the mountains to practice dharma. Those who saw or heard of him could not but marvel at the event.

The sea being full of danger, it was owing to the power of Shakanyorai and the deep faith of those who drifted on the sea that they could survive the peril. The immediate repayment of our deeds is as sure as in this instance, and how much more certain repayment in future lives will be! (Page 255-257)