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)