Kako je Džizo rešil meniha

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Kako je Džizo rešil meniha

This, too, happened long ago. In the village of Saka, in Takakusa District in the province of Inaba, there was a temple called Kokuryūji. It had been built by Chikanaka, a former governor of the province. An old man there handed down the following tale. The temple once had a chief priest who summoned Buddhist sculptors to his house to make an image of Jizō. While they were at work, the priest’s wife was won over by another man and vanished with him, leaving no trace. Distraught, the priest forgot both the image and the sculptors, and sent people out in different directions to search the surrounding villages. Seven or eight days passed. With their patron gone, the sculptors sat idle, gazing helplessly at the sky. Seeing this, the monk who administered the temple was moved to compassion. He found food for the sculptors, and with his help they managed to finish carving the wooden image of Jizō, though they could neither paint it nor furnish it with ornaments. Afterward, this monk fell ill and died. His wife and children wept in grief, and though they placed him in a coffin, they could not bring themselves to take it away, but kept it beside them and continued to watch over him. On the sixth day after his death, at about two in the afternoon, the coffin suddenly began to move. Those who saw it fled in terror. His wife, weeping sorrowfully, opened it and found that the monk had come back to life. She gave him water to drink, and after some time he began to tell of his journey to the realm of the dead. “Two great demons came and seized me. They were driving me across a broad plain when a monk in white robes appeared and said, ‘Demons, release this monk at once. I am the Bodhisattva Jizō. This is the monk who had my image made at Kokuryūji in the province of Inaba. The sculptors had gone for days without food, but this monk, moved by faith, sought out provisions and fed them so that they could make my image. I cannot forget this kindness. You must release him.’ At these words, the demons let me go. Then he carefully showed me the way home and sent me back. That is how I returned to life.” Afterward, his wife and children had this image of the Bodhisattva Jizō painted and made offerings to it, and remained devoted to it for the rest of their lives. It is still enshrined in this temple.