Kako je menihova molitev pregnala demone

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Kako je menihova molitev pregnala demone

This, too, is a tale of long ago. The Horikawa Grand Minister, Lord Kanemichi, fell gravely ill, and all manner of prayers were offered for his recovery. There was scarcely a monk in the land who did not come; they gathered to perform their rites, and the commotion throughout the mansion knew no bounds. Now, Gokurakuji was a temple the lord himself had founded. Yet no command had been given for the monks living there to offer prayers, and none of them had been summoned. One of those monks thought, “It is thanks to our lord’s generosity that I live at ease in this temple. If he should die, I shall have no means of making my way in the world. Summoned or not, I shall go.” Taking the Sutra of the Benevolent Kings with him, he went to the mansion. Finding everything in an uproar, he crouched in a corner of the corridor north of the middle gate and devoted himself wholly to reciting the sutra, though not a soul paid him the slightest heed. A few hours later, the lord asked, “Is the reverend so-and-so of Gokurakuji here?” Someone replied, “He is in the corridor beside the middle gate.” “Then call him here,” the lord commanded. Everyone was astonished. He had not summoned any of the many eminent monks present, yet now he was calling for this fellow, whose very arrival they had regarded as presumptuous. Puzzled though they were, someone went and told the monk that he was wanted. He came and crouched on the veranda behind the rows of high-ranking priests. When the lord asked whether he had arrived, they reported that he was on the southern veranda. “Bring him inside,” he said, and the monk was shown into the room where he lay. Until then the lord had been so desperately ill that he could scarcely speak, but while summoning this monk he had seemed so much better that everyone marveled. He said, “As I slept, I dreamed that terrifying demons were seizing me and tormenting me, each taking his turn. Then a boy with his hair bound in loops at the temples came in from the direction of the middle gate, carrying a switch. He struck at the demons with it and drove them all away. When I asked, ‘Why are you doing this, child?’ he replied, ‘The monk so-and-so of Gokurakuji is deeply grieved by your illness. Since this morning he has been beside the middle gate, praying for you and reciting with undivided attention the Sutra of the Benevolent Kings, which he has recited for many years. I am a guardian spirit of that sutra, and I am driving away the evil demons that have made you ill.’ Then I awoke, and ever since, I have felt so much better, as though my sickness had been wiped away. I called you here to thank you for it.” Rubbing his palms together, the lord bowed in reverence to the monk, then asked for a robe hanging on a clothes rack and bestowed it upon him. “Return to your temple,” he said, “and continue to pray earnestly for me.” The monk withdrew in delight, and the looks he received from monks and laymen alike were now full of respect. He who had crouched all day beside the middle gate, without the slightest standing in anyone’s eyes, departed in extraordinary splendor. Thus the efficacy of prayers does not depend upon whether the monk who offers them is pure or impure. It is wholehearted devotion that makes them effective. This, too, is the meaning of the saying handed down from old: “Have your own mother, if she is a nun, pray for you.”