ESCAPE FROM HELL - A Zen Buddhism Koan
Once upon a time a very wicked man died and ended up in Hell. As he was brought
before King Yama, (the Lord of Hell in Buddhism), he pleaded to the King, "I
am asking your Majesty to be merciful because I always recited Namo Amitabha
Buddha." pleaded the wicked man.
"Can you give me a description of any good deed that you had done on Earth?"
asked King Yama. "If you can, then I will be more than willing to let you
go to Heaven instead of staying here."
The wicked man thought for a long time and said, "I recall I saved the
life of a spider. A bird flew into my garden and destroyed a spider web, and
I chased the bird away."
"OK, I will ask my Officers to verify what you say." said King Yama.
So he sent two Hell Officers off to look for the spider whom the wicked man
said he had saved.
After spending some time looking for the spider, the two Officers finally located
her in the Heavenly Garden, serving as the Goddess of Silk under Emperor Sakra'
s (the King of Thirty Three Heavens in Buddhism) command.
"Yes, it is true that he saved my life," the Goddess of Silk told
King Yama's Officers. "I am very grateful for this and therefore I am willing
to help him get out of Hell"
"How would you do it?" asked the Officers.
"I will spin a long fine piece of silk and drop it from Heaven to Hell.
Then he can hold on to it and I will lift him to Heaven. There is one condition:
My silk looked thin, but very strong. He must have faith in it before he can
be lifted to Heaven."
The scheme was approved by both Emperor Sakra and King Yama. A long thin piece
of silk was produced by the Goddess and dropped all the way from Heaven to Hell.
The man held on the silk and the Spider Goddess started to lift him out. Everything
seemed to work well until ........
As the wicked man was being lifted out of Hell, he looked down and found hundreds
and hundreds of Hell residents also held on to the piece of silk and tried to
get out of Hell into Heaven. The weight of all those people was stretching the
spider silk tremendously. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind, "Can I
trust this thin piece of silk to hold so many people? If I cut the other Hell
residents loose, this piece of silk need not bear so much weight and I am sure
that I can to go to Heaven safely!" And he remembered he had a knife in
his pocket.
He tried to reach his pocket to find his knife, but as he took his hand off
the piece of silk, he fell back into Hell. Thus, while the other residents reached
Heaven safely, he was unable to get out. The Goddess of Silk sighed and told
the two Hell Officers, "Well. My piece of silk is very strong but elastic.
It will not break no matter how many Hell residents held on to it. He did not
have faith in it and did not want anybody else come to Heaven. There is little
else I can do to bring him out."