I
One day the Buddha was sauntering alone on the brink of the lotus pond
of Paradise.
The lotus flowers in bloom in the pond were all as white as pearls, and
the golden pistils and stamens in their centers ceaselessly filled all
the air with ineffable fragrance.
It was morning in Paradise.
Presently the Buddha stood still on the brink of the pond, and through
an opening among the leaves which covered the face of the water,
suddenly beheld the scene below.
As the floor of Hell lay directly beneath the lotus pond of Paradise,
the Sanzu-no-Kawa and Hari-no-Yama were distinctly visible through the
crystal water, as through a sterioptiscope.
Then his eye fell on a man named Kandata, who was squirming with the
other sinners in the bottom of Hell.
This Kandata was a great robber who had done many evil things,
murdering and setting fire to houses, but he had to his credit one good
action. Once while on his way through a deep forest, he had noticed a
little spider creeping along beside the road.
So quickly lifting his foot, he was about to trample it to death, when
he suddenly thought, “No, no, as small as this thing is, it, too, has
a soul: it would be rather a shame to recklessly kill it,” and spared
the spider’s life.
As he looked down into Hell, the Buddha remembered how this Kandata had
spared the spider’s life. And in return for that good deed, he thought,
if possible, he would like to deliver him out of Hell. Fortunately when
he looked around, he saw a spider of Paradise spinning a beautiful
silvery thread on the halcyon-colored lotus leaves.
The Buddha quietly took up the spider’s thread in his hand. And he let
it straight down to the bottom of Hell far below through the opening
among the pearly white lotus flowers.