Summary
Once upon a time, during the reign of a certain emperor, a tidal wave caused the Yodo River to overflow, and many houses in the vicinity were washed away. At the same time, there lived a monk who had a boy about five or six years old, fair-skinned, with a clever face and a good nature, whom he cherished and never let out of his sight. This monk’s house was also swept away by the tidal wave. In the midst of the chaos, forgetting about his elderly mother who was inside the house and his beloved child, the monk panicked and made a great uproar. During this time, the child was carried away, and the old mother was floating and sinking as she was swept downstream.
The monk saw a fair-skinned child floating before him and thought, "That must be my child." He swam over in a frenzy, and sure enough, it was his own child. Greatly rejoicing, he grabbed the child with one hand while swimming with the other, getting close to the shore. Just then, he caught sight of his mother being swept away as she was drowning. In that instant, he had no way to save both, so the monk thought, "As long as I save a life, I can have more children. If I part from my mother now, I will never see her again," and he let go of his child’s hand, swam towards his mother, and helped her to the shore.
The elderly mother had swallowed a lot of water but was rescued with care. At that moment, the monk’s wife rushed over, lamenting, "What have you done? You have two precious eyes, yet you have killed our only child, whom we cherished like a precious jewel, to save this old woman who is like a dead tree, who could die at any moment. What were you thinking?" she cried, grieving and scolding him.
The monk replied, "Certainly, that is logical, but while you say she could die tomorrow, a mother is irreplaceable. As long as life is preserved, I can have another child. Don’t grieve too much." He tried to soothe her, but the mother’s heart could not be calmed, and she continued to cry out loudly. Meanwhile, perhaps the Buddha approved of the monk’s act of saving the elderly mother, as he heard that the child had been rescued by someone else downstream, and the child and his parents rejoiced endlessly together.
That night, an unfamiliar noble monk appeared in the monk’s dream and praised him, saying, "Your intentions are truly commendable." It appeared that he had received this compliment, and then he awoke from the dream.
Original Source: Konjaku Monogatari.
