Word 093
At Hokke-ji, a temple said to have been founded by Empress Komyo, there remains the legend of the "kara-buro" — a steam bathhouse where she vowed to wash and cleanse a thousand sick and suffering people with her own hands. Though she was of imperial rank, she never hesitated to soil her own hands for others.
The thousandth person who appeared before her was afflicted with a severe illness, his body covered in sores and pus. While others instinctively looked away, the empress walked toward him without hesitation, washed his body clean, and is said to have gently pressed her lips to his wounds.
In the next moment, his body is said to have shone with a golden light, revealing the form of a Buddha as it ascended into the heavens. What the empress had offered was never an act done in hope of reward.
"That person can give to others because they are wealthy — because their heart has room to spare." Is that really so!?
But in truth, it is the opposite.
It is because the heart has room to spare that one becomes wealthy.
It is because one can GIVE to others that one becomes wealthy.
It is because one can contribute to others and to society that one becomes wealthy.
It was inevitable all along.
Perhaps what the empress received was neither rank nor wealth, but something that had already been fulfilled the very moment she gave.