THE BUDDHA’S TOOTH

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THE BUDDHA’S TOOTH

An old woman lived with her young son in a small

village. She eked out a living for the two of them by working for her

neighbours and by tending a single cow and some chickens. They were

both deeply devout, the woman telling her son of the Buddha, the

compassionate one, whose teaching relieved suffering. Painfully she

saved tiny bits of money for the day her son would be old enough to go

on a pilgrimage to the very tree where the Buddha had gained

enlightenment. He grew up, eagerly looking forward to the journey.

At last the boy was old enough to make the trip, and there was

enough money for him to travel the great distance and to buy a relic of

the Buddha while in the holy city. " Bring me a tooth of the Buddha " ,

his mother requested. " I saved for this all my life and yours. Be very

careful of the money. Here is just enough for you to live during the

weeks you will be travelling, and the extra, this precious piece of

gold, is for the tooth. Keep it safe in your pocket. " She kissed him

and cried over him, and checked once again that his cloths (such as

they were) were clean. She poured out all manner of instructions on

him, as well as tears. " Don’t forget the tooth " , she reminded.

The boy now a handsome young man, set out. Before very long he fell

in with another group heading for the same place. There were all manner

of people with the pilgrims, and they sang and chanted, making the

journey a pleasant one.

One in the city, however, the young man saw other things that

looked attractive and soon forgot that he was on pilgrimage. What with

one thing and another, all his money was soon gone, including the

precious gold piece his mother had entrusted to him for the sacred

relic, the Buddha’s tooth. He woke up one morning with nothing left

except a bad headache. He knew he had to find his way home somehow. And

he was stricken with sorrow at how he had squandered his mother’s

money, so hard won. Hungry and thirsty, he began the painful trek back

to his village without ever getting to the tree where the Buddha had

reached enlightenment.

When night fell, the young man would lie down by the side of the

road and sleep, exhausted and hungry, but still worrying about the

relic he had been unable to buy. One morning, as he stumbled along the

road, he saw an old dog that had died. As sometimes happen, the dog’s

mouth was slightly open and his teeth were showing. The young man

reached in and touched one of the teeth. It fell out into his hand. He

wrapped it in his torn loincloth.

hen he finally arrived home, his mother was

overjoyed beyond measure to see that he was alive and safe. And triply

overjoyed when he presented her with the relic, ‘a tooth of the

Buddha’, as he declared it to be.

Sobbing with gratitude and awe, the mother washed the tooth and

placed it in the shrine she had prepared while the young man had been

away. During the months and years that followed, the ‘relic’ became a

thing of incredible wonder to the villagers. In fact it almost became a

reason for pilgrimage itself. Many miracles were attributed to it and

to his mother as keeper of Buddha’s tooth. Her deeds of compassionate

listening and goodness were profound and her happiness unbounded.

The young man, however, grew more and more distraught as the

relic’s reputation grew and his mother’s saintliness increased. This

built up over years, and finally he couldn’t stand living a lie any

more. One evening, after several priests had visited and received both

blessings and teachings from the tooth, he finally blurted out the true

story to his mother. " That’s not the Buddha’s tooth. I lost all the

money you gave me. I got that tooth from a dead dog! " And he ran

outside the house.

Just outside the door stood a beautiful man looking at him with

eyes of kindness and humour. It was Buddha’s smiling. In a gentle

voice, the Buddha said, " That was my tooth, you know. "

 

-- With Love,Ganesh BabuMy Group: Kriyababa_spiritualjourney- (Send a blank email)