The Story of Jakushin

Once long ago, in old Japan, before there were airplanes and fast trains, even before TV cartoons, there lived a Buddhist monk, named Jakushin. Now Jakushin was known far and wide for his piety. He took his religion very seriously, and tried to live his life perfectly, according to the Buddhist view that all living things have a self or soul that continues through many lives, so that a self might take on many bodies and many kinds of bodies during its career. And like the Buddha, Jakushin tried very hard to treat all animals kindly, for who knew what they had been in previous lives?

Well, one day Jakushin got a message that he should go to the palace in the capital to pay his respects to the prime minister. It was a high honor, so Jakushin lost no time in hiring a horse and a groom to take him to the palace. But there was a problem: Jakushin knew that the horse might not have been a horse in its previous life. Maybe it was his own grandfather or grandmother! How could he ride this horse? It would be so disrespectful. But as Jakushin was quite old and unable to walk very far, finally he carefully climbed on the horse's back, all the while apologizing to it. "Oh grandfather I am so sorry, but you see I am quite old and weak, and, oh I am so sorry, but oh dear oh dear."

But that was as much as he could bring himself to do. He wouldn't presume to guide the horse on the way he wanted to go. So he insisted that the groom let the horse go where it wanted. Well, you know that a horse if left to itself will find some good grass and start munching away at it. And that is what this horse did. It wandered around, with Jakushin on its back, and got no nearer to the capital at all. "Oh dear oh dear," Jakushin said, "please grandfather, would you mind taking me to the capital? It is quite important. But of course you know best, it is just that... oh dear oh dear." What else could he do?

Finally the groom, in disgust, gave the horse a whack on its rump to get it moving in the right direction, because a journey that should have taken an hour was taking all day.

Jakushin was terribly upset. "Oh, how could you? For all you know this horse might have once been your own grandfather. Or your grandmother. How can you treat it that way? They no doubt chose to be reborn as a horse out of love for you, to serve you. And you are so ungrateful and disrespectful. Oh dear oh dear."

After dark, and very late for the meeting at the palace, the groom said to himself, "Old Jakushin may know a lot about grandfathers, but he knows nothing about horses! Maybe the horse was his grandfather in another life. But now, he is still a horse."

[Tale adapted from the Konjaku monogatari shuu, compiled about 1,200 AD]