“Akutagava’s Web” in brief summary


One morning, Buddha wandered alone along the shore of a paradise pond. He stopped in thought and suddenly saw everything that was happening on the bottom of the Lotus Pond, reaching to the very depths of the underworld. A lot of sinners were crowding down there. The Buddha’s eyes fell on one of them. His name was Kandata, and he was a terrible robber: he killed, robbed, set fire to, but still there was one good deed in his account. Once in the thicket of the forest, he nearly stepped on a tiny spider, but at the last moment felt sorry for him and removed his leg. The Buddha wanted to reward the robber for a good cause and save him from the abyss of hell. Seeing the heavenly spider, Buddha “hung a beautiful silver thread to a green, like jade, lotus leaf” and lowered its end into the water. The Web began to descend, until it reached the depths of the underworld, where Kandata, along with other sinners, suffered fierce torment in the Lake of Blood. Suddenly he looked

up and began to peer into the darkness. He saw a silver gossamer coming down from the sky, glistening with a thin ray, as if fearing that other sinners would notice it. Kandata clapped his hands in joy. Grasping at the web, he started struggling to climb – for an experienced thief, this was a habitual matter. But from hell to the sky is far away, and Kandata is tired. Stopping to rest, he looked down. He rose so high that the Lake of Blood disappeared from his eyes, and the top of the terrible Needle Mountain was under his feet. He shouted joyfully: “Saved! Saved!”, But then he noticed that countless sinners clung to a cobweb and crawled after him higher and higher. Kandata was frightened, that the spider web can tear and he will again fall into the underworld, and screamed that this is his spider web and he does not allow anyone to climb it. And then the spider web, until then, unharmed, burst with a crash right where Kandata was clinging to her, and he flew down. The Buddha saw everything that happened, from beginning to end. When Kandata plunged to the very bottom of the Lake of Blood, Buddha with a sad face continued his walk.


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“Akutagava’s Web” in brief summary