The Spider Thread
(from a lecture by Masao Yokota)

The Buddha was in a lotus-filled garden when he perceived
a man named “Kandata”
who was squirming in the depths of Hell.
He had been a murderer, an arsonist, and thief.
A lifetime of these causes had put him in hell.
He was in the company of others like him.
The Buddha looked further into Kandata’s life
and saw an incident where Kandata came upon a spider.
He raised his foot to stomp on it.
Suddenly, he reconsidered, thinking,
"There is no doubt that this spider is also a living being and it is a shame
to take its life for no reason." In the end he spared the spider.
Knowing this, the Buddha took a spider thread and lowered it to into
depths of Hell with the intention of saving Kandata.

Kandata reached for the thread and found it strong enough to hold his weight.
Using all his strength he began lifting himself from Hell.
After some progress, he looked down and saw hundreds of others
behind him climbing on the same spider thread.
He shouted back at them:
“Get off! This is mine!”
Just then, the thread broke and Kandata fell back into Hell.

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