147. True Salvation (hontō no tasukari)
In 1882, Isa, wife of Yohei Yamamoto of Kurahashi Village in Yamato Province, who was then forty years old, received such marvelous salvation that she was completely healed of a leg ailment of long duration. At the moment of her healing, as she rose to her feet, her leg and hip joints gave out cracking sounds from the long disease.
Yet the trembling of her hands did not cease. She worried about it very much, even though it did not seem serious. She returned to Jiba in the summer of 1884. When she was received by Oyasama, she begged, holding out her trembling hands, “May I ask you to breathe upon these?” Then Oyasama instructed Isa:
“It would be very easy to breathe upon them. But your trembling hands seem of little inconvenience since you have already been saved from your serious leg ailment. Rather than being cured completely, it is better that you have some trouble left to be healed; then you will understand the innen of your previous lives and be continually reminded of it. This will lead to your true salvation. People tend to wish nothing but to be completely cured. But what is most important is to gain virtue that will lead to true salvation. So I lend you this book instead of breathing upon your hands. Have this book copied and read it every day.”
Oyasama lent her a complete set of the seventeen parts of the Ofudesaki. From that time on her trembling hands no longer bothered her. For the rest of her life, she read the Ofudesaki which had been copied for her by her own father, and she spread the teachings to whomever she met. She was so blessed that she lived to be eighty-nine.
Anecdotes of Oyasama, pp. 119-120