•Dichotomy•
|"A division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different."|
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How many silhouettes can one trap in oneself? How many faces can a mask hide...
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Have you ever heard of the story Kumo no Ito?
Its an old Japanese tale written by Akutagawa Ryunosuke.
The story begins when Buddha Shakyamuni was strolling in paradise one day, and happened to take a glance at the lotus pond. The pond being translucent, he could see far into the depths of hell.
When the Great God took a close look inside, he saw a violent criminal named Kandata suffering his punishment of being drowned in blood in the deepest and cruelest fires of hell.
After a glimpse, Buddha was prompted to remember one good deed that Kandata had done when he was still alive. He had deliberately refrained from stepping on a spider and crushing it under his feet. But it was not out of kindness or consideration. But only because he felt it would be senseless to take the life of something so insignificant.
Whatever may be the reason, it was the only virtue Kandata had in his names. So, Buddha decided to give him a second chance at salvation.
Buddha assembled a silk thread woven from the spider's web. A weak, but shiny streak of silk. When he assembled the appropriate amount, he lowered it into that deepest fire of hell so that Kandata could climb up the thread and come out into the heavens.
Kandata eagerly began climbing up the thread to extricate himself. He wanted to be quick and hastened out so that he could see the light of the day which he had not seen in so many centuries. But as he grew more and more fast and impatient, Kandata began to grow weary and decided to take some rest to put out his exhaustion.
But it turned out to be an unwise decision. When Kandata paused for a while to relax, other sinners took notice of the spider's thread and started to climb behind him. They too longed to escape out of the hell and enjoy the bright radiance of the paradise.
But Kandata thought different. He was terrorized to see them climbing up, and was anxious that the weak silk thread would surely snap in two on the excess weight of more sinners. And then he would fall down back into those burning pits and lose his only chance at being set free.
He shouts at the sinners and furiously kicks them down back into the hell, angrily claiming that the thread was his and they had no place to climb to.
Due to Kandata's greed, the very next second that thread snaps in two, and Kandata and all the other sinners fall back into the pool of blood.
On seeing such a misfortune of behaviour, Buddha grew very sad. He turned his eyes away from the lotus pond and continued his stroll.
And Kandata suffered his afterlife in hell forever.
