- A Woman Despairs for Her Sick Child
- 1 Sahng-jeh-nim was passing through Tae-in with many disciples, when He saw a woman on the side of the road carrying her nine-year-old boy on her back. She set him down and wailed mournfully.
- 2 “What’s wrong with your child?” Sahng-jeh-nim asked her. “Why are you crying so sadly?”
- 3 The woman stopped crying. “My child became sick when he was five. Now, he is nine and still has shown no improvement.
- 4 I have just been to a doctor who said, ‘A worm has entered the child’s liver and there is no way to cure him. Take your child home.’ Now, I am carrying him back home.
- 5 Different people tell me different things.
- 6 No matter what they say, I think I have already lost my son. It would be better if he died quickly.” She began crying again.
- Follow the Words of the Lord of Heaven
- 7 After hearing her story, Sahng-jeh-nim comforted her. “Do not cry so sadly.”
- 8 He turned around and said to Chey Chahng-jo, “Ask the woman if there is a small hermitage on the mountain behind her house.”
Chahng-jo asked her and she answered, “Yes, there is.” Chahng-jo told Sahng-jeh-nim her answer.
- 9 Sahng-jeh-nim said, “Tell her if she goes up to the hermitage early in the morning and strikes the temple bell three times on three consecutive mornings, the child will be healed.”
- 10 Chahng-jo gave her the message and added, “Do not take these words lightly. Do exactly as He has said. Our Teacher is truly the Lord of Heaven.”
- 11 She said, “Of course I will do as He has said.” She expressed her thanks by bowing many times, and asked Chahng-jo where Sahng-jeh-nim lived.
- 12 Sahng-jeh-nim said, “Tell her I live in the medicine room in Gu-rit-gohl Village.”
- (JSD Dojeon 2,112)
