Post date: Dec 07, 2015 2:29:0 AM
A-san in his 60s has a younger brother in his 50s whose life was now hanging by a thread because of bacterial infection. Thinking that he could not let his younger brother die this way, A-san offered an unreserved and heartfelt apology to his younger brother about something which had become a big sticking point in his mind for many years. In fact, the brothers had held resentment and bitterness against each other for a number of years. When they were children, one incident prompted A-san to punch his younger brother’s pet dog and the dog died as a result. A-san’s younger brother had totally doted on the dog and ever since that incident, he had held grudge against A-san and the sibling discord had remained for more than 50 years. Up until that time, A-san had always thought “Why make such a fuss over a dog”. Therefore, he had never given a thought to his brother’s heartache and never offered even a word of apology for what had happened. A-san’s younger brother has criminal recor
ds and has spent time in prison.
However, it turned out that his long-held grudge against A-san had driven him to such crimes. However, after his younger brother had fallen critically ill, A-san thought that he did not want to let him die while still holding the grudge against A-san. A-san felt from the bottom of his heart, “I must apologize to him. If my younger brother dies like this, I will regret for the rest of my life.” He then made a heartfelt apology saying, “I am sorry that I killed your dog. Really sorry.” A-san burst out in tears while apologizing with all his heart to his younger brother. Despite the use of strong words, A-san was in fact always brooding over the fact that his conduct had bred animosity in his younger brother’s mind. His younger brother accepted A-san’s apology saying “Don’t worry about such thing…”
Then, immediately after that, the doctor said that the bacteria which had taken hold of the entire body of A-san had vanished. Much to A-san’s astonishment, his younger brother regained healthy body in the wink of an eye. When A-san practiced one of the divine teachings by Nidaisama, “The heart of offering one’s unreserved apology”, his brother’s illness, which had been untreatable by medicine, disappeared in a moment.
（End）