Here is a nice story from the Japanese Buddhist monk Rennyo. It is about an old mother in law who is hostile to Buddhism but soon accepts Buddha after an encounter with a cursed mask. It’s neat.

>The story in short goes like this:

A defeated samurai and his family took up farming in a nearby village. Illness struck, taking his life and those of his two sons. Left behind were his mother and his wife Kiyo.

Life was difficult for the two women. Kiyo came to accept her harsh life, yet yearned to journey to the Pure Land to ultimately escape suffering. On the anniversary of her husband’s death, she visited Yoshizaki and heard Rennyo’s teachings. She attained deep faith and thereafter frequently visited the temple.

However, her mother-in-law was a misguided person filled with resentment and greed. She made life hard for Kiyo by filling her days with chores and punishments. Kiyo reacted by merely going to Yoshizaki at night.

The old woman concocted a plan. She retrieved her family’s old Devil mask, which she would use to scare Kiyo and stop her from going to the temple. Dressing in a plain white kimono, she put on the mask, went to a dark valley pass, hid behind some bushes, and waited for her daughter-in-law. Soon Kiyo unwittingly approached.

The disguised devil leaped out, frightening Kiyo, the hair on her skin standing straight up. But soon, Kiyo calmed down and she recited:

If you are going to eat me, then eat. If you are going to drink my blood, then drink. But faith in the diamondlike Other-Power will never be consumed.

Then, reciting “Namu Amida Butsu,” she continued on her way.

The old woman hurried back home and tried to take off the mask, but it was stuck. The more she pulled, the more it felt she was pulling her own skin. What would she say to Kiyo? She began feeling ashamed. Her hands and feet became numb. She couldn’t move.

Kiyo returned home and was startled to see the same devil slumped in a dark corner. Suddenly, she heard her mother-in-law’s voice, letting out a scream. “I am so ashamed,” she cried, and confessed all she had felt, her jealously, her resentment, and how she tried to scare her.

Feeling for her mother-in-law, Kiyo also began to cry. She told her that Rennyo said regardless of how good or bad someone was, anyone who sincerely asked Amida for help and recited nenbutsu would become a buddha. Touched by such compassionate words mixed with Kiyo’s tears and her own shame, for the first time in her life, the old woman recited, “Namu Amida Butsu.”

Amazing as it may sound, when she recited these words, the Devil mask suddenly fell off. The old woman became a person of self-reflection. After that, the mother and her daughter-in-law together made a pilgrimage to Yoshizaki and listened to the Buddhist teachings from Rennyo.

Rennyo wrote several THOUSAND copies of this story by hand and would stand on the street in Kyoto handing them out to people - historical tidbit.