Master Jianyin - Three Letters from King Yama 閻羅王三封信

(English subtitles) Master Jianyin, 鑑因法師 (1937-2024) , Talks Dharma.
Subtitles:
Once upon a time, a man died and went to the underworld. King Yama would sentence his crime. When a person dies, Yama will judge his bardo within 49 days and decide where he will be reincarnated. Before being sentenced, he raised objections to the judge:
“King Yama, you are not thoughtful.”
“Why am I not thoughtful?”
“You arrest me without any reason. You neither give me a call nor write me a letter.”
1:00
Without any notification, you arrest me here.”
“Do I have to notify you before seizing you? I have arrested tens of thousands without giving a notification.”
“Yeah, I am different with others because I had a vow.”
“What vow did you have when you were alive?”
“I don't want to die before I own 100 jias (9699 m² or 0.97 hectares) of land. I only have 80 hectares , not yet 100. So I don't want to die, and I won't close my eyes. No matter what, you have to let me go back. I'm willing to die after I've bought 100 hectares.”
Hearing that, King Yama felt interesting. Till then, he has arrested so many and never met such objection.
2:00
“I have arrested so many without You've learned to oppose everything in the world. I did inform you before arresting you.”
“When did you inform me?”
King Yama asked, “At what age did you feel your eyes were blurry? At what age do you lose your teeth? At what age did your hair and beard turn gray? At what age did your skin turn gray? At what age did your wrinkles appear? These are my letters to notify you. These are I'm calling you. How come I didn't inform you?”
“So, it's you writing a letter to me when my teeth fell?” Yeah.
“When my vision is blurred, my hair is gray, and I am full of wrinkles, it's you calling me?”
3:00
“Yes, those are. You need to have perception when you are getting old. When you are dying, I will arrest you. These are all perceivable. How can you blame me for not notifying you?”
“Notification in that way does not count. How do I know I am dying?”
“Buddha said that we humans have old age, illness, and death. When getting old, you'll get sick and finally die. It's written clearly in the sutra. You didn't study sutra enough but blame me not inform you.”
“The way you use is not convincing. No matter what, you have to release me back, and I am willing to die.”
King Yama was very interested after hearing this. “I can let you go back but on one condition.” What's that?
“I let you go back. When you have bought 100 hectares of land,
4:00
I will arrest you, and you need to bring five catties (3 kilograms) of rice over.”
“Five catties of rice, that's too easy. I have 100 hectares of land and harvest one million catties each year. That is too easy to bring you 5 catties of rice. I can bring even ten thousand catties of rice, not to mention 5 catties.” Then he told the little ghosts to bring him back.
Thus, he returned home. Originally, this man died in the living room. Although his heart had stopped beating, his heart was still warm, so his family dared not put him in the coffin. He didn't regain consciousness until the third day. He resurrected and sat on bed,
5:00
which shocked his son and wife. He had died for three days, how could he resurrected and was sitting? “Why do you get up?”
“My soul came back, I didn't die.”
“You didn't die? You have died three days.”
“King Yama want to judge me, and I oppose it. I will buy 100 hectares of land in my life, but he arrested me while I have only 80. I wouldn't close my eyes unless he let me come back. Now that he has let me go back, you five brothers (he has five sons) must work hard and buy another twenty hectares of land as soon as possible. Otherwise, Yama might arrest me again at any time before my wish is fulfilled. As for you, my sons, you must strive to achieve my goal.”
6:00
On hearing that, his sons thought King Yaman was so compassionate that he let our father return. They were very touched. After that, they worked desperately, bought a lot of land. A few years later, they finally reached the goal of 100 hectares.
King Yama had divine power that he certainly knew the man had bought 100 hectares already. So he dispatched ghosts to arrest him.
After he was arrested to the underworld, King Yama asked him: “Do you have any words to say?”
“I'm very satisfied, I've bought 100 hectares of land. I'm willing to die.”
“Back then, we had a deal, I let you return, and you will bring 5 catties of rice. Did you bring it?”
“I've thought of that, and I wanted to bring 10,000 catties. As a result, I couldn't even bring 5 catties.”