"At this news I sent a messenger to him three times, saying: “If a person cannot manage to cross a moat ten feet wide, how can he cross one that is a hundred or two hundred feet? Izumi Shikibu, a licentious woman, violated one of the eight precepts by writing poetry, but still she made it rain with a poem. The priest Noin, although he broke the precepts, was successful in bringing rainfall with a poem. How is it possible then that hundreds and thousands of priests, all of whom observe the two hundred and fifty precepts, gather to pray for rain and can do no more than raise a gale, even after one or two weeks of prayer? It should be clear from this that none of you will be able to attain rebirth in the Pure Land.” Ryokan read the message and wept in vexation, and to others he reviled me."
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