The Dog's Tooth

The proverb comes from the tale of the pilgrim who had promised his mother a relic from the great temple. Just as he was nearing his own encampment, he remembered. He had not given a thought to the promise. There, lying in the road was the rotted carcass of a dog. With no other unusual object to hand, he wiped it off, and put it in the pouch if his chuba.

He did not look her full in the face when he presented her with his gift, but she was so overjoyed with the 'relic' that she did not notice. She placed it high on her shrine and prayed before it, inspired with a devotion she had never had before. When at an advanced age this simple woman died, it is said that she attained the rainbow body as indicative of her great realization.