"There was an elderly lady who recited the name of the Buddha dutifully. Every morning she would light incense and she had a bell and wooden fish as is proper. She had been reciting the Buddha's name like that for more than ten years but her personality had not changed one bit; she was an extremely bad-tempered lady and all her neighbors were wary of her unskillful speech.
"A man in the village wanted to teach her a lesson. One morning when she was before her shrine, he came and stood at the gate and called her name 'Mrs. Tu, Mrs. Tu!'
"Hearing this, she grumbled to herself: 'If you have come here why don't you just come in, instead of standing out there shouting?' She began to grow very irritated. She invited the bell and the wooden fish as loudly as she could and she recited the name of the Buddha at the top of her voice in order to send the message that she was reciting the name of the Buddha and it was very impolite of her neighbor to interrupt. The neighbor, however, pretended not to hear. He just stood outside the gate and continued to call her name. In the meantime, she was trying to recite even more loudly. Both of them were shouting loudly and the neighbor persisted in pretending not to hear the recitation and to call the lady.
"Finally she could bear it no longer. She pushed the bell and the wooden fish out of the way and went outside, with her hands on her hips, to reprimand him: 'Don't you know that this is the time when I practice recitation of Buddha's name? Your behavior is extremely impolite and improper.'
"The neighbor laughed loudly and said: 'Heavens above! I only called your name twenty or thirty times and it has made you so angry; but every day you call on the Buddha for a whole hour; the Buddha must be very angry with you by now.' It is useless to recite the Buddha's name when there is not content."
