Once there was a couple in love. The girl wished to learn how much her beloved loved her:

“Tear apart your mother’s chest and bring her heart to me, if you really love me,” she said.

The girl’s beloved was mad about the girl and he tore apart his mother’s chest and took the bloody heart, which was still beating, in his hands. He ran to the girl’s house. A stone on the way tripped him and he fell down. At that moment his mother’s heart in his hands gained the power to speak and said:

“O my dear, you haven’t hurt yourself, have you?”

This is a mother. No matter what happens, she feels and lives for her child with such love, compassion, attachment and dedication that it can never ever be given up. After a long and painful delivery, between life and death, every mother gives birth to her child in difficulty.

(323.)