བསླབ་པ་ལྔའ་ཕན་ཡན་གྱ་མད 3

3

will thoroughly roast one’s body, and then cut it to pieces with a variety of blades and gouge holes in it. Forced to undergo the so-called “fivefold ordeal,”³⁵ the denizens of this hell repeatedly die and are repeatedly revived and reborn in the Reviving Hell.

“The karmic fruition for those who weightily take life is to be overwhelmed again and again by all these terrible, harsh, and intense sufferings of the Reviving Hell.³⁶ Even if they are reborn as a human, their lives will be short, their sense faculties defective. They will be ugly, lacking insight, always fearful, and always angry. They will be disease ridden, full of sorrow, and devoid of joy. They will have nothing, and they will have nothing for a very long time.”

For that reason, the Bhagavān has said:³⁷

“Being reborn for five hundred rebirths
As ghosts, fish, snakes, game, owls,
Water buffalos, dogs, and foxes³⁸
Is the harm that ensues from having killed.”

This is the karmic fruition of killing.

“Those who refrain from killing
Will obtain the body of a man or woman³⁹
And the benefits they reap will be
The full twenty of these qualities:

“Their limbs and minor body parts will be perfect,
Their bodies will be strong,
They will be reborn immediately in a good family,
And their limbs will be beautiful and soft.

“Their lives will be long and happy,
They will be courageous and strong,
Their words will be most eloquent,
And they will experience divine joy.

“They will not be harmed by worldlings
Or criticized by noble ones;
They will not die through black magic,⁴⁰
And they will have an infinite retinue.

“They will have a perfect complexion and form,
They will have few illnesses and afflictions,
They will not have to leave their homes,
And they will not be made unhappy by others.⁴¹

“A man or a woman,
By refraining from killing,
Will experience these benefits
As a deva or as a human.

“After the destruction of the body, after death,