ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 12.15

12.15

and traveled to Śrāvastī, where the Blessed One sat teaching the Dharma amid a company of hundreds. Then Venerable Mahā­maudgalyāyana, seeing that the Blessed One was teaching the Dharma amid a company of hundreds, thought, “Now is the time to request the Blessed One to explain about that anguished spirit.” He approached the Blessed One, touched his head to the Blessed One’s feet, and took a seat at one side.

Once he had taken a seat at one side, Venerable Mahā­maudgalyāyana inquired of the Blessed One, “Lord, it is my custom to wander from time to time among the hell beings, to wander among the anguished spirits, to wander among the animals, to wander among the humans, and to wander among the gods.

“When I return I relate to people how the hell beings suffer through being cut up, hacked apart, beaten, roasted, and so on. When I return I also relate to people how the anguished spirits suffer through hunger, thirst, being burned, being incinerated, being cooked, and so on; how animals suffer as they eat one another; how human beings suffer through striving, anger, and exhaustion; and how the gods suffer through dying, falling, disintegrating, and decaying. Because of this, the people who hear me are filled with sorrow, and from this sorrow they go on to achieve great things.

“Lord, as I was wandering among the anguished spirits, I disappeared from Śrāvastī, and in Vindhyācala, in a hollow in the forest, Lord, I saw an anguished spirit with an enormous body that was on fire, burning all over, and covered in flames—he was nothing but a single, searing flame. When he fled to the plains, from his past actions lions, tigers, leopards,