ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 12.16

12.16

bears, and the like, all with fangs of iron, appeared. When he submerged himself in the water, crocodiles with fangs of iron appeared. When he fled into the sky above, woodpeckers with beaks of iron appeared. All these creatures tore into his flesh over and over again and fed on him. This caused him extreme, excruciating, unbearable agony, and he ran all about.

“Lord, what action did this being take that ripened into his meeting with such suffering?”

“Maudgalyāyana,” the Blessed One explained, “that being committed nonvirtuous actions over and over again. He committed many nonvirtuous actions.

“Maudgalyāyana, in times past, in this fortunate eon, when people lived as long as twenty thousand years, and the totally and completely awakened buddha possessed of insight and perfect conduct, the sugata, the knower of the world, the tamer of persons, the charioteer, the unsurpassed one, the teacher of humans and gods, the blessed buddha known as Kāśyapa was in the world, that being went forth in his doctrine. After that, he acted as steward for the monks, calling upon many benefactors and patrons and accepting donations on behalf of the saṅgha and the stūpa. He took the donations for the saṅgha, the donations to the stūpa, their means of regular support, and the donations for the saṅgha of the four directions, and used it to indulge himself as he pleased and to make gifts of it to others. This act of cutting off the saṅgha from these donations, indulging himself as he pleased, and giving them to others ripened such that he took birth among the anguished spirits, and there was devoured by the creatures that lurk in the sky, in water, and on the plains.”

As soon as they heard this, the people gathered there welled up with grief. The Blessed One directly apprehended their grief,