ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 12.18

12.18

Those who heard him were filled with sorrow, and from this sorrow they went on to achieve great things.

One day Venerable Nandaka prepared himself to wander among the anguished spirits, disappeared from Śrāvastī, and traveled to the seashore where he saw an anguished spirit that was completely naked and covered only by the hair of her head. She was covered in flames like a burning log, and completely blind. Worms poured forth from her nose and mouth, and she reeked with a stench that could be smelled for many yojanas. She ran all about, but mottled blue dogs bit her wherever she went. This caused her dreadful suffering and extreme, excruciating, unbearable agony, and she cried out loudly as she ran all about.

Seeing her, Venerable Nandaka asked himself, “What action did this being take?” When he examined that being’s past lives, he saw that after going forth as a nun in the doctrine of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, she was hot-tempered and quarrelsome, slandered many different nuns, and created obstacles to their material well-being.

Venerable Nandaka thought, “Though indeed I can see her past actions clearly, still I shall ask the Blessed One about this, so that many might become disillusioned with saṃsāra.” He disappeared from the seashore and traveled to Śrāvastī, where the Blessed One sat teaching the Dharma amid a company of hundreds. Then Venerable Nandaka, seeing that the Blessed One was teaching the Dharma amid a company of hundreds, thought, “Now is the time to ask 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,