ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 12.9

12.9

spirits, to wander among the animals, to wander among the humans, and to wander among the gods.

When he returned, he would relate to people how the hell beings suffer through being cut up, hacked apart, beaten, roasted, and so on. When he returned, he would 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. Those who heard him were filled with sorrow, and from this sorrow they went on to achieve great things.

One day Venerable Mahā­maudgalyāyana prepared himself to wander among the anguished spirits, disappeared from Śrāvastī, and stood on the seashore, where there lay an anguished spirit with an enormous body. The lower half looked very ordinary, but from the waist up it was like two separate bodies. He was on fire, burning all over, covered in flames, and he lurched all about until, due to his past actions, lions, tigers, leopards, bears, and the like, all with fangs of iron, appeared and tore into his flesh over and over again and fed on him.

Humans appeared there due to his past actions as well, and they took up sharp swords and hacked at his upper body. While they hacked away at one side of his upper body, the other side would regenerate, and when they hacked away at the other side, the first side would regenerate. This caused him dreadful suffering and extreme, excruciating, unbearable agony, and he let loose great cries. As he tried to flee, the humans who appeared due to his past actions pursued him.

Seeing all this, Mahā­maudgalyāyana thought, “What action