འཕགས་པ་སྤབས་པའ་བླ་གྲས་ཀྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 24

24

had arrived there and how the chariot’s wheel had sliced off the head of one of them, who then died and was reborn as a hell being. “In his life there,” the Blessed One said, “his head continuously reappears, only to be cut off again by a flaming iron wheel. Only after ten million eons will he be freed from that state.

“You, however, have attained the splendor of kingship because you made the aspiration, ‘If I were to become a king, I would offer the Buddha and the assembly of monks the midday meal for a full week!’ And thus your intention was fulfilled. Henceforth, in all your limitless lives, because of your great excellence you will become a distinguished being.”

Then the Blessed One expressed this in verse:

“Because it is the source of evil in the world,
The mind is the root of all poison.
Because it is the source of negative speech,
The mouth is the very gate of evil.

“The mind thinks all kinds of things,
And what follows is the utterance of words.
The evil that speech and mind create
Is born in the body, begetting suffering.

“Without reflecting on benefit or harm,
The unintelligent act negatively.
Thus they become vessels of suffering
And in this way become afflicted.

“A wheel cuts off the head
Of an ignorant man with poor intellect
Who in his mind desired to sever
The heads of those who are wise.

“It is by the illustrious mind alone
That the virtue created by the merit of beings
Who are supported by the nectar of the virtuous Dharma
Leads to the heavenly realms.

“They speak words thoughtful and from the heart,
And thus their speech is good.
It is therefore through their bodies
That the treasury of merit is obtained.

“People who act with forethought
Decide between virtue and non-virtue.
So, if they engage in great merit,
They perennially become the best of gods.

“When the mind consistently relinquishes
Non-virtuous actions,