慈悲道場懺法 3.43

3.43

Today, assembly sharing this karmic endeavor in the bodhimaṇḍa, you should apply your minds even further, focus your ears, and listen attentively! Bodhisattva Śraddhāvanta spoke again to the Buddha, saying: “Bhagavat! There are further sentient beings whose appearance is extremely ugly: their bodies are black as lacquer, their two ears are greenish, their high cheekbones are protruding mounds, their faces are covered with pustules, and their noses are flat; both eyes are yellow and red, their teeth are sparse and missing, and their breath stinks of fish; they are short, stunted, and swollen, with large bellies and small waists; their feet are twisted and crippled, their backs are hunched, and their ribs poke out; they wear through clothes, eat gluttonously, and suffer from malignant sores oozing pus and blood, dropsy, wasting disease, scabies, leprosy, carbuncles, and deep ulcers—all kinds of miseries gather in their bodies. Though they try to draw close to others, people pay them no regard; if others commit crimes, calamity is unjustly visited upon them. They never see the Buddha, never hear the Dharma, and do not recognize bodhisattvas, worthy ones, or sages; from suffering they enter into suffering without rest. What sins caused this?”
The Buddha said: “In their past lives, as children they were unfilial to their parents; as ministers they were disloyal to their lord; as superiors they did not respect those beneath them; as inferiors they were irreverent to those above them; friends did not honor good faith; villagers did not follow righteousness; the court did not employ proper ranks; matters were adjudicated unjustly; and their minds were inverted, lacking any moderation. They killed and harmed lords and ministers, slighted superiors and elders, penalized the state, plundered the people, attacked cities, breached fortified camps, committed robbery and theft—their evil deeds were not just one. They praised themselves and vilified others, oppressed the orphaned and elderly, falsely accused and slandered the worthy and virtuous, disrespected masters and elders, and cheated and deceived the lowly. They committed all these sinful acts in full. Because of these many sinful deeds, they incurred this retribution.”