慈悲道場懺法 4.2

4.2

Today, assembly sharing this karmic endeavor in the bodhimaṇḍa, renew your utmost sincerity, and with single-minded devotion listen attentively! The Buddha was in the Karanda Bamboo Grove at Rājagṛha. At that time, Maudgalyāyana arose from dhyāna and wandered by the banks of the Gaṅgā River, where he saw various hungry ghosts suffering different retributions. Thereupon, the hungry ghosts each gave rise to a respectful mind and came to ask Maudgalyāyana about their past causes and conditions. One ghost asked, saying: “Throughout my life I have always been tormented by hunger and thirst, and wished to go to the latrine to take excrement and eat it. But a powerful ghost at the latrine struck me with a staff, so I could never get near it. What sin caused this?”
Maudgalyāyana answered, saying: “When you were a human, you were the director of a Buddhist monastery. A guest monk came to the monastery to beg for food, but you were stingy and begrudged giving food to the guest, waiting until the guest had departed before serving the resident monks. Because you lacked virtue and begrudged the saṅgha's property, you incurred this retribution due to these causes and conditions. This is your flower retribution; your fruit will be in hell.”