經律異相 1.86

1.86

In the kalpa of famine, people are mostly unlawful, foolish, and holding wrong views. They are stingy, greedy, jealous, and guard their wealth without giving. Floods and droughts are untimely, and planted fields yield no harvest. Rice and grains gradually run out, and grains of food become shockingly expensive. They sweep and gather chaff and husks, and fallen leaves from streets and lanes, to sustain their lives. When chaff and leaves are exhausted, they dig into the earth to eat the roots of grass and trees. Those unable to find food die first. They cut up dead corpses and eat them together. When corpses are depleted, they go to slaughterhouses, and even pick up various skeletons in graveyards, boiling them for broth to drink and thereby sustain their lives. Those who starve to death are all born among the hungry ghosts. This is called the minor kalpa of famine. In the kalpa of pestilence, all people hold right views and practice the ten wholesome deeds. Illnesses are numerous, yet there are no other means or remedies, and little medicine. Although they practice many wholesome deeds, they cannot ward off [calamity]; having little merit, they die whenever they fall ill. Spirits arrive together to afflict, beat, and strike them with staves, throwing their minds into confusion, seizing their vital spirits, and killing them off. When human life ends, all are born in the heavens. This is called the kalpa of pestilence. If one can keep the precept against killing for a single day and night, one will never be born into the kalpa of swords and weapons. If one offers a single harītakī fruit to the Saṃgha, one will never be born into the kalpa of pestilence. If one offers a single meal to the Saṃgha, one will never be born into the kalpa of famine. These evil kalpas alternate in this Jambudvīpa, while in other regions they are slight. When the kalpa of swords and weapons arises here, they only have severe anger; when the kalpa of pestilence arises here, they only have weakened physical strength; when the kalpa of famine arises here, they only experience a minor thirst and lack. (From the Dīrghāgama, fascicle 22; also from the San xiaojie jing chao; also from the Za xin, fascicle 14.)