法苑珠林 6.52

6.52

As the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* says, there are three grades of evil; committing merely the lower grade of evil leads to rebirth in the hungry ghost realm. According to the *Daśabhūmika-śāstra*, it is also stated thus: among the ten evil deeds, whichever one commits, each leads first to rebirth in the three bad destinies, and afterwards to a human body. If one relies on the *Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra*, if one gives rise to greed, jealousy, false sycophancy, flattery, deviousness, and deceiving others, or if one is stingy and greedy, hoarding wealth without giving, one is in all cases born into the ghost path. When one dies from the ghost [state], one is mostly born into the animal realm, receiving the body of a cātaka bird, constantly hungry and thirsty, suffering great distress; it drinks only rain from the sky by raising its mouth to catch it, and cannot drink any other water. For this reason, it is constantly beset by hunger and thirst. According to the *Karma-vibhaṅga-sūtra*, fully committing ten deeds leads to rebirth among hungry ghosts: 1. Bodily action of slight evil; 2. Verbal action of evil; 3. Mental action of slight evil; 4. Stinginess and excessive greed; 5. Giving rise to wrongful evil; 6. Flattery, deviousness, and jealousy; 7. Giving rise to wrong views; 8. Dying while passionately attached to the requisites of life; 9. Dying of starvation; 10. Dying of dehydration. Due to these deeds, one is born among hungry ghosts.