法苑珠林 70.7

70.7

Furthermore, there was a ghost who said to Maudgalyāyana: "My body is constantly like a lump of meat, without hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, or the like. It is constantly eaten by worms and birds, an unbearable suffering for my sins. What was the cause of this?" [Maudgalyāyana] answered: "In your previous life, you constantly gave medicine to others to abort their fetuses. Therefore you receive such punishment. This is [only] the preliminary blossom of retribution; the bitter fruit of hell lies yet in your future lives." Moreover, because of killing living beings, greed and harm increase; and because they increase, one lacks righteousness and yielding, and so commits robbery. If in one's present life one steals and takes what is not given, upon death one will fall into the Hell of Iron Caverns, undergoing various pains and afflictions for distant kalpas. Once this suffering has ended, one falls among animals, one's body constantly bearing heavy burdens, driven, harassed, and beaten, without any rest, and one's food consisting solely of water and grass. Remaining within this state through immeasurable births and deaths, by the original cause, if one encounters slight goodness, one may barely regain a human body, but constantly as a servant or slave, driven and ordered about, unable to obtain autonomy. Before the debt is repaid, one cannot hear the Dharma, and because of this suffers endless transmigration. One should know that this suffering is entirely due to stealing.