諸經要集 13.55

13.55

As the Zabaozang jing states: In the past, a ghost said to Maudgalyāyana: "I cover my head with an object, and I also constantly fear that people are coming to kill me. My mind is constantly terrified, beyond endurance. For what cause and condition is it so?" He replied, saying: "In your previous life, you engaged in illicit sexual relations, always fearing that someone would see you, or fearing that the husband would capture, bind, beat, and kill you, or fearing that the state's laws would execute you in the marketplace. You constantly harbored terror, with fear following upon fear. Therefore, you receive such punishment. This is the flower retribution of your evil deeds; afterwards you will receive the bitter fruit of the hells." Furthermore, because of sexual misconduct, whatever one utters is deceptive. If in this life one speaks falsely, tormenting sentient beings, upon death one will fall into the Weeping Hell, undergoing myriad sufferings and afflictions for distant kalpas. When the suffering is finished, one falls among hungry ghosts, experiencing immeasurable births and deaths in this distress. By virtue of one's fundamental causes and conditions, if one encounters slight good, one may feebly regain a human body, but will have many diseases, being emaciated and frail, exhausted with agony, personally plagued by bitter torment, not loved or cared for by others. One should know that this suffering all arises from false speech.