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Viyahapannatti 7.6

English (machine translation) 7.6

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7.6.355

At Rājagṛha, up to: he spoke thus: "Venerable Sir! Does a soul that is destined to be reborn among the inhabitants of hell bind the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while residing here? Does it bind the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while being reborn? Does it bind the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell having been reborn?"
"Gautama! It binds the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while residing here; it does not bind the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while being reborn, nor does it bind the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell having been reborn. Likewise also for the Asurakumāras, and so forth up to the Vaimānikas.
"Venerable Sir! Does a soul that is destined to be reborn among the inhabitants of hell experience the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while residing here? Does it experience the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while being reborn? Does it experience the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell having been reborn?"
"Gautama! It does not experience the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while residing here; it experiences the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell while being reborn, and it also experiences the lifespan of an inhabitant of hell having been reborn. And so forth up to the Vaimānikas.
"Venerable Sir! Does a soul that is destined to be reborn among the inhabitants of hell have great suffering while residing here? Does it have great suffering while being reborn? Does it have great suffering having been reborn?"
"Gautama! While residing here, it may have great suffering or it may have little suffering; while being reborn, it may have great suffering or it may have little suffering; but after it has been reborn, thereafter they experience suffering that is exclusively pain, [though] occasionally pleasant."
"Venerable Sir! A soul that is destined to be reborn among the Asurakumāras..."—the question.
"Gautama! While residing here, it may have great suffering or it may have little suffering; while being reborn, it may have great suffering or it may have little suffering; but after it has been reborn, thereafter it experiences feeling that is exclusively pleasant, [though] occasionally unpleasant. And so forth up to the Stanitakumāras.
"Venerable Sir! A soul that is destined to be reborn among the earth-bodied..."—the question.
"Gautama! While residing here, it may have great suffering or it may have little suffering; likewise also while being reborn; but after it has been reborn, thereafter they experience feelings of various degrees. And so forth up to humans. For the Vāṇamantaras, Jyotiṣkas, and Vaimānikas, it is as for the Asurakumāras."

7.6.356

"Venerable Sir! Do souls produce their lifespan consciously or do they produce their lifespan unconsciously?"
"Gautama! They do not produce their lifespan consciously; they produce their lifespan unconsciously. Likewise also the inhabitants of hell, and so forth up to the Vaimānikas."

7.6.357

"Venerable Sir! Are harsh feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Yes, they are."
"How, Venerable Sir, are harsh feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Gautama! Through killing living beings, up to the dart of false view—in this way, Gautama, harsh feeling-producing karmas are indeed acquired by souls."
"Venerable Sir! Are harsh feeling-producing karmas acquired by the inhabitants of hell?"
"In the very same way. And so forth up to the Vaimānikas."
"Venerable Sir! Are non-harsh feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Yes, they are."
"How, Venerable Sir, are non-harsh feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Gautama! Through abstention from killing living beings, up to abstention from possessiveness; through discrimination regarding anger, up to discrimination regarding the dart of false view—in this way, Gautama, non-harsh feeling-producing karmas are indeed acquired by souls."
"Venerable Sir! Are non-harsh feeling-producing karmas acquired by the inhabitants of hell?"
"That meaning is not valid. And so forth up to the Vaimānikas, with the exception that for humans it is as for souls."

7.6.358

"Venerable Sir! Are pleasant-feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Yes, they are."
"How, Venerable Sir, are pleasant-feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Gautama! Through compassion toward breathing beings, through compassion toward existing entities, through compassion toward living beings, through compassion toward sentient beings; through not causing suffering, not causing sorrow, not causing anguish, not causing distress, not causing beating, and not causing agony to many breathing beings, existing entities, living beings, and sentient beings—in this way, Gautama, pleasant-feeling-producing karmas are indeed acquired by souls. Likewise also for the inhabitants of hell, and so forth up to the Vaimānikas."
"Venerable Sir! Are unpleasant-feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Yes, they are."
"How, Venerable Sir, are unpleasant-feeling-producing karmas acquired by souls?"
"Gautama! Through causing suffering to others, causing sorrow to others, causing anguish to others, causing distress to others, causing beating to others, causing agony to others; through causing suffering, sorrow, anguish, distress, beating, and agony to many breathing beings, existing entities, living beings, and sentient beings—in this way, Gautama, unpleasant-feeling-producing karmas are indeed acquired by souls. Likewise also for the inhabitants of hell, and so forth up to the Vaimānikas."

7.6.359

“Venerable Sir! In Jambūdvīpa continent, during this descending cycle (avasarpiṇī), when the very miserable era (duḥṣama-duḥṣamā) has reached its utmost extreme, what kind of appearance, condition, and manifestation will there be in Bharata expanse?”
“Gautama! The time will be filled with cries of grief, filled with lamentation, filled with uproar. Through the nature of that time, harsh, rough, dust-soiled, unbearable, tempestuous, terrifying, and cataclysmic winds will blow. Here [the directions] will repeatedly be filled with smoke, and everywhere the quarters will have rising dust, fouled with dust particles, darkened by layers of obscurity, and bereft of light. Through the dryness of that time, the moons will emit excessive cold, and the suns will blaze with excessive heat.
Furthermore, again and again, numerous sapless clouds, noxious clouds, alkaline clouds, sour clouds, fiery clouds, lightning clouds, poisonous clouds, and thunderbolt clouds—carrying undrinkable water, waters whose transformation stirs up diseases, illnesses, and afflictions, and having repulsive water—will unleash abundant rain marked by the fall of sharp torrents driven by violent winds, through which the population residing in villages, mines, towns, poorly-walled towns, isolated hamlets, towns with earthen walls, coastal or riverine emporia, and trade cities in Bharata expanse, as well as quadrupeds, cattle, and sheep, flocks of sky-faring birds, and mobile creatures roaming through villages and forests, and diverse kinds of grass and plant life such as trees, clumps, shrubs, creeping plants, climbing vines, grasses, knotweeds, green herbs, sprout-buds, and shoots, will be destroyed; mountains, hills, hillocks, uplands, and mounds, with the exception of Mount Vaitāḍhya, will be shattered; and water-fissures, pits, impassable terrains, and uneven hollows and elevations, with the exception of the Gaṅgā and Sindhu [rivers], will be made level.
“In that era, Venerable Sir, what kind of appearance, condition, and manifestation will the soil of Bharata expanse have?”
“Gautama! The ground will be like hot coals, like smoking ashes, like dust-ashes, like a heated baking-pan, possessing a radiance like that of glowing [iron]; it will have abundant dust, abundant grit, abundant mud, abundant moss, and abundant quicksand, and it will be difficult to traverse for numerous creatures moving on the ground.”

7.6.360

“In that era, Venerable Sir, what kind of appearance, condition, and manifestation will human beings in Bharata expanse have?”
“Gautama! Humans will be ill-formed, of bad color, foul-smelling, of bad taste, of foul touch, undesirable, unpleasing, disagreeable, inauspicious, disagreeable to the mind, unappealing; having low voices, wretched voices, undesirable voices, unpleasing voices, disagreeable voices, inauspicious voices, voices disagreeable to the mind, unappealing voices, and their utterances will not be accepted; shameless; engrossed in deceit, fraud, quarrel, slaughter, bondage, and hostility; foremost in transgressing moral bounds; continually intent on wrongful actions; devoid of respect and obedience to elders; of defective form, with overgrown nails, hair, beards, and body hair, black, of harsh, rough, and charred complexion, with split heads, yellowish-gray hair, their forms repulsive to look upon and bound with prominent veins, with bodies and limbs enveloped in wrinkled waves of skin like elderly men transformed by senility, with widely separated and fallen rows of teeth, with elevated pot-like faces, asymmetrical eyes, crooked noses, and frightful faces furrowed with crooked wrinkles…
…overwhelmed with scabies and itch, their bodies scratched and wounded by harsh, sharp nails, their rough skins cracked by ringworm, herpes, and white leprosy, with peculiar limbs, moving with a jerky gait, having uneven joints and ligaments, weak with distorted and prominent bones, possessing inferior bodily configurations, inferior heights, and inferior proportions, ill-formed, having base dwellings, base seats, base bedding, and base food, unclean, their limbs and bodies tormented by multiple diseases, walking with stumbling and staggering gait, devoid of enthusiasm, bereft of vitality, their movements gone and their luster lost, their bodies and limbs repeatedly coated with dirt and dust stirred up by cold, hot, harsh, and rough winds, possessing abundant anger, pride, and deceit, highly greedy, partaking in inauspicious misery, for the most part fallen away from moral consciousness and right faith, at the most measuring a single cubit (aratni) in height, having a maximum lifespan of sixteen to twenty years, surrounded by many sons, grandsons, and relatives, and filled with affection for them. Remaining as mere seeds, seventy-two families will dwell in caves dependent upon the great rivers Gaṅgā and Sindhu and Mount Vaitāḍhya.”
“Venerable Sir, what food will those humans consume?”
“Gautama! At that time, in that era, the great rivers Gaṅgā and Sindhu will have the width of a chariot’s path, carrying water measuring only the axle-hole of a cart. That water will be teeming with fish and tortoises, but it will not have much water.
Then those humans will emerge from their caves at the muhūrta of sunrise and at the muhūrta of sunset; having emerged, they will drag fish and tortoises onto dry ground, and having dragged them out, they will spend twenty-one thousand years maintaining their livelihood on those fish and tortoises baked by cold and heat.”
“Venerable Sir, those humans who are without good conduct, without virtue, without restraint, without vows of renunciation, posadha, and fasting, mostly consuming meat, consuming fish, consuming inferior organisms, and consuming corpses—when they die at the end of their time, where will they go? Where will they be reborn?”
“Gautama! For the most part, they will be reborn among the hellish beings and in the wombs of animals.”
“Venerable Sir, where will lions, tigers, wolves, leopards, bears, hyenas, and wild dogs, which are likewise without good conduct, […] be reborn?”
“Gautama! For the most part, they will be reborn among the hellish beings and in the wombs of animals.”
“Venerable Sir, where will vultures, herons, crows, cormorants, and peacocks, which are likewise without good conduct, […] be reborn?”
“Gautama! For the most part, they will be reborn among the hellish beings and in the wombs of animals.”
“So it is, Venerable Sir! So it is, Venerable Sir!”

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