The History of Buddhist Thought c17.36

c17.36

The different kinds of fruit are also specified according to the character of the deeds. The woman or man who kills or sheds blood is reborn in hell, or if the person attains human form she or he is short-lived. Those who have compassion for the welfare of all living beings are reborn in heaven, or if as human beings they are long-lived. For crimes of violence the fruit is sickness, for anger ugliness, for desiring honour and lordship weakness, for miserliness poverty, for pride and insolence low birth, for not resorting to ascetics and brahmins and asking what is good and what should be done stupidity.² These things are known because, as we are told, “ some ascetic or brahmin by means of austerity, effort, application, and attention produces such concentration of mind that with concentrated mind and purified divine eye surpassing human vision he sees a certain man practising murder, theft, adultery, lying, malicious and harsh speech, frivolous talk, greed, malevolence, false views. He sees the man after death born in an unhappy state or in hell. He says, ‘ surely there are evil karmas and ripening of misdeeds, for I have seen such a man born in hell.’ And he says, ‘ surely he who commits such crimes is born in hell. They who know thus know rightly; the knowledge of those who know otherwise is false.’ ”³