37
Qutu Zhongren Cruelly Kills Other Creatures
The Yunzhou Prefect Helps His Nephew in the Netherworld
As the poem says,
All creatures have life;
They share the fear of death.
Why do people eat meat
When the karmic debt incurred is so great?
Our story makes the point that all living creatures owe their lives to heaven and earth. They all breathe, and they are all endowed with voice and consciousness. Although humans are of a different order, all beings share the same love of life and fear of death and the same desire to requite kindness with kindness and malice with malice. But humans, with their greater mental capacity, resort to strategy in exercising control over animals and birds, driving cattle, harnessing horses, raising hawks, and training dogs for the hunt. Still not satisfied, they kill and maim goodness knows how many lives so as to satisfy their palates. Lacking the prowess to fight off humans, animals and birds perish under the butchers’ cleavers, and when confronted with death, they will wildly flap their wings or frantically cry out and try to hide from view. They definitely are not insentient beings meant to feed the mouth.
And yet, the gluttons, the killers, and pedantic scholars say, “Since the Lord on High gives life to other creatures in order to feed human beings, it is no sin to consume them.” (MC: It is no surprise to hear this from gluttons and killers. It is the pedantic scholars who are especially infuriating. Their near truths greatly obscure the real truth.) I wonder if the Lord on High said this to them face-to-face or if they cooked it up in their own heads. If, as they claim, it is Heaven’s will that humans should prey on other creatures, let me ask this: Since tigers and leopards eat humans, does it follow that Heaven gives life to humans in order to feed tigers and leopards? Since mosquitoes suck human blood, does it follow that Heaven gives life to humans in order to sustain the lives of mosquitoes? If tigers, leopards, and mosquitoes could talk and write, they would surely be adopting the same rhetoric, and I wonder if humans would accept such logic. (IC: What argument can be better than this?) Since the earliest times, those of high moral standing have exhorted people not to kill but to free captive living creatures. So much has been said on this subject that I can limit myself to the above straightforward and poignant arguments to raise a smile from you readers. I will let you be the judge of their validity. According to the Buddhist theory of retribution with its six paths of reincarnation, all living beings are related and involved in cycles of retribution and killing.1 There are so many such stories to tell that I could go on for years and still not finish the list. Let me pick one about animals that are just as afraid of death as humans are. Even those with hearts made of the hardest flint will be moved to compassion.
In the Song dynasty, there was a town called Huangchi in Taiping Prefecture [present-day Dangtu County, Anhui]. Villages within a ten-li radius of the town were inhabited mostly by rascals who slaughtered oxen and dogs with abandon, bringing no credit to their ancestors. In the tenth year of the Chunxi reign period [1174–89], Wang Shuduan and his cousin Sheng Zidong were on their way to Ningguo Prefecture [its seat is the present-day city of Xuanzhou, Anhui] when they stopped at this place for a rest. At the sight of five water buffaloes tied up in a yard, Sheng Zidong said to Wang Shuduan, pointing to the second one, “That one will die tomorrow.”
“How can you tell?” asked Shuduan.
“The other four are eating hay, but this one is doing nothing but shedding tears. There must be a reason for it.”
They then went to a teashop. While having tea, they asked the shop owner, “To which family does that second water buffalo belong?”
“It was bought by Commissioner Zhao (IC: A member of the royal Zhao clan.), to be slaughtered tomorrow morning.”
Turning to Shuduan, Zidong said, “What did I tell you!”
When they went again the next day, only four water buffaloes remained. After taking a closer look, they found that the fourth one, like the one the day before, was also shedding tears and refusing to eat hay. Seeing the two of them approaching, it got down on its front knees, looking as if it was appealing for their help. (MC: A case of crying out when you meet someone who understands you.) Upon inquiry, a waiter told them, “A patron came here this morning and bought three of them, leaving this one to be slaughtered soon.”
Zidong said with a sigh, “Animals do know what’s going to happen to them!” Following his advice, Shuduan located the owner and bought the water buffalo from him for a high price. He then released it to a nearby village, where it was to live out its natural span of life.
From this one incident alone, we can see that animals are just as intelligent as humans and know their hour of death, and they can also be so distraught as to pray for help. Why do humans ruthlessly kill the living for the transient pleasure of their taste buds? Do they assume that they will not stand accused in the netherworld? They must realize that killing is the worst crime in the eyes of the judges of the netherworld, and the guilty ones are made to face every one of their victims. However, few humans ever come back from death to tell of their experiences because, once dead, they pay their debts, one by one. Therefore, people of this world remain ignorant of the truth and find such stories unbelievable. Well, this humble storyteller now proposes to tell a story, a highly believable one, about a man who was raised from the dead to tell his story. Truly,
In the cycle of a life for a life,
Retribution will hardly ever end.
Confucians eat not when hearing sounds of killing;
Gentlemen cannot bear the sight of cadavers. (MC: Pedantic scholars dismiss arguments against killing animals as heterodox. But what about Confucius, who fished with no net but only a line and never shot at roosting birds, and Mencius, who could not bear to watch any killing or to eat meat? Were they heterodox, too?)
In the Kaiyuan reign period [713–41] of the Tang dynasty, there lived in Wen County, a man named Qutu Zhongren. His father, once a prefectural official, had let this only son of his run wild ever since childhood. With no interest in books, Zhongren spent all his time gambling and hunting. When his father died, he was left with several tens of servants, an estate worth several million taels of silver, and multiple farmsteads and houses. Zhongren indulged in sexual debauchery, drank and gambled, and spent money as fast as hot water thawing snow. In just a few years, he lost the entire family fortune and could no longer support the servants. Male and female, they all went their separate ways. Of his real estate, only the farmstead in Wen County remained, but gradually the surrounding land was also sold off. As time went by, even the houses were dismantled and sold, piece by piece. (MC: So low did he sink.) Only one structure still stood intact amid the ruins of the manor. In his poverty, he had nothing with which to eke out a living.
Zhongren did have physical strength, if nothing else. He had one remaining servant called Moheduo, from an ethnic tribe, who also had enough strength to battle a hundred men. Master and servant, being two of a kind, put their heads together to work out ways of using their physical strength for illicit gain. Zhongren was not interested in robbing, killing, or committing arson. What he was interested in was eating beef and horsemeat. (MC: A scoundrel of unusual endowment and ideas.) He did not have the cash to buy any, and so he came up with the idea of going out with Moheduo to steal.
Every evening, the two of them went fifty li away. If they encountered an ox, they would hold it by its horns, turn it over, and carry it on their shoulders all the way home. If they saw a horse or a mule, they would slip a noose over its neck and carry it on their backs. When they arrived home and threw them to the ground, they would all be dead. They would then store the meat in large vats buried under the hall. The skin and bones were tossed into the pit behind the house or burned. Initially, they had wanted only to satisfy their stomachs, but as their stockpile grew, Zhongren told Moheduo to take the meat to the market in town and exchange it for rice and cash. Flush with their easy success day after day, they looked upon their operation as a regular means of making a living. Since the animals were brought in over a great distance and were disposed of quickly, no suspicions about them ever arose, and nothing happened to give them away.
Zhongren loved to kill. During the day, when he had nothing to do, he would think up plans for killing animals with the bows and arrows, nets, pitchforks, and slingshots that filled his room, and he never returned empty-handed from his hunting trips. He never saw an animal or bird—be it a deer, a rabbit, an eagle, or a sparrow—without wanting to come up with a way of eating it. On his return home, he bore them on his back or his shoulders, carried them by hand, or dragged them with his feet. One corner of his house was always filled with animals and birds. The two men also thought up devious ways of eating them. Instead of finishing off any surviving animal or bird with one plunge of the knife or one blow of the cudgel, they came up with diabolical ways of killing it—by gouging out its liver, pulling out its tendons, cutting its tongue, or draining its blood—alleging that the meat of a cadaver was no longer tender and fresh. Whenever they caught a soft-shell turtle, they bound its four feet with rope, put it under a blazing sun, and placed salty wine next to its head. When thirst compelled the turtle to drink it, the two men would begin to cook the drunken turtle, whose meat would therefore be extra delicious. (MC: Committing appalling sins for the sake of a few mouthfuls of food.) If it was a donkey, they would truss it up right there in the house, place a vat of lime water in front of it, and light fires all around the donkey. When the donkey drank from the vat to alleviate its thirst, it would instantly lose control of its bowels and be completely cleansed of all filthy matter. Then they put a jar of wine seasoned with salt and pepper in front of the donkey. The overpowering heat would make the donkey drink whatever liquid was within reach. Thus, before it died, its hide and flesh were already cooked and its insides already seasoned.
One day, they caught a porcupine whose bristles posed a challenge to any cook, but Zhongren said to Moheduo, “We’re not going to give it up, are we?” And he worked out a plan. They added salt to a ball of clay, kneaded the clay until the salt was evenly mixed into it, wrapped the porcupine in the clay, and put it on the stove. When it was well done, he stripped off the clay, and the porcupine’s skin and quills would come off with the clay, leaving a ball of well-cooked meat, delicious with the added seasoning. Such were the things those two men were capable of, as attested by this quatrain:
They never ceased catching animals and birds;
They reeked with the stench of blood.
Innovative chefs they were,
Conjuring up devious ways of cooking.
Now, on with our story: Zhongren had an uncle, Zhang An by name, who had been a vice prefect of Yunzhou. When Zhongren first fell into poverty, he wanted to wait until the young man had gone through some hardships before taking him into his own home and exhorting him to mend his ways. Later on, observing that the young man’s actions became less and less humane, he offered admonitions every so often, but to no avail. Zhongren being his brother-in-law’s only son, Vice Prefect Zhang took his well-being very much to heart, but since the wayward young man was not amenable to reason, the vice prefect gave up trying. Later, after the vice prefect died, no more admonitions fell on the young man’s ear, so he let himself go and steeped himself in vice.
More than ten years went by in like manner. One day, Moheduo the servant died of illness. With no one to help him now, Zhongren hired his old wet nurse to watch the house while he continued to do what he had always done. More than a month later, he was at home one evening, munching on beef, when two men in black barged in, slipped a noose around him, and dragged him away. Being strong of body, Zhongren tried to struggle free, but strangely enough, his strength left him. (MC: At a time when he would do anything not to go.) Meekly, he let himself be dragged along. Indeed,
With their talons they split the ground;
Able to rise on clouds, they flew above the clouds.
If they lacked the skill to penetrate sky and earth,
How could they wipe out that scourge?
Zhongren asked the men in black, “Where are you taking me?”
“A servant of yours implicated you. Your presence is required to confront him in court.”
Not knowing what this was about, Zhongren followed them into a large compound with more than ten rooms, two for each of the six judges. Zhongren’s case was to be heard in the two westernmost rooms. The judge had not yet made his appearance, so the men in black told Zhongren to stand and wait. A moment later, the judge arrived. Upon a close look, Zhongren cried, “Aya! Imagine meeting you here!”
You may ask, who was that judge? Well, he was none other than Zhang An, vice prefect of Yunzhou and Zhongren’s uncle. (MC: Why does such a depraved sinner have such luck? Because his allotted life span has not yet expired.)
Also startled, the vice prefect asked, “Why are you here?” The vice prefect told him to ascend the dais and said to him, “This does not bode well for you. Your allotted span of life hasn’t expired, so you must be here to confront someone in court. With all the evils you’ve done and the thousands and thousands of lives you’ve taken, you have legions of enemies. Now that you’re here, I wonder what I can do to help you.”
Only then did Zhongren realize that this was a court in the netherworld. Recalling all his doings, he began to be seized with fear. He kowtowed and said, “I ignored your admonitions and abandoned myself to vice, not believing in justice in the netherworld. Now that I’m here, please help me, Uncle, for the sake of our kinship.”
Judge Zhang said, “Don’t panic. Wait until I consult the other judges.” To the other judges he said, “My wife’s nephew Qutu Zhongren is guilty of numerous sins and is here today to face his servant Moheduo in court. However, since his allotted span of life hasn’t expired, I intend to release him and bring him back when the time is right. And yet, since he’s already here, I’m afraid the aggrieved souls of his victims will refuse to let him go. As a favor to me, would you agree to set him free?” (MC: Favors are also done in the netherworld.)
“We should consult a legal expert,” said the other judges.
Thereupon, Judge Zhang had a ghost lictor summon a legal expert. As a man in green was brought in, Judge Zhang said, “Is there any way to free a sinner whose span of life has not yet expired?”
The legal expert asked for the details of the case, and Judge Zhang told him about Zhongren. The expert said, “So Zhongren must be here because he’s implicated in Moheduo’s case. It’s true that his life span has not expired, but he has too many enemies. If they’re to be brought in to confront him, I’m afraid they’ll ignore all protests and devour him, and these are all lives that have to be repaid. This court is unable to stop such acts of retribution. I think there’s no justification for letting him return to life.”
Judge Zhang said, “Zhongren is a relative of mine, and he’s not supposed to die at this time. That’s why I wish to help him. If his number was up, I wouldn’t have cared, because he brought this all on himself. Do you have any idea how to solve this problem?”
After a moment’s reflection, the legal expert said, “I do have an idea, but the aggrieved souls of his victims must agree to it. Otherwise, there’s nothing I can do.”
“What’s your idea?” asked Judge Zhang.
“All of his victims must be given their lives back and allowed to reincarnate. Your Honor can bring them to court and fool them by saying, ‘Qutu Zhongren is in this court because he’s implicated in the Moheduo case. You have the option of eating him up before your reincarnation. But by doing so, you’ll be committing a sin, and thus you’ll be reincarnated as what you were before, oxen or horses. And Zhongren will be reincarnated as a human being and continue to prey on you. That way, there will be no end to the cycles of retribution. It has been verified that Zhongren is not to die at this time and is to be returned to the mortal world for a while. Now, if we make him do good works for your benefit so that you can all be reincarnated not as animals anymore but as human beings, free from slaughter, wouldn’t that be wonderful?’ (MC: Such trickery is also used in the netherworld. Why?) The animals will surely be glad to comply in order to be reincarnated as human beings. Then Your Honor can make him pay his debt in some minor way before releasing him. But if the animals refuse to take this advice, there’s nothing I can do.”
“I’ll do as you suggest,” said Judge Zhang.
The legal expert locked Zhongren up in the anteroom before summoning all the creatures Zhongren had slaughtered to court. All one hundred mu of land belonging to the court were instantly packed to capacity. Behold:
Cattle and horses come in herds;
Chickens and geese come in lines.
Hundreds of beasts brandish their claws and bare their fangs;
Thousands of birds spread their wings.
Who says they are less endowed?
They know who bears them ill will.
Say not that their nature is different from ours;
They seek revenge with even greater urgency.
Some walk, some fly,
Crowding what is hardly the imperial garden.
They cry, they howl,
On what is surely not a paradise on earth.
The tens of thousands of slaughtered cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, sheep, river deer, deer, pheasants, rabbits, porcupines, and birds asked in a chorus of human voices, “Why are we summoned here?”
The judge said, “Qutu Zhongren is here.”
Before he could finish what he was going to say, every one of the animals and birds exploded with rage. Flapping their wings and stomping their feet, they roared, “That murderous scoundrel! It’s payback time!”
In their indignation, the animals and birds doubled in size. (MC: Even if they were not twice their usual size, how could Zhongren’s flesh be enough for them to eat?) The pigs and the sheep grew as large as horses and oxen, the horses and oxen reached the size of rhinoceroses and elephants. All waited eagerly for Zhongren to come out so that they could sink their teeth into him. But after the legal expert delivered his speech at the judge’s bidding, the animals and birds were so pleased on learning about their reincarnation as humans as a result of Zhongren’s good works that they shrank back to their normal sizes. When the judge ordered that they leave the court for now, they obediently vacated the premises.
Only then did the legal expert lead Zhongren out of the anteroom. The expert announced to the judge, “Now is the time for him to pay back a small fraction of his debt.” Right away, two prison wardens came up, carrying a leather bag and two of those blood-drawing presses. After the legal expert stuffed Zhongren into the leather bag, the prison wardens began lowering the presses on it, inflicting unbearable pain on Zhongren. Blood spurted from the holes of the bag like the spray that comes out of a watering can. Then the wardens threw away their cudgels, picked up the bag, and walked around the hall, letting the blood accumulate on the ground. Soon, the blood rose to a height of three feet and reached the level of the dais. (MC: How can he have so much blood in him?) That done, the wardens tossed the bag with Zhongren in it back into the anteroom and locked the room up tightly. The animals and birds were again summoned and told, “Zhongren’s blood has been drawn out and is ready for your consumption.”
Growing to several times their normal size in their anger, the animals and birds cursed, “Scoundrel! Murderer! Now it’s our turn to drink your blood!” They fell all over themselves trying to get at his blood. In the commotion, with every one of them slurping and cursing, the three-foot-high pool of blood vanished in a trice. Still unsatiated, they licked the ground until the soil showed.
After they stopped, the legal expert said, “Now you’ve been paid back in a small way. Moheduo is dead and is at your mercy. Qutu Zhongren is to be set free today to do good works for your benefit so that you’ll all be reincarnated as human beings.”
Delighted, the animals and birds shrank back to their natural sizes and dispersed.
Only then did the judge let Zhongren out of the bag. Now that he was able to stand on his feet, Zhongren ached all over. Judge Zhang said to him, “Having paid back some of your debt, you may return to life now. Since you’ve seen what retribution is like, you must try hard to do good works.”
“I’m so much obliged to you, Uncle, for shielding me and getting me through this crisis! If I can return to life, I’ll thoroughly mend my ways, and I wouldn’t dare increase my evil karma. But what can I do to make my good works expunge all my past monstrous crimes?”
The judge replied, “Your crimes are too heinous to be expunged by ordinary good works. To do that, you must use your blood as ink with which to copy all the sutras. (MC: Does he have any blood left in him?) Otherwise, if you’re brought here again, there will be nothing I can do to save you.”
As Zhongren voiced his thanks and promised to do his uncle’s bidding, his uncle continued, “You must also spread the word about this. It will be to your credit if your story about retribution makes people repent.” Having said that, he ordered the two men in black to escort Zhongren home. Again he admonished, “Do not be tempted by whatever you see on the way. Ignore my admonishment at your own peril.” Turning to the men in black, he went on, “See that he returns home safely. He was so steeped in vice that something may happen to him along the way.”
“We’ll surely do our best, Your Honor!”
And so Zhongren followed the men in black, and they set out on their journey.
After traveling for several li, they came to a bustling place that had every appearance of a wineshop in the human world. Behold:
A thatched house in front of a village,
A bamboo fence in the backyard.
The vats of village wine spread aroma in the air;
The mellow brew filled earthen bowls to the brim.
The hempen clothes on the rack
were left earlier by villagers;
The characters on the shop sign
were written by drunken schoolteachers. (MC: Do ghost schoolteachers in the underworld also inscribe shop signs?)
Liu Ling, knowing the taste, would moor his boat here;2
Li Bai, smelling the aroma, would get off his horse.3
There are no inns on the road to the Yellow Springs;4
Surprisingly, here stands a wineshop midway.
Hungry and thirsty after such a long walk, Zhongren drooled when he saw it was a wineshop. On reaching its door, he saw musicians inside, some playing wind instruments and some singing. There were also men noisily playing finger-guessing games in a drinking bout around a table laden with plates of fatty meat, fresh fish, and chunks of chicken and duck meat. Zhongren found himself seized by his old cravings. His urge to enter and sit down for a hearty meal drove all his uncle’s admonitions from his mind. As he tugged at the two men in black, asking them to join him, they said, “Don’t go in! If you do, it will be a mistake that you’ll regret.” But Zhongren turned a deaf ear. Unable to stop him, the men in black said, “If you insist, we’ll have to wait here for you.”
In large strides, Zhongren went in. He picked a table and sat down. As a waiter busily set out dishes to go with the wine, Zhongren saw to his horror that one was a bowl of human eyes and the other a bowl of large latrine maggots. Realizing that this was by no means a decent wineshop, he quickly rose and was about to go when the waiter offered him a bowl of wine and said, “Drink this before you go.”
Not knowing any better, Zhongren reached for the bowl. But when he put the bowl under his nose, he was hit by a horrible stench. The bowl was in fact filled with the rotten flesh of a cadaver. He was about to put the bowl down when an ox-headed demon suddenly emerged from under the stove and, carrying a steel pitchfork in its hand, roared, “Eat it! Now!” Quickly, the waiter snatched the bowl and forced its contents down Zhongren’s throat. Zhongren could not do otherwise than swallow the flesh in spite of the stench before he hastened to the door.
The ox-headed demon gave chase, followed by quite a few demons of grotesque appearance, all of them shouting, “Don’t let him get away!”
In this desperate moment, Zhongren saw the two men in black rush over from where they were standing. Shielding Zhongren, they thundered, “None of your insolence! This man has just been released by the court.” As they led Zhongren away, supporting him under his arms, the demons stopped in compliance with their order and took themselves off.
The men in black said reproachfully to Zhongren, “Didn’t we tell you not to go in? You turned a deaf ear, only to be given such a shock. What did the judge say to you? He’ll blame us for not doing our job.”
“I thought it was a regular wineshop. How was I to know it would turn out like that?”
“It was your sins that blurred your vision.”
“Why do you say that?”
“That bowl of flesh you ate is by far not enough to repay the debt you incurred by eating drunken turtles and donkeys.”
Stricken by remorse, Zhongren continued to follow the men in black. As he looked around, he felt he had lost his bearings amid a vast expanse of misty clouds. Shortly thereafter, he saw the sunny sky again and thought he must be back in the mortal world, in what looked just like Wen County. As he entered his own house with the men in black, he saw himself lying rigid in bed, with his old nurse sitting by his side, keeping vigil.
As the men in black pushed Zhongren’s soul back into his body, he regained consciousness and woke up. The men in black had vanished, but he heard his old nurse cry, “You’ve come back to life, Young Master! I almost died from all the worrying!”
“How long was I dead?”
“You were eating your meal here when you suddenly died. It’s been a whole day and night. I didn’t dare move you because your chest was still warm to the touch. And now you’ve indeed come back to life. This is wonderful!”
“What a day and night this has been! I got to see what the underworld is like.”
This being a topic of great interest to the old woman, she asked, “What did you see there?”
“It turned out that I wasn’t supposed to die at this time. It was just that Moheduo ran into those he had killed before he died, and so I was summoned to bear witness. I, too, had taken so many lives that I was almost denied a chance to return to life. Luckily, the judge in my case happened to be my Uncle Zhang. He insisted that my allotted span of life had not expired and went out of his way to bring about my release.”
As he told her everything, the old nurse kept chanting “Amitabha” with joined palms. After he finished, she asked, “So what happened to Moheduo?”
“His life span expired, and he’s so heavily indebted that, after my departure, he’ll have to pay for every life he took. Goodness knows how much misery he’ll have to go through!”
“Did you see him?”
“The judge was so partial to me that I wasn’t asked to face off against him in court. So I didn’t see him. I only heard his name mentioned.”
“It’s been a whole day and night. You must be hungry. There’s still some beef left. I’ll bring it to you.” (MC: The beef is just like the leftover wine in Chunyu’s dream and the yellow millet in Mr. Lu’s.)5
“I’m going to follow my uncle’s order and use my blood as ink for copying the sutras. I’ve already sworn off things like beef.”
“That’s good!” With that, she went to cook some porridge for Zhongren. He got out of bed, and when he looked in the mirror as he did his hair and washed, he let out a groan. His face was as sallow as wax because so much blood had been drawn out of him in the underworld to feed the animals and birds.
Zhongren hired a person to clean his house. Then, with all due respect, he acquired several volumes of sutras, lit incense, and began to intone them. When the color gradually came back to his cheeks after two months of recuperation, he drew blood from his arms and set about copying the sutras, volume by volume. To visitors who asked him why he was doing this, he gave an account of his experience, making their hair stand on end. As donations came in to fund his project, he labored at his copying with greater diligence. His emaciated and haggard look was ample proof of his experience. Pointing to the vats in the room and the pit in the backyard, he said to visitors, “I’m keeping these as evidence of my past sins. They also serve as a warning.” Understanding that this was a true story, many of the visitors decided to free captive living creatures and refrain from killing. (MC: Truly wonderful! Surpasses copying sutras.)
In the spring of the twenty-third year of the Kaiyuan reign period, Yu Xian, magistrate of Tongguan, was passing through Wen County when he saw, in a humble house by the roadside, a man nearing sixty years of age writing with his blood as if it were ink. When Magistrate Yu asked to see what he had written, the man produced five hundred to six hundred volumes of the sutras he had copied. In amazement, Magistrate Yu asked him how he was able to have such staunch will power, whereupon Zhongren supplied a full account of everything that had happened. Magistrate Yu sighed in admiration of this remarkable man and made a donation out of his salary before he left. He then spread the word far and wide. Later, Zhongren attained the fruit of enlightenment and died in blissful peace. This is a case of “putting down the butcher’s knife and becoming a Buddha on the spot.” (MC: Vile sinners, take note!) As the following Buddhist poem says,
The living creatures of this mortal world
Vary little in mental faculties.
All are sentient beings;
All possess Buddha nature.
Do not inflict pain on other creatures
In order to please your palate.
My stomach full, I reek with the smell of meat;
They may be dead and gone, but their pain endures.
The resentment, however slight,
Will not go away and leave no trace.
Therefore, in the cycles of reincarnation,
Acts of killing never come to a halt.
May everyone stay compassionate,
Acting this way everywhere!
Improper desires worsen your punishment;
Lessening craving saves lives.
In the twinkling of an eye,
Decisions of life or death are made.
When you pay for your sins,
You will regret your lack of good works.
Why not do good deeds freely
While you are still alive? (MC: How true!)
By redeeming others, you redeem yourself;
This is the way to look at things.