Sin Is Like Sparks Of Fire Hidden In Ashes
The Story of Snake-Ghost
Chapter 5: Fools • Verse 12
The Story of Snake-Ghost
Chapter 5: Fools • Verse 12
Truly, an evil deed committed does not immediately bear fruit, like milk that does not turn sour all at once. But smoldering, it follows the fool like fire covered by ashes.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a snake-ghost.
One day Venerable Lakkhana and Venerable Mahamoggallana were coming down from Vulture Peak with a thousand matted-haired ascetics to go for alms in Rajagaha. On the way, Venerable Moggallana saw a snake-ghost and smiled.
When Venerable Lakkhana asked why he had smiled, Moggallana told him it was not the right time to ask, and to ask again when they were in the presence of the Buddha.
After their alms-round, when they had come before the Buddha and sat down, Lakkhana asked again. Moggallana explained that he had smiled because he had seen a snake-ghost, with the head of a man and the body of a snake, twenty-five leagues long.
Flames ran from its head to its tail and from its tail back to its head, and flames played along both sides of its body and poured down upon it.
Moggallana had also once seen a crow-ghost on Vulture Peak and asked it about its past. The ghost told him that in a former life it had eaten three mouthfuls of food meant for monks, and as a result had suffered in Avici Hell, and then, because the fruit of that deed was not yet exhausted, had been reborn on Vulture Peak as a crow-ghost.
The story of the snake-ghost was also told. In a former life, he was a man of Benares who ploughed a field beside a road. People walking through to visit a solitary Buddha kept trampling his field, and though he tried, he could not stop them.
At last, when the solitary Buddha had gone into the city for alms, the farmer smashed all his eating and drinking vessels and set fire to his hut of grass and leaves. The people cried out to seize him, and killed him.
He was reborn in Avici Hell, and later, on Vulture Peak, as a snake-ghost.
Then the Buddha rose and confirmed what Moggallana had said, telling the monks that he himself had seen this very ghost on the day of his enlightenment, but out of compassion for those who might not believe him, and so suffer harm, he had not spoken of it.
The Story of Snake-Ghost
Chapter 5: Fools • Verse 12
Truly, an evil deed committed does not immediately bear fruit, like milk that does not turn sour all at once. But smoldering, it follows the fool like fire covered by ashes.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a snake-ghost.
One day Venerable Lakkhana and Venerable Mahamoggallana were coming down from Vulture Peak with a thousand matted-haired ascetics to go for alms in Rajagaha. On the way, Venerable Moggallana saw a snake-ghost and smiled.
When Venerable Lakkhana asked why he had smiled, Moggallana told him it was not the right time to ask, and to ask again when they were in the presence of the Buddha.
After their alms-round, when they had come before the Buddha and sat down, Lakkhana asked again. Moggallana explained that he had smiled because he had seen a snake-ghost, with the head of a man and the body of a snake, twenty-five leagues long.
Flames ran from its head to its tail and from its tail back to its head, and flames played along both sides of its body and poured down upon it.
Moggallana had also once seen a crow-ghost on Vulture Peak and asked it about its past. The ghost told him that in a former life it had eaten three mouthfuls of food meant for monks, and as a result had suffered in Avici Hell, and then, because the fruit of that deed was not yet exhausted, had been reborn on Vulture Peak as a crow-ghost.
The story of the snake-ghost was also told. In a former life, he was a man of Benares who ploughed a field beside a road. People walking through to visit a solitary Buddha kept trampling his field, and though he tried, he could not stop them.
At last, when the solitary Buddha had gone into the city for alms, the farmer smashed all his eating and drinking vessels and set fire to his hut of grass and leaves. The people cried out to seize him, and killed him.
He was reborn in Avici Hell, and later, on Vulture Peak, as a snake-ghost.
Then the Buddha rose and confirmed what Moggallana had said, telling the monks that he himself had seen this very ghost on the day of his enlightenment, but out of compassion for those who might not believe him, and so suffer harm, he had not spoken of it.