Here is a story in the Avadanasataka Sutra: At the Buddha’s time, in Sravasti, an elderly Brahman’s wife gave birth to a baby boy. Whenever the child was hungry for milk and as soon as the breast milk entered his mouth, the milk would turn bad. It was the same situation whenever he took in other food. Therefore, this had been how he grew up in a semi-starvation state. After he grew up, he beseeched the Buddha for renunciation from household life. Out of compassion, the Buddha approved it.
After the renunciation, other Bhikkhus always returned with a bowl full of food after they went out to ask for offerings. Yet, he was the only one who returned with an empty bowl. One day, it occurred to him that he had to do something for the Three Jewels. Through the physical work, he wished to eradicate his negative karma. He resolved to clean up the monastery and miraculously, the next day, he returned with delicious food. Therefore, he became even more determined to serve the Three Jewels. This way, he got to have food every day.
One day he slept in and missed the clean-up. Sariputra cleaned up the monastery as he passed by. He was very upset about this and told Sariputra, “I only get to eat after I clean up the place. Now, you have done it. I will definitely have nothing to eat today.” After Sariputra heard about that, he said, “It is no problem. I will go to the city and get food for you.” After he went to a layperson’s house, the couple happened to be in a quarrel. He returned with an empty bowl. The next day, Sariputra told him that an Elder had made a meal offer to the Buddha and the Sangha. The Buddha would take them along. After they arrived at the Elder’s home, everyone’s bowl was full of food, except his. They had missed filling up his bowl. He went to inform the owner about his empty bowl, yet no matter how he yelled out to the owner, somehow, he never could hear him.
After Ananda knew about this, he felt sympathy for him. He volunteered to get food for him the next day. Ananda was known as the first in memory, yet, this time, he totally forgot about his promise. On the fourth day, he finally got a bowl of food. However, on his way back, a dog ran to him and spilled the food. Venerable Maudgalyayana also had learned about this. The following day he went out and got the food for him. On his way back, he took a break under the tree. All the birds in that tree flew down and ate up the food in the bowl. Venerable Maudgalyayana singed, “In spite of being the first in supernatural powers, I also cannot do much due to his heavy negative karma.”
Sariputra could not bear to see this. He made up his mind to find food for him. The next day, he went out and got a bowl of food. When he got to the entrance, the door which used to be open suddenly shut closed with a bang. The bowl of food was hit by the door and spread all over the floor.
Until the seventh day, the Bhikkhu had not taken a bit of food still. He cried out of sorrow and shame. He ended up eating the sand and died. Everyone was amazed by what had happened. They went to the Buddha and inquired about the karmic condition of the Bhikkhu. The Buddha told everyone, “At the time of Indradhvaja Buddha (Sovereign Sign Buddha), there was an Elder who loved to do good deeds and give donations. He often offered vegetarian meals to the Buddha and the sangha. He also had a son who followed after his conducts. The family property was managed by the father at that time; therefore, the son was not against the donations.
After the Elder passed away, the son inherited the property. He became greedy and was unwilling to give. Other than being unwilling to give to the sangha, he also did not allow his mother to make offerings. However, his mother was frugal and tried to save to give to the sangha. One day, the mother told him, “I have nothing left to eat. Can you spare me any food?” He talked back at his mother, “I gave you food, but you gave it away to the sangha. Why don’t you just go and eat the sand?” Later, his mother died of starvation. Due to the negative karma of reluctance in making offerings and respecting parents, he degenerated into the hell realm after his death. After countless of eons he had finally made his way back to the human realm. In the same way, he still had to go through the negative karmic retribution of hunger and starvation. Because he did not oppose his father making offerings to the Buddha in the past, he then had the karmic condition to renounce in this life time. Nevertheless, because of the heavy negative karma of disrespect to his mother, in this life, he experienced extreme hunger and eventually died of eating sand.
This is the karmic retribution of greed, disrespect to parents, and negative speech. In spite of the fact that he had renounced himself from the household life, he still could not escape from retribution. From this, we learn that negative karma can be very horrifying.
My family name is Chen. I live in Chiayi, Taiwan. Recently, I have heard about some stories of people cruelly killing animals and then encountering horrible retributions. I have no way to forget them from my memory. Therefore, I wanted very much to put these incidents into writing, to cause people in the world to raise their vigilance.
The first one was told recently by a friend of mine living in Sihu. It was about a deceased old farmer who was his next-door neighbor. While he was alive and making living from farming in the past, he often spread his harvested grains in his yard to dry under the sun. Sometimes, chickens and ducks of his neighbors came to eat the grains. This farmer was very furious to see that and immediately used a bamboo stick to expel them. However, the chickens and ducks still came to steal the food when he was not around. Due to his anger, this neighbor used a big fishing net to catch the chickens and ducks which stole food. Whenever he caught any of them, this farmer would break one leg of each of them by brutal force. Thus, those chickens and ducks would be in a miserable state of unable to walk. Since he was using such cruel means, many people tried to persuade him not to crucify animals in this way. However, he was still stubbornly indifferent and continued his acts. No one could have imagined that a few years later, this farmer was suddenly no longer able to walk. His two feet started to swell and then the muscles began to putrefy. The tremendous pain that he was experiencing often caused him to scream miserably. Although he looked for treatment everywhere and even tried to seek help from divination and other alternatives of spiritual power, there seemed to be no effect from any of these. He suffered in such torment for six years or more before he passed away.
According to many neighbors, during the last several months of his life, the farmer often shouted while on his sickbed, “Shoo! Shoo!” Meanwhile, his hands were also making the movement of pushing animals away. When people asked what he was doing, he said that he “saw” a group of chickens and ducks with broken legs coming and surrounding him. Moreover, each of them used its sharp and hard beak to hit and bite his legs, causing the skin and muscle on his legs to break and bleed and bringing him tremendous pain. That was why he had to often wave his hands and shout loudly to try to get rid of them. Unfortunately, such efforts were all futile and useless. Not long after, this farmer ended his miserable life under the torment of such pain and suffering.
頂禮 H.H. 第三世多杰羌佛-- 正教 