Pay attention! Give ear! This is for your Good! For Your Profit for many a long day. Don't play with your food!

Prologue I

Beggars!

That man who here acts wrongly in mind, speech and body
suffers in this visible world
four ways.

What four?

In the first place
as he chances to hear
appropriate, suitable talk
about himself
at the water-hole
Over the back fence
after the meeting
Or wherever people chance to come together and talk,
he hears:

"That's some bad hombre!
a no good good for nuth'n
down and out
lie'n steal'n
murder'n
sum
gum
foshu!

Or the like.

 

And again
late at night
as he sits
or lies down
his evil deeds
rest heavily upon him
as in the evening
when the sun goes down
over the mountain
the shadow
of the mountain
spreads
out
across
the
land

And again
he see the king's men
take
a con artist
a thief
a murderer
an adulterer ...

They bind his arms and legs
and parade him around town
to the beat
of a
harsh sounding drum
they take him out
the
south
gate ...

[where the dead are taken; the charnel ground]

 

And there
they lash him with whips
or they whack him with a switch
or they beat him with sticks
or they cut off his hand
or they cut off his foot
or they cut off his hands and feet
or they cut off his ear
or they cut off his nose
or they cut off his ears and nose

MN 129

Or they give him
The Porridge Pot

[They cut a hole in his skull, drop in a molten copper ball.]

or The Polished Shell

[They sand-paper polish his skull.]

or The Sun Gobbler

[They wedge open his mouth and drop in a molten copper ball.]

or The Fire Garland
or The Flaming Hand
or The Hay-Twist

[They use a ball-peen hammer to break every single bone in his body, then they twist him up a bit — Moggallāna was murdered by the Ajivakas in this way — in order not to die disrespectfully, he pulled himself together, went to The Great Master, explained matters and took his leave before he died][B.I.T. §41]

 

or The Peeling-Bark Dress

[They peel off his skin in strips from shoulders to waist making a skirt, then they chase him around so that he trips on his own skin.]

or The Antelope

[They stake him out propped up on all fours and build a fire underneath him and bar-b-que him alive.]

or The Fish Hooking

[They flail at him with fish hooks.]

or The Coin-Slice

[They cut coin-size pieces out of him — I have heard of this being done to a price-gouger in the cocaine trade in this day and age (June 30, 1992, A.D.).]

or The Pickling Process

[They pickle him in caustic liquids — The Nazis in France did this to people.]

or Circling The Pin

[They drive a pin through his ears into the ground, and taking him by the feet ... ]

or The straw Mattress

[In flames . . . for adultery]

or they spray him with boiling oil
or feed him to the dogs
or impale him alive
or they
cut
off
his
head.

 

And at that he thinks:

"Ho Boy!
They catch you, man,
you goin-a go
tha
same
way!"

And again, he thinks:

"In so far as there is Kamma,
in so far as there is a bad rebound
from bad deeds
in so far as there is
Niraya hell,
it's off to [such-n-sucha]
Niraya hell
I
go!"

 


 [ Back ]  [ Next ]