THE ORDINARY OR OUTER PRELIMINARIES or not 'you have practised the teachings you have received is one thing, but not to know at least the words and terms involved is truly shameful The pretas There are two sorts of preta: those who live collectively and those who move through space 2.1 PRETAS WHO LIVE COLLECTIVELY These pretas suffer from external, internal or specific obscurations 2.1.1 Pretas suffering from external obscurations These pretas are tormented by extreme hunger and thirst Centuries pass without their even hearing any mention of water Constantly obsessed with food and drink, they search for them endlessly, without ever finding even the tiniest trace From time to time, far away, they catch sight of a stream of clear, pure water But their joints are too fragile to take the weight of their bellies They get there only with great pain and arrive utterly exhausted-only to suffer even more when they find that the water has completely dried up, leaving nothing but the stony river bed Sometimes they see an orchard of fruit trees in the distance As before, they approach, but when they arrive they find that the huge trees are all dried up and withered Sometimes they see an abundance of food and drink and other pleasant things, but when they get near they find that it is guarded by a large number of armed men who chase and beat them with their weapons, causing them great pain In summer, even the moonlight feels hot and burns them; in winter, even the sun feels icy cold These sensations torture them terribly Once, when SrOI;ta was in the land of the pretas, he found their avarice so poisonous that it gave him a fever and his mouth became completely dry He came across an iron castle at whose door stood a terrifying sombre figure with red eyes "Where is there some water?" SroQa asked At these words, a crowd of pretas, all looking like lumps of burnt wood, came milling around him, begging, "Great perfect being, give us water!" "I have found none myself," answered he "It is for you to give me some." "What you mean?" replied the pretas "We were born in this land twelve years ago and until today we have never even heard as much as a mention of water." 72 THE DEFECTS OF SAMSARA 2.1.2 Pretas suffering from internal obscurations These pretas have mouths no bigger than the eye of a needle Even were they to drink all the water in the great oceans, by the time it had passed down their throats, which are as narrow as a horse-hair, the heat of their breath would have evaporated it Even were they somehow to swallow a little, their stomachs, which are the size of a whole country, could never be filled Even if-finally-enough to satisfy them were ever to get into their stomach, it would burst into flames during the night and burn their lungs, their heart, and all their entrails When they want to move, they cannot lift their gigantic bellies with their grass-like limbs, and this causes them immense suffering 2.1.3 Pretas suffering from specific obscurations These pretas have all sorts of different experiences that vary from one to another and are of varying intensity For example, some have many creatures living on their bodies and devouring them Once when he was travelling in the land of the pretas, SroQa came to a palace where he met a beautiful woman Exquisitely formed and bedecked with precious jewels, she was ravishing to behold To each of the four legs of her throne a preta was tied She offered Srot:J.a something to eat, warning him not to give the smallest scrap to the other pretas even if they begged for it When Srot:J.a started to eat they began to beg He gave some food to one of them and it turned into chaff; what he gave to the second turned into a lump of iron; the third started to eat his own flesh, and what he gave to the fourth became pus and blood When the woman came back, she cried, "Didn't I tell you not to give them anything! Do you think that you are more compassionate than I am?" "What is the connection between you and these four?" Srol).a asked her "This was my husband; that one was my son, that was my daughter-inlaw, and the fourth was my servant." "What past actions have brought you here?" "The people of Jambudvipa are too sceptical," the woman replied "You will never believe me." "How could I not believe you, when I am seeing this with my very own eyes?" So the woman told SroQa her story "I was a brahmin woman in a village One evening, I had prepared some delicious food because it was 73 THE ORDINARY OR OUTER PRELIMINARIES an auspicious day The great and sublime Katyayana happened to come by on his alms round I felt faith in him and gave him an offering of food Then I thought to myself that perhaps my husband would like to share the merit 'Rejoice with me that I have given alms to the great and sublime Katyayana, the Buddha's heir,' I said to him But he flew into a rage 'You have not yet offered food to the brahmins, nor even presented your respects to your family and friends, and there you are giving the first part of the food to this shaven-skulled monk! Why can't he stuff his mouth with chaff?' "I made the same proposition to my son, who also got angry: 'Why doesn't your bald-head eat lumps of iron?' he yelled "That night, my parents sent me over some delicious food, but my daughter-in-law ate it, leaving me the worst bits When I asked her, 'Did you eat the good food and just leave me the worst bits?' she told me a lie: 'I would rather eat my own flesh,' said she, 'than touch a dish which was meant for you!' "Similarly, when my servant ate the meal that she was supposed to take over to my family, she told me that she would rather drink blood and pus than steal food from me "I myself became a powerful preta because I made the wish to be reborn where I could see what happened to them as a result of their actions Had I not made such a wish I would have been born amongst the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-three, having given alms to a sublime being "If you ever go to our village, tell my daughter, who is a prostitute, that you have seen her parents and that you have been entrusted to tell her that what she is doing will have negative effects, that it is the wrong way to live and she should give up those evil ways "If she doesn't believe you, tell her that in her father's old house there are four iron pots filled with gold, a golden stick and an ablution jar for monks Tell her to take them and make offerings to the great and sublime Katyayana from time to time, and dedicate the merit in our name This will reduce our karma till it is finally exhausted." Once, as the Master Jetari was travelling, he met a female preta with a repulsive body, who was the mother of five hundred children "My husband went to Bodh Gaya twelve years ago, looking for food He still isn't back If you go there, tell him that if he doesn't come back soon, our children will all have died of hunger." "What does your husband look like?" asked the Master "All pretas look alike; how will I recognize him?" "You can't miss him," said she "He's got a huge mouth, a squashed 74 THE DEFECTS OF SAMSARA nose, he's blind in one eye and has all nine marks of ugliness." When Jetari came to Bodh Gaya, he saw a novice monk throwing many food and water torma offerings outside When the novice had gone, a horde of pretas was jostling to get them Among them was the one he was looking for, so he gave him his wife's message The preta replied, "I've wandered around for twelve years but I never got a thing-except once, when a pure monk let fall some snot, but I didn't even get much of that because there were lots of us fighting for it." And during that battle for a bit of snot, the Master added as he related the story, the preta had been terribly wounded by the others Mentally take upon yourself the different torments that afflict the pretas wherever they are reborn, especially their hunger and thirst Think how much you suffer when you not eat or drink just for a morning How would you feel if you were reborn in a place where for years you not even hear any mention of water? Reflect that the principal causes of rebirth as a preta are stinginess and opposing the generosity of others We too have committed such acts innumerable times, so we must whatever we can to avoid being born there Meditate in this way from the core of your heart with the three methods for the beginning, main part and conclusion 2.2 PRETAS WHO MOVE THROUGH SPACE These are the tsen, gyalpo, shindre, jungpo, mamo, theurang• and so on, all of whom live out their lives in constant terror and hallucination Thinking of nothing but evil, they always whatever they can to bring harm to others, and many of them fall into even lower realms such as the hells as soon as they die In particular, every week they relive all the pain of their preceding death from sickness, weapons, evil forces, or whatever it was What they want to is to offload their pain on others, so wherever they go they nothing but harm But they still fail to themselves any good by it Even when they happily visit their former friends and loved ones, they only bring them sickness, insanity and other unwelcome sufferings These pretas undergo continual torture Powerful magicians bury them, bum them and perform rituals in which they cast all sorts of imaginary weapons at them 51 They lock them under the earth in darkness for kalpas, bum them up in offering fires, pound them with mustard seeds, powdered • Different categories of spirits with no equivalent terms in English 75 THE ORDINARY OR OUTER PRELIMINARIES stones and the like They split their heads into a hundred pieces and their bodies into a thousand fragments Like all pretas, these too have distorted perceptions: in winter, the sun feels cold to them; in summer the moon bums Some take the form of a bird, a dog or other animal, hideous to look upon In short, the pretas' sufferings are inconceivable Practise as before, meditating with the methods for the beginning, main practice and conclusion Mentally take on the sufferings of these beings and cultivate love and compassion for them The animals There are two categories of animals: those living in the depths and those scattered in different places 3.1 ANIMALS LIVING IN THE DEPTHS The great outer oceans teem with fish, reptiles, turtles, shellfish, worms and other creatures, as numerous as the grains of malt in the bottom of a beer-barrel There are serpents and monsters so big that their bodies can wind many times around Mount Meru Other creatures are as small as particles of dust or the tip of a needle They all undergo immense sufferings The bigger ones swallow up the smaller ones The small ones burrow into the big ones and eat them alive in their tum The big animals all have many tiny ones living inside them, feeding on their flesh Some of these creatures are born between the continents, where the sun does not shine and where they cannot even see whether their limbs are bent in or stretched out Stupid and ignorant, they have no comprehension of what to and what not to They are reborn in places where suffering knows no bounds 3.2 ANIMALS THAT LIVE SCATTERED IN DIFFERENT PLACES The animals that live in the realms of gods and humans suffer continually from their stupidity and from being exploited, while the nagas52 pass their lives in misery being tormented by garuc.fas and rains of burning sand In addition they are stupid, aggressive and poisonous The wild animals that share our human world, in particular, live in constant fear They cannot eat a single mouthful of food without being on their guard They have many mortal enemies, for all animals prey on each other and there are always hunters, beasts of prey and other threats to life Hawks kill small birds, small birds kill insects, and so on, 76 ... sorts of imaginary weapons at them 51 They lock them under the earth in darkness for kalpas, bum them up in offering fires, pound them with mustard seeds, powdered • Different categories of spirits... it was What they want to is to offload their pain on others, so wherever they go they nothing but harm But they still fail to themselves any good by it Even when they happily visit their former... small as particles of dust or the tip of a needle They all undergo immense sufferings The bigger ones swallow up the smaller ones The small ones burrow into the big ones and eat them alive in their