Voyages to Hell

translated by

Nguyen Khang & Bui H.Huu

CHAPTER 28

SECOND VISIT TO THE PRISON WITH VENOMOUS WASPS

Buddha Tse Kong who manifested on 19th April , 1977. Year of the Snake 

Deities have bestowed on man, benefits and salvation
Grateful and pious, the adepts falls into contemplation
Also there are traitors and villains in disguise
Who are condemned here for failing their lessons

Buddha Tse Kong:      The deities come down to earth to save humans, select their disciples, and set them on the spiritual path. Their purpose consists of reshaping men to their early nature and helping them return to their source, which is God. Their benefactions and loving care are immense and incomparable; thence, this saying, “A master for a single day becomes a father for a whole life”. It is therefore natural to obey one’s master’s counsel and follow his example. However, there exists a number of immoral people who betray their religion, hiding behind the deities and borrowing the latter’s prestige for stealing and embezzling money. In this manner, they more likely regenerate into pirates than into saints and immoral, and instead of rising to paradise, it to hell they will go to purge their bad karma. Their negative “cause” will lead them to considerably bad “effects”. In fact, all of the servants of deities who violate the rules of religious order are severely punished by the laws of hell. To whichever religion they may be converted, they have to obey the religious order and the rites of this very religion, because no pardon is granted for their sins which are graver than the laymen’s. 

Yang Ts’ien:       I am ready, Master. Where are we going? 

TK:      We’re going to pay another visit to the “Venomous Wasps” Prison to see how the religious traitors are rewarded. Shut your eyes. Here we start... Here we arrive. 

The Mandarin:      Happy to see you again, gentlemen. 

TK:      At this time many people who profit from the deities’names live on earth. They were the gowns of priests, carve statues of Buddha, but commit theft and swindling. They have offended the grandeur and prestige of the orthodox doctrine. We have come here to collect information on the spot for warning the people. 

The Mandarin:    Very fine. If you care to follow me, gentlemen. I will have some sinful souls come to make an account of their vulgar, despicable actions of their lifetime. 

YT:      My best thanks, Excellency! These bees fly about in the prison, and they attack the sinful souls with their stinging. The victims’ bodies are all swollen, their heads are heavy, and their eyes dimmed. 

The Mandarin:      The stings also render them feverish because they are poisonous. Let me have some of the sinners come. General, let some of them out. 

The General:     At your command… Here are three of them. 

The Mandarin:      Now, listen. This is the Venerable Buddha Tse Kong, and this is Mr. Yang Ts’ien, of the Temple of the Sages in Tai Chu. They received the order to write a book titled “Voyages to Hell”. Tell us the story of your sins. They need documents for warning the people. 

YT:      May I ask you the reason why you were sent to this prison? 

The soul:     I was a village-chief. The villagers planned to erect a temple. I was in charge of collecting money, and I took advantage of the opportunity to embezzle some of it for my personal expenditures. After my death, I understood that stealing the money dedicated to the deities was a grave crime and I was condemned to this prison. The venomous wasps are merciless. Their stings hurt me terribly. Look at me, I pray you, my body is swollen and red all over, and the wounds torture me day and night. Whenever the money is destined for the cult of deities, people must be loyal and upright. They should by no means think of stealing it, not even a single penny. The stings of these wasps are payment for my bad karma. I committed no other sin besides this. 

The Mandarin:      Your office had afforded you a chance to serve other people and acquire merits for the benefit of your children and grandchildren. The villagers had the good intention of building a temple for worshipping deities and exercising religious faith. You had misused their faith, your crime is unforgivable. Now, your turn to speak, the 2nd soul. 

The soul (female):     Amitabha Buddha! I am really miserably, really! As early as the age of 15, I converted to the service of Buddha. I obeyed every commandment and devoted myself to the observance of the doctrine, expecting to attain the spiritual path. However, my inconsistent nature and my lack of patience finally got the best of me. I began to subtract the donations offered by devout people for my personal expenses. I thought very little of buying joss-sticks, candles, petroleum for lamps, and of embellishing my pagoda. When I was to recite prayers in a requiem mass for a deceased person, I did my work for the sake of form. Every family inviting me to recite prayers for the soul of a dead parent had to pay me my fees according to the number of prayers and pages in the prayer book. “Like service rendered like amount of money” was my motto. If it was a needy family, I complied reluctantly and only accepted the invitation after much insistence from the master. Reversely, a wealthy family found me very active and zealous in the performance of rites. My prayers would be longer in order to please the chief of the household. Because of my vile greed, Buddha didn’t appear to drive me to heaven, but it was hell that reserved me its torments. I am extremely miserable. 

The Mandarin:     You were a nun who had renounced every worldly thing and adopted the religious way to regenerate. Nevertheless, you couldn’t eliminate earthly desires and passions. You received people’s money in the name of Buddha, but your acts were incompatible with the morality of the Supreme Buddha. That’s why you are now in condemnation here. 

TK:      To convert to the spiritual path means to abandon all that is soiled of the human world and acquire the purity of the soul. All of the monks and nuns bear the forename of Sa which is the one of Sakya Muni. It is a sacred forename. It is regrettable that you couldn’t overcome the worldly temptations and failed to think of the salvation of humanity. It is necessary to abolish the three consciences and four conjunctures (1) before one can become a Buddha. Unless the three vices (2) are expelled, one is forever subjected to the six ways of transmigration. We warn human beings of all religions that paradise is accessible only to those believers who are delivered from cravings and passions. We therefore advise the people to adhere to the doctrine of a religion - whether it is Catholicism, Buddhism, Islamism, or any other religion - to sever their attachments to the world before they can accede to paradise. It’s quite late. We’ll come back another time. Yang Ts’ien, let’s go home. 

(1)       Three consciences: of the present, the past and the future. Four conjunctures: separation, reunion, opposition, concord.
(2)       Three vices: greed, anger, and foolishness.

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CONTENTS

Forward
Introduction
Preface
Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Celestial Edict
Postface

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