1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.

Now at that time Venerable Lakkhaṇa and Venerable Mahāmoggallāna were staying on the Vulture’s Peak Mountain. Then Mahāmoggallāna robed up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, went to Lakkhaṇa and said to him: “Come, Reverend Lakkhaṇa, let’s enter Rājagaha for alms.”

“Yes, reverend,” Lakkhaṇa replied.

As Mahāmoggallāna was descending from Vulture’s Peak Mountain he smiled at a certain spot. So Lakkhaṇa said to Mahāmoggallāna: “What is the cause, Reverend Moggallāna, what is the reason you smiled?”

“Reverend Lakkhaṇa, it’s the wrong time for this question. Ask me when we’re in the Buddha’s presence.”

2Then Lakkhaṇa and Mahāmoggallāna wandered for alms in Rājagaha. After the meal, on their return from alms-round, they went to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. Lakkhaṇa said to Mahāmoggallāna:

“Just now, as Mahāmoggallāna was descending from Vulture’s Peak Mountain he smiled at a certain spot. What is the cause, Reverend Moggallāna, what is the reason you smiled?”

3“Just now, reverend, as I was descending from Vulture’s Peak Mountain I saw a skeleton flying through the air. Vultures, crows, and hawks kept chasing it, pecking and clawing and stabbing it in the ribs as it screeched in pain. It occurred to me: ‘It’s incredible, it’s amazing! That there can be such a sentient being, such an entity, such an incarnation!’”

4Then the Buddha said to the mendicants:

“Mendicants, there are disciples who live full of vision and knowledge, since a disciple knows, sees, and witnesses such a thing.

Formerly, I too saw that being, but I did not speak of it. For if I had spoken of it others would not have believed me, which would be for their lasting harm and suffering.

That being used to be a cattle butcher right here in Rājagaha. As a result of that deed he burned in hell for many years, many hundreds, many thousands, many hundreds of thousands of years. Now he experiences the residual result of that deed in such an incarnation.”

(All these discourses should be expanded like this.)

1Evaṁ me sutaṁ— ekaṁ samayaṁ bhagavā rājagahe vihārati veḷuvane kalandakanivāpe.

Tena kho pana samayena āyasmā ca lakkhaṇo āyasmā ca mahāmoggallāno gijjhakūṭe pabbate vihāranti. Atha kho āyasmā mahāmoggallāno pubbaṇhasamayaṁ nivāsetvā pattacīvaramādāya yenāyasmā lakkhaṇo tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā āyasmantaṁ lakkhaṇaṁ etadavoca: "āyāmāvuso lakkhaṇa, rājagahaṁ piṇḍāya pavisissāmā"ti.

"Evamāvuso"ti kho āyasmā lakkhaṇo āyasmato mahāmoggallānassa paccassosi.

Atha kho āyasmā mahāmoggallāno gijjhakūṭā pabbatā orohanto aññatarasmiṁ padese sitaṁ pātvākāsi. Atha kho āyasmā lakkhaṇo āyasmantaṁ mahāmoggallānaṁ etadavoca: "ko nu kho, āvuso moggallāna, hetu ko paccayo sitassa pātukammāyā"ti?

"Akālo kho, āvuso lakkhaṇa, etassa pañhassa. Bhagavato maṁ santike etaṁ pañhaṁ pucchā"ti.

2Atha kho āyasmā ca lakkhaṇo āyasmā ca mahāmoggallāno rājagahe piṇḍāya caritvā pacchābhattaṁ piṇḍapātapaṭikkantā yena bhagavā tenupasaṅkamiṁsu; upasaṅkamitvā bhagavantaṁ abhivādetvā ekamantaṁ nisīdiṁsu. Ekamantaṁ nisinno kho āyasmā lakkhaṇo āyasmantaṁ mahāmoggallānaṁ etadavoca:

"idhāyasmā mahāmoggallāno gijjhakūṭā pabbatā orohanto aññatarasmiṁ padese sitaṁ pātvākāsi. Ko nu kho, āvuso moggallāna, hetu ko paccayo sitassa pātukammāyā"ti?

3"Idhāhaṁ, āvuso, gijjhakūṭā pabbatā orohanto addasaṁ aṭṭhikasaṅkhalikaṁ vehāsaṁ gacchantiṁ. Tamenaṁ gijjhāpi kākāpi kulalāpi anupatitvā anupatitvā phāsuḷantarikāhi vitudenti vitacchenti virājenti. Sā sudaṁ aṭṭassaraṁ karoti. Tassa mayhaṁ, āvuso, etadahosi: ‘acchariyaṁ vata bho, abbhutaṁ vata bho. Evarūpopi nāma satto bhavissati. Evarūpopi nāma yakkho bhavissati. Evarūpopi nāma attabhāvapaṭilābho bhavissatī’"ti.

4Atha kho bhagavā bhikkhū āmantesi:

"cakkhubhūtā vata, bhikkhave, sāvakā vihāranti; ñāṇabhūtā vata, bhikkhave, sāvakā vihāranti, yatra hi nāma sāvako evarūpaṁ ñassati vā dakkhati vā sakkhiṁ vā karissati.

Pubbeva me so, bhikkhave, satto diṭṭho ahosi, api cāhaṁ na byākāsiṁ. Ahañcetaṁ byākareyyaṁ, pare ca me na saddaheyyuṁ. Ye me na saddaheyyuṁ, tesaṁ taṁ assa dīgharattaṁ ahitāya dukkhāya.

Eso, bhikkhave, satto imasmiṁyeva rājagahe goghātako ahosi. So tassa kammassa vipākena bahūni vassāni bahūni vassasatāni bahūni vassasahassāni bahūni vassasatasahassāni niraye paccitvā tasseva kammassa vipākāvasesena evarūpaṁ attabhāvapaṭilābhaṁ paṭisaṁvedayatī"ti.

(Sabbesaṁ suttantānaṁ eseva peyyālo.)

Paṭhamaṁ.