Disclaimer:
I am layman Buddhist/pagan.
The summary is based on what I perceive is 'important' in the book.
Conversation in between Deity JiGong, Yang Sheng and Prison Guard/Officer.
If there is contradiction of meaning convey, the book prevails.
There are times I might questioning parts of the points inside the book doesn't mean I don't believe it. I need enlightenment on the doubts that I raise.
VISIT TO THE 10TH PALACE AND THE LADY MENG’S INN
Narrated by JiGong:
When we stand, we must stand up-right. The body must not bend in any direction. The same applies to human beings - be straightforward, you must not cheat others and you must not set one person against another. You must be helpful to others and must not be lazy so that an example can be shown for others to emulate.
If when standing, you are not steady, so likewise, when sitting or sleeping, you cannot sit or sleep steadily too. Those who want to be ascetic practitioners must have a steady and stout heart, must not show any sign of a wavering heart any time.
Reincarnation Center
Noted people of all races, from Asia and Europe.
A soul must pass through all Tribunals to be judged for their deeds when living on Earth. Hell is like an International Court of Justice. Irrespective of what colour, all souls to be reborn must have evidence that they can be reborn, exactly like those human beings who wish to leave one country for another to have a valid passport.
Bureau Governing Birth
Transmigration Station. Just like human beings waiting at a railway station for the train to arrive. When train is ready to depart, passengers board the carriages and the wheels of the train start; each passengers holds a ticket to go to his destination. The souls at this Station will be brought to their various rebirth destinations.
Inn of Lady Meng
It has the faculty of erasing from the souls’ memory all that is related to their former life and to the time spent in hell.
By order of the Celestial Emperor, she is in charge of having souls consume this soup (amnesiac soup) before their reincarnation. Otherwise, the children born in their new existence will grow up and remember all the facts concerning their former lives. They will search for and find their parents and the members of their families, creating a great disorder in social relations and family ties. More than that, they will locate their foes and take revenge. This soup is a mixture of various flavors (acid, pungent, salted, sweet, bitter) combined in such a way that those consuming it lose all sense of orientation, experience, and fall into one of the six ways of transmigration.
This soup is infatuated soup which makes one's mind confused. Just like liquor, one cannot differentiate between north, south, west and east, so likewise, a soul after drinking this soup, is not truly himself, losing his own wits and wandering aimlessly towards Metempsychosis Station. Drunkards are usually bold, not fearing water or fire, and dare to jump into a deep ocean. After drinking this soup, a soul becomes unable to control himself, proceeds straight to the Metempsychosis Station and only after the effects of the soup are over will he then realise that he is in another World on awakening.
After a sinful soul passed through the various punishments meted out at the various Tribunals, the throat is dry and thirsty and when this Tenth Tribunal is reached, the soul thinks the journey is end and Earth is near. Outside of this Inn, there is hot vapor which makes every soul thirsty and thus urge to quench their thirst. Some of cunning souls who come here refusing to enter into the Inn because they know the effects of drinking this soup. But under the ground an iron hook contraption has the effect of gripping the feet to prevent movement. At the same time, a female attendant nearby forces these cunning souls to drink this soup.
With the given amnesiac effect of the soup, why is it that our babies born now are so prematurely clever? Should we attribute the fact to the mediocrity of the porridge whose properties become weaker?
From time immemorial, the humans have undergone innumerable incarnations. Their transmigrations have been repeated many times; each of them is preceded by a forcible taking of amnesiac porridge. Because they have taken it several times, the souls become immune to its effect, and the expected amnesia is far from absolute. Thus, the intelligence of some present-day babies is quite advanced. Man often calls his stubborn children “demons’ head or demons’ brains”. The repeated use of this undesirable porridge results in acquiring some immunity. This fact, by itself, provides no joy to mankind.
Prematurely smart babies are more likely to adopt vices, and unless they are carefully educated and guided to the right path, they will do more harm to society than normally clever babies do. This is the reason the living world counts an ever-increasing number of harmful and unreliable people who use their brains for doing evil. The cleverer they are, the more easily they deviate from the right path. An unusual intelligence, therefore, is most undesirable.
For further details, please visit Journey #57
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