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.
VISITING THE SIX PATHS OF METEMPSYCHOSIS
Narrated by King Zhuan Lung (10th Tribunal)
So long as mankind and all living things do not discard evil to follow the good, the Wheel of Stages of Transmigration of Souls will continue to be operative and active which means all living things will continue to be unlucky.
Red river, water rolling, like boiling. Vigour and blood of all living things are blended together, exactly like sensual and sexual desires of human beings on Earth, up and down! Up and down!
Huge wheel revolving endlessly in the Red river. The stage of transmigration of souls floating and bouncing up and down in unison with the rolling water, the wheel revolving all the time.
There are six bridges lead to the Six Paths of Transmigration of Souls. There are:
1) Golden Bridge: Those souls who had accumulated much merit when living on Earth, after passing through all the Tribunals in Underworld, given clean passage by Registrar, to go to Paradise/Heaven.
In the case of souls who cultivate Divine Element within themselves, they will ascend to Paradise without use Golden Bridge.
2) Silver Bridge: Those who earn medium merits, after death their souls will be sent to center of perfection in hell for furthering their religious studies and perfecting their regeneration.Once they have passed their examination and learned the canonical books thoroughly, they are authorized to come to the Styx (Cascade of Nine Streams) for purification of their vital energy. Then they will allowed to cross the Bridge as Deity/Spirit for human beings to worship.
3) Jade Bridge: Those who earned some merits, after death, their souls had gone through all Tribunals, will be allowed to be reborn as rich/noble persons.
4) Stone Bridge: Those who had equal measure of merits as well as sins, will be allowed to be reborn as ordinary human beings.
5) Wooden Bridge: Those who had committed more sins than merits, will be reborn as poor, lonely, miserable, destitute, lower strata human beings.
6) Bamboo Bridge: Those who had full measure of iniquity and whose actions were contrary to humanity, murderers, robbers and rapists, destined to be reborn as animals, fowls, fishes, worms.
The souls have eaten the amnesiac soup that erases their former life from their minds. The absorption of this porridge puts them in a state of semi-consciousness, and they jostle each other on the paths allotted to them. Some souls wear costumes of Mandarins, others carry the tools and implements of their work, others have their inkstands and brush-pens. There are also simpletons and souls wearing animals’ furs and horns. Everyone manifests an ardent yearning to go to the terrestrial world.
While in their state of semi-consciousness, they rush blindly toward the Bridges of Jade, Wood, and Bamboo to approach the Reincarnation-Wheel. Some of them fall off the bridge and disappear in the waves.
All creatures are created by the fertilization of the vital breath energy from Yin and Yang. The Reincarnation-Wheel is the pattern of a mixture of the Yin and Yang among humans. When a male and a female are in a state of sexual excitement, their spirits rise in ecstasy, their over brimming sperm and blood are similar to the waves of the Crimson River that push and revolve the Reincarnation Wheel, like a river-current turns the irrigation system with its force. The semi-conscious souls are sucked in by the wheel, following their assigned destinies. In the world, the semen and blood of the two sexes in intercourse form a fetus in the womb of the mother: the vital essence impregnates the embryo until it is born to life, nine months later. At the moment the Reincarnation Wheel heaves it into existence, a wailing is heard from within the wheel of the Crimson River, meanwhile the infant is born, together with spilling blood and water, and its synchronizing cries symbolize its fright when awakening in a totally strange world. That’s the way reincarnation operates.
As regards to the four categories of creatures, namely the viviparous, the oviparous, the aquatic creatures and insects, their birth takes place according to the time that their embryos are nurtured in the Reincarnation Wheel.
The incessant rotation of the wheel often gives the pregnant woman a sensation of nausea. These are the moments when the fetus feels dizzy, like passengers feeling uneasy in a jerky carriage in movement or aboard a plane in flight.
This wheel has the form of the octagonal diagram Pa-Kua, with a circle at the center representing the Great Extreme or the Infinite (Wu-Ki). The same principle and law governs the Reincarnation Wheel that turns and multiplies indefinitely. Inside the wheel, there are six holes for the reincarnated souls.
The first hole is for the souls to be reincarnated into high-ranking dignitaries, noblemen, and titled persons.
The second hole is for future intellectual men, husbandmen, industrialists, and merchants (including poor people, orphans, widows and widowers).
The third hole is for the souls to be transformed into animals (buffalos, horses, dogs...)
The fourth hole will make fowls of the souls.
The fifth hole is for fish, mollusks and crustaceans.
The sixth hole is for insects.
It is thus depending upon their merits and sins for the souls to be categorized among the six above cited groups.
That action is comparable to factories in the world. Manufactured products differ as consistently as raw materials, which are employed to produce them. As a matter of fact, good timber is utilized for solid construction, whereas wood of average quality is used for fuel.
Another explanation of Six Paths of Metempsychosis
1) Devas
The first path leads to Paradise where there are fairies, Buddhas, Deities, Saints
Need not pass through the Six Paths of transmigration.
2) Human
3) Asuras
4) Beasts
5) Hungry Ghosts
6) Hell
There are others like founders of religions, patron saints voluntarily pass through this transmigration to be reborn as human beings in order to teach people to do good deeds and save them.
Advise from King Zhuan Lun:
I sincerely hope all of you will take up ascetic practices as early as possible. Once a soul is lost in Hell, it will be more difficult to save it.
For further details, please refer to Journey #58
No comments:
Post a Comment