One time when I spiritually travelled to the netherworld, I saw crows. It surprised me very much.

As we have learned from what is written in the "Amitabha Buddha Sutra," in the Western Paradise, there are peacocks, parrots, kalavinkas [a bird described as having a melodious voice, found in the valleys of the Himalayas], and jivajiras [a bird said to have two heads, i.e., mind and perception separate, but karma of one], all singing in harmony and with grace, repeating the Buddha's name, repeating the Dharma's name, repeating the Sangha's name.

These birds are not domestic animals—the Western Paradise is beyond the Six Paths of Reincarnation. All of these birds are manifested by Amitabha Buddha.

Now, in the netherworld, quite unexpectedly I saw crows. What were they manifested from? I was very astonished.

The netherworld king said, "Look! The crows don't have feet." When I looked carefully at them, just as the netherworld king said, they didn't have feet.

"Listen! The crows cannot make any sounds."

That was right! I actually did not hear any sounds from the crows, expecting to hear the sounds of "Ah!", "Ah!", "Ah!"

The only common characteristic of the crows was that all of the crows were black.

I asked, "Why is it that the crows in the netherworld have no feet?"

The netherworld king replied, "Because they have committed the karma of slandering others without any substance."

"And why is it that they cannot make any sounds?"

The netherworld king replied, "Because in their last lives, they made too much sound [committed too much speech karma]; now they receive the retribution and cannot make any sounds.”

I asked further, "Why are all of the crows black?"

The netherworld king replied, "Because in their last lives, they enjoyed blackening others' names without any foundation."

The netherworld king asked me, "Do you know why you can see these crows in the netherworld?"

"No."

The netherworld king told me very honestly that all of the crows had been transformed for my sake. When they were alive in the world, they had slandered Sheng-yen Lu, blackened Sheng-yen Lu's name. They had wrongly circulated rumours. They had made slanderous comments without any substance. Consequently, they were all now transformed into crows in the netherworld.

The reason why they didn't have tongues and couldn't make any sounds was because their tongues had been pulled out at the "Hell of Pulling Out Tongues." The reason why all of their bodies were black was because they had been good at blackening others' names. And because they had slandered without substance, they were now without feet.

(to be continued)

(Translated from Book #187 "Manifestations of the Netherworld")

(本文選自蓮生活佛第187冊著作「地獄變現記」文章「陰間的烏鴉」)