Journeys To The Underworld - Journey No. 21

12th Moon 9th Day (27th January 1977)

Touring the Office of "Four Types of Reincarnation" (Third Visit)

Jigong: When human beings die, there is much crying and wailing. But when any of the four types of creatures (animals, fowls, fishes and worms) die, their death is mainly due to slaughter rather than by sickness. This slaughtering is generally done by human beings because these creatures seem to know that they have no way of escape, they feel very frightened and cry and scream in their own way. When these creatures die, their souls are sucked by the energies of Hades into the third Tribunal. They cannot be returned to human form until and unless they have repaid for their previous sins. Human beings must understand that if they live a very sinful life and maintain an evil mind, when they die, their souls will be reborn as one of the four types of creatures, according to the seriousness of their past sins. Yang Sheng, get ready to go on tour again.

Yang Sheng: Master, at the present moment, the father of one of our members of Sheng Xian Tang has died and the member is very sad because his father was a good and devout man. Why is it that even good people must die so soon?

Jigong: Every human being must undergo the four stages of existence, i.e. birth, old age, sickness and death. Even a King must die one day; why not an ordinary member of the public? The most important thing when one is still alive is to understand and do good deeds and be God fearing so that when he dies, although the body will decay, the spirit still lives. In fact wise men are never dead; their spirits still live. Therefore, please explain to your member not to worry too much over the death of his father. 

Yang Sheng: It is my intention to visit Hades and to see for myself how my friend's father is getting on there. I understand from friends that the old man had a premonition, two days before his death. I would like to know how is it that this person could know ahead of his coming death - up to what level of ascetic practice did he reach to be able to acquire this foresight?

Jigong: The time is not yet ripe for you to see this old man. Speaking of the old man's ability to foretell his own death, it is mainly due to the fact that because of his ascetic practices, his sincerity had reached such a peak that he could communicate with Heaven and Earth to know his own death. I must explain that the existence of saints and ghosts is real and it is possible for one who has reached a high level of ascetic practice to know what is happening to him and to foretell his own death. Don't waste anymore time, let us now proceed with our tour.

Yang Sheng: Dear Master, I am securely seated; we can now start......

Jigong: We have arrived; get down.

Yang Sheng: Before us are His Highness and Officers coming to receive us.

Jigong: Go and pay your respects quickly.

Yang Sheng: I now pay my respects to Your Highness and Officers for receiving us.

Highness: Don't stand on ceremony. If you do not object to be among so many creatures, you are always welcome here. Let us go inside.

Jigong: Thank you very much. As we do not have much time, could your Highness please arrange for Yang Sheng to have a look inside so that he can understand better how the four types of creatures are revived.

Highness: If that is so, please follow me around......

Yang Sheng: The equipment here is more or less like those we have on Earth. Some are like suction machines; mosquitoes are sucked into them at the entrance and very soon at the exit of the machines, movable soft balls like cotton wool balls appear.

Highness: When mosquitoes are killed by human beings or are sprayed to death by mosquito sprays, their souls are sucked by the energies of Hades and are brought here. They are again sucked by the sucking machines; inside the machines hundreds of souls are collected into soft movable balls (hundred to a ball). It should be mentioned that the souls of the mosquitoes are dispersed souls - these dispersed souls are gathered by the hundreds into a ball and the ball is ejected out of the sucking machine. When the soft movable ball comes out, at first it will float but very soon it will drop. When the revival soup is sprinkled on the ball, the dispersed souls in ti will transform into one human soul.

Yang Sheng: There is a very vast collection of these sucking machines here. How did you manage to arrange them so well? 

(No Reply)

Highness: The souls of the mosquitoes which are sucked up by the energies of Hades are of very poor quality and standard. Let us go to another part of the Prison......

Yang Sheng: This field contains so many kinds of animals. I have never seen such a varied collection of animals on Earth. This is like a big zoo having tigers, lions, practically every kind of animals, fowls, etc very hard to count...... We have now returned to the pavilion but I don't know what His Highness has in his mind to instruct me.

Highness: Here I now have a case to tackle. In front of us is a Cock who has come to plead before me. I will let you see his personal file. Before he was reborn a Cock, this fellow was a rich man's son and he lived in the north of Taiwan. Very often, because of his wealth, he used to rape young girls and also used his money to buy teenage girls so that he could sleep with them in order to retain his vigour and vitality and be happy. He had therefore committed a series of sins. After death, as punishment, he was sentenced to be reborn a Cock for five generations. His sentence is about to come to an end. He is now pleading to be reincarnated.

Yang Sheng: This is very frightening. This Cock was formerly a human being. So if one eats the flesh of a fowl is it a sin?

Highness: Every creature has a living soul but of different types and shapes. Their Spirituality is exactly like a human being's spirituality. Human beings like to eat meat because meat contains proteins and fats which help to build up the body; but they do not stop to think that all the four types of creatures are originated from human beings. Inside the bodies of these creatures one type of poisonous impurity is present. When an animal, fowl or fish (when still alive) is about to be slaughtered, this creature gets frightened and struggles thus making the blood circulate faster and become abnormal thus causing the release of this poisonous impurity into the blood streams and to stick to the flesh. When the flesh is cooked and eaten, human beings also absorb this poisonous impurity. Let us take the case of human beings. When a person gets worried or frightened, the blood in his heart changes in quality, the accumulation of these many worries and fears will usually lead to sickness. Now, to return to the subject of meat eating. As mentioned earlier, meat contains proteins and fats which are good for bodybuilding; it also contains the poisonous impurities, therefore there are good points as well as bad points. Whoever, present day scientists advocate the eating of more vegetables and less meat. To those who follow ascetic practices it is advisable to also eat less meat and more vegetables to reduce the poisonous impurities in the body. Otherwise it will be rather difficult to succeed in their attempt. You asked earlier if it is a sin to eat fowl flesh, after what I have just said, it is therefore up to you to decide.

Yang Sheng: Your Highness, what you have said fits in very well with the original principles of science. May I ask your Highness, before us come an ape and a parrot - the ape walks and behaves like a human being while the parrot imitates human being's speaking - do they belong to a higher stratum of creatures?

Highness: The ape moves like a human being and his brain is smart. In a previous life he was a human being but was to smart, in the negative sense, resulting in damaging himself and committing sins. So, on rebirth, he becomes an animal whilst retaining his human qualities. Regarding the parrot, he now imitates human beings speaking. When he was a human being he was very talkative and talked too much and boastfully, often speaking to cause families to quarrel and breakup. Now, being reborn a parrot he is imprisoned in a cage and has to listen to people speaking and on his part trying to imitate what is spoken and what he hears. Therefore, human beings who are in the habit of making trouble, breaking up families, talking too much, going against the laws of society, etc, when they die, they will be reborn as one of the four types of creatures.

Jigong: As our time is limited and as we have seen the Office of Four Stages of Reincarnation we now know that this Office only handles all aspects of reincarnation after which the souls are sent to the Tenth Tribunal, if necessary; and if all souls have been duly punished, they are returned here to be reincarnated. Yang Sheng, get ready to return.

Yang Sheng: Thank you, Your Highness and Officers for giving me the instructions. As time is running out we have to return. I now say goodbye.

Highness: Please pardon us in case we have failed in any way to entertain you properly. General, please escort Jigong and Yang Sheng out.

Jigong: We are now outside the pavilion; quickly step on the lotus flower platform.

Yang Sheng: I am securely seated; we can now start......

Jigong: We have reached Sheng Xian Tang. Yang Sheng, get down. Soul, return to your body.