Kamma by Phra Ajaan Juan Kulachetto
Once Phra Ajaan Juan Kulachetto encountered an incident which left him no doubts about the results of kamma. One evening, Phra Ajaan Juan was doing his walking meditation when he smelt a rotten stench arising.
It wasn't the normal kind of rotten smell that arises from a decomposing carcass of some animal, so he set his mind in samadhi to discover the origin. Knowledge arose that it was from a Peta (hungry ghost). Therefore he set his mind to radiating merits to the source and the smell disappeared.
That night while Phra Ajaan was settling his mind into samadhi, a nimitta arose of two ghosts sitting on the grass of Pha Phu Sing Noi (mountain). The hungry ghosts were both female, and they were clothed in their panung (ผ้านุ่ง) but their upper bodies were naked, they had long unkempt hair and dull skin.
Phra Ajaan went to question them, "What's wrong and why are you here?"
"We are hungry ghosts who stay at Phu Sing."
"We have been hungry ghosts for a long time now."
Ajaan Juan went on to ask, "What deeds did you commit that you have to end up turning into hungry ghosts?"
"We were human beings in our past lives. Our livelihood was to take cocoons and boil them, so that we can take the silk fibres to weave cloth. We did this for so long that we can't even remember how many cocoons we boiled.
When we died, we found ourselves as hungry ghosts."
"What were your names when you were human beings?" asked Phra Ajaan.
"We were siblings born of the same mother. Elder sister is called "Taa" and the younger sister is called "Sii"."
That was all the information that Phra Ajaan Juan could obtain before the nimitta ended.
This nimitta convinced Phra Ajaan Juan that kamma and rebirth was indeed real, and that breaking the first precept of not killing, will result in a unwholesome rebirth, even if it is just killing insects.
Phra Ajaan Juan also explained that if people only commit evil deeds and are not interested in tamboon (making merit), they will have to face the full intensity of their evil deeds with no good kamma to mitigate the effects at all.
So when such people pass away, they will immediately be born in an unfortunate state to suffer the consequences of their evil deeds.
[Admin: Some people can pass through a period of judgement or intermediate state when they can still receive the merits made by their family members, while other people may hang around as a ghost for a few days or weeks first until they are ready to move on to their next rebirth]
Phra Ajaan Juan Kulachetto
Wat Chetiya Khiri Wihan (Phu Thok)
Ban Khaen Phatthana
Bueng Kan Province (previously Nong Khai Province)
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