TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)Karma-dbang-'dzin (1, A: 20-38; B: 12-25)
(Having arrived at 'Og-gro) I heard great lamentations. Sde-pa-drung
(her husband) and all the menfolk had gone to Phra-phug and were not
there. The maids were calling my name and weeping. I thought, "I
haven't died. Did Sde-pa-drung scold them?" I took one of the maids
by the shoulder and lifted her up, asking if he had scolded them, but she
didn't respond and acted as though she'd not seen me.
Outside there were also the indistinct sounds of wailing and I looked
out. Some people were saying I'd died. Some said they wept, because
I'd been humble and took care of others. Others said I was jealous and
spiteful and they said many other nasty things behind my back. I was
smitten, and looking those who were not crying in the face, tears came
to my eyes. But pretending not to notice them and to hold back the
tears, I went back in and cried my eyes out. Some said, "She's died.
What a pity!" Others said, "Poor Sde-pa-drung!" and because they
cried, it rained hailstones of pus and blood the size of eggs. I suffered
as though my bones had been broken and my skin pierced through.
A great roaring sound also occurred. I looked at my body and I
was wearing the same clothes as before. As soon as the hail fell my
body became naked. There arose great lamentations of intolerable
suffering.
An indistinct disembodied voice said to me, "Go to Phra-phug!" and
there-upon, as soon as the thought of going had flashed into my mind, I
arrived there. Sde-pa, master and servants, had already arrived. A full
vessel of beer had been placed before them, tea was on the stove and
two monks arranged food before an image. They were preparing an
offering. I thought, "I didn't know someone died. Is this a seventh-day
offering?" People from the village gradually arrived, and I went up to
Sde-pa-drung. All of them offered him beer and said many consoling
words to him. Then Steward Bde-Chen-grags-pa came, and taking my
amber and coral ornaments wrapped in a cloth, he put them in the gtor-
khang. He greeted Sde-pa-drung and said, "Sir! Please don't cry! It's
true that you feel sad and terrible now, but, however it may be, she was
a bride to 'Og-gro and she the girls of Khrab-shos-sbas-khur, inciting
them to tum to religion, to had no plans to bear her responsibilities.
Since she was always talking she robbed the king of 'Og-gro. Her death
should cause you to suffer less than you would for a hurt thumb. For
now, it's best you try to clear up this suffering of your eye, your hand,
and this corpse outside." Again Sde-pa wept and said, "The sun in the
sky is old at noon. We two were dear to each other only a very short
time. I've no father or mother. Now the time has come when I must be
separated from my only friend," and he wept many tears. Again he said,
"There are stories that her kind of person becomes a 'das-log (shi-log).