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.The Glass Palace and the four Apsaras dis-appeared.But still Mittavinda had not regainedthe peace of mind thrown away by the villagemonk, so very long ago.Seven days of pleasurehad not satisfied him.He could not wait for thelovely goddesses to return.He wanted more andmore.So he continued on, in the little bambooraft.Lo and behold, he came to a shining SilverPalace, with eight Apsara goddesses living there.Again he enjoyed seven days of the greatestpleasure.These Apsaras also asked him to wait192the next seven days, and disappeared into a hellworld.Amazing as it may seem, the greedy Mit-tavinda went on to seven days of pleasure in asparkling Jewel Palace with 16 Apsaras.But theytoo disappeared.Then he spent seven days in aglowing Golden Palace with 32 of the most beau-tiful Apsaras of all.But still he was not satisfied! When all 32asked him to wait seven days, again he departedon the raft.Before long he came to the entrance of ahell world filled with suffering tortured beings.They were living through the results of their ownactions.But his desire for more pleasure was sostrong that Mittavinda thought he saw a beautifulcity surrounded by a wall with four fabulousgates.He thought, I will go inside and make my-self king!After he entered, he saw one of the victimsof this hell world.He had a collar around his neckthat spun like a wheel, with five sharp blades cut-ting into his face, head, chest and back.But Mit-tavinda was still so greedy for pleasure that hecould not see the pain right before his eyes.In-stead he saw the spinning collar of cutting bladesas if it were a lovely lotus blossom.He saw thedripping blood as if it were the red powder of per-fumed sandal wood.And the screams of pain from193the poor victim sounded like the sweetest ofsongs!He said to the poor man,  You ve had thatlovely lotus crown long enough! Give it to me, forI deserve to wear it now. The condemned manwarned him,  This is a cutting collar, a wheel ofblades. But Mittavinda said,  You only say thatbecause you don t want to give it up.The victim thought,  At last the results ofmy past unwholesome deeds must be completed.Like me, this poor fool must be here for strikinghis mother.I will give him the wheel of pain. Sohe said,  Since you want it so badly, take the lotuscrown!With these words the wheel of blades spunoff the former victim s neck and began spinningaround the head of Mittavinda.And suddenly allhis illusions disappeared he knew this was nobeautiful city, but a terrible hell world; he knewthis was no lotus crown, but a cutting wheel ofblades; and he knew he was not king, but prisoner.Groaning in pain he cried out desperately,  Takeback your wheel! Take back your wheel! But theother one had disappeared.Just then the king of the gods arrived for ateaching visit to the hell world.Mittavinda askedhim,  Oh king of gods, what have I done to de-serve this torment? The god replied,  Refusing tolisten to the words of monks, you obtained no194wisdom, but only money.A thousand gold coinsdid not satisfy you, nor even 120,000.Blinded bygreed, you struck your mother on your way tograbbing greater wealth still. Then the pleasure of four Apsaras in theirGlass Palace did not satisfy you.Neither eightApsaras in a Silver Palace, nor 16 in a Jewel Pal-ace.Not even the pleasure of 32 lovely goddessesin a Golden Palace was enough for you! Blindedby greed for pleasure you wished to be king.Nowat last, you see your crown is only a wheel of tor-ture, and your kingdom is a hell world. Learn this, Mittavinda  all who followtheir greed wherever it leads are left unsatisfied.For it is in the nature of greed to be dissatisfiedwith what one has, whether a little or a lot.Themore obtained, the more desired  until the circleof greed becomes the circle of pain.Having said this, the god returned to hisheaven world home.At the same time the wheelcrashed down on Mittavinda.With his head spin-ning in pain, he found himself adrift on the tinybamboo raft.Soon he came to an island inhabited by apowerful she-devil.She happened to be disguisedas a goat.Being hungry, Mittavinda thought noth-ing of grabbing the goat by a hind leg.And theshe-devil hiding inside kicked him way up into the195air.He finally landed in a thorn bush on the out-skirts of Benares!After he untangled himself from the thorns,he saw some goats grazing nearby.He wantedvery badly to return to the palaces and the dancinggirl Apsaras.Remembering that a goat had kickedhim here, he grabbed the leg of one of these goats.He hoped it would kick him back to the island.Instead, this goat only cried out [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]