Dhpv15 Cundasūkarika Vatthu - Just a pig…?!
During the time of the Buddha, there lived a man named Cunda.
For more than fifty-five years, he earned his living by slaughtering pigs.
Day after day, his mind was filled with cruelty, harshness, and the defilements of anger and harm—
yet he never realized that he was creating extremely heavy unwholesome kamma.
When death approached and after his passing, he suffered the burning torment of the blazing hell-fire.
Unwholesome deeds bring nothing but unwholesome results—without exception.
And some of these consequences do not wait for future lives;
they can manifest here and now in this very life.
Because of the story of Cunda the pig-slaughterer,
the Buddha uttered Dhammapada Verse 15:
“idha socati pecca socati, pāpakārī ubhayattha socati,
so socati so vihaññati, disvā kammakiliṭṭhamattano.”
“In this life he suffers, in the next life he suffers;
The evil-doer experiences sorrow in both realms.
He feels sorrow, he feels mental pain;
Because he sees the defiled kamma he has done.”
When people commit evil actions, they often do not understand their consequences.
Only when they finally see the results of what they have done
do remorse and sorrow arise.
Suffering and Happiness in This Life and the Next
Buddhism teaches that this present life is not the only life,
nor is the human realm the only form of existence.
After death, a person is reborn according to their kamma. One may:
- be reborn again as a human,
- fall into the unhappy realms (animal, ghost, hell, or asura), or
- be reborn in the heavenly realms.
not exactly the same as the one in the previous life (because change has occurred);
yet not entirely different (because the same stream of continuity flows on).
Buddhism denies a permanent, unchanging self,
but affirms the continuity of the life-process
and the certainty of cause and effect created by one’s actions.
However, this does not mean that a person must hopelessly suffer all the results of past deeds.
If nothing could be changed, there would be no meaning in
cultivation, purification, doing good, or liberation.
The very purpose of the Buddha’s teaching
is to give beings the chance
to turn toward wholesome qualities
and walk the path to liberation.
Storyboard of Cundasūkarika Vatthu
Read the Chinese version.
