A Pig's Previous and Present Lives

By Chi Xiao Lan, Ching Cheng Long Dynasty
Except From "Observe All, Thatch Hut Note"

There once was an old monk. When he passed by a slaughterhouse, he couldn't help shedding tears, and then he spoke of his previous lives.

"It is a long story. I can remember two of my previous lives. During the first one, I was a butcher and made my living by slaughtering animals. I died in my thirties. My soul was taken by several messengers of death and put into hell. The judge reproached me for my heavy killing sins and escorted my soul to the turning wheel in hell to suffer retribution. I was in a trance and was unconscious as if I were drunk or in a dream. I could only feel that my head was unbearably hot. At the moment that I felt a little cooler, I was actually in a pigsty and was reborn as a pig.

"As a piglet who was weaning, I saw that people always brought dirty and smelly left-over food to feed me. I knew that the food wasn't clean and tried to restrain myself from eating. However, I was unbearably hungry and all my internal organs were suffering as if they had been burnt by fire. I had no alternative but to eat the dirty food to preserve my life. Gradually, I learnt the pig's language and could talk with my pig friends. Actually, many pigs could remember that they were human beings in their previous lives. It's only that they are born as pigs, speak a different language, and can't communicate with human beings. When they are going to be slaughtered, they know more or less what is coming. They mostly groan sadly and their eyes become wet.

"As pigs, our bodies were very heavy and we had difficulty walking. When the summer came, we were afraid of the heat and had to soak our bodies in mud to feel cooler. However, this extravagant wish couldn't be fulfilled often. Our hair was thick, stiff and sparse, so we were afraid of the cold in winter. Seeing that dogs and sheep grow thick fur like carpets on their bodies, we thought that they were animals that received heavenly treatment.

"At the time of being slaughtered, although we knew that we couldn't avoid it, we still struggled, jumped, and tried to escape. Soon, some butchers caught us. They stepped on us and tied up our necks and four legs with ropes. The ropes were so tight that they touched our bones so it was as painful as being cut by knives.

"Then we were transported by ship or cart. All the pigs squeezed together so tightly that our ribs were almost broken, our blood did not circulate smoothly, and our stomachs swelled as if they would split open. Sometimes, people carried several pigs by hanging them on a bamboo pole, which was so painful we wished we could die.

"After arriving at the slaughterhouse, we were thrown to the ground, and our hearts and internal organs were shaken as if they were going to explode. Sometimes pigs died because of the excruciating pain. Sometimes pigs were tied up for several days; there were knives and chopping blocks on the left and a big pot of boiling hot water on the right. Thinking of how painful it would be when being cut by the knifes and being scalded in the boiling water, we couldn't stop trembling. Sometimes when we thought that we would be dismembered and become an ingredient in a soup pot in someone's kitchen, we were miserable in our despair.

"When I was going to be slaughtered I felt frightened and dizzy as soon as I was grabbed by a butcher. My four legs were weak, my heart thundered, and my soul felt as if it were flying out from the top of my head. When I was put on the chopping block, I simply couldn't face the bright knife upon seeing it. So I just closed my eyes and waited for my neck to be slit. The butcher slit my neck first and tilted the edge of the knife to let my blood flow down into a pot. The suffering was really beyond description! Since I couldn't die quickly, the only thing that I could do was to howl loudly. After my blood was drained, the butcher stabbed my heart with the knife, which made me feel the pain through my bones, but I couldn't shout out anymore. Gradually, I fell into a trance and felt like I was drunk or in a dream, which was the same feeling as when I was reborn.

"A long time later, I looked at myself and found that my soul had returned to hell. The judge in hell decided to let me be reborn as a human being after he found out that I had done some good deeds in my previous lives. In this lifetime, when I saw that pigs that are about to be slaughtered are so grief stricken, I thought about the fact that the person who slaughters the pigs will suffer the same fate in the future. Then I thought of myself. The three thoughts intertwined in my mind, and I cried uncontrollably."

After the monk told his story, the butcher who heard it dropped his knife to the ground and changed his profession to selling vegetables.

<<Witty Hearsay>>

A Pig's Anger

Once a butcher died, and in a place about four or five kilometers away, a pig was born. This pig continuously went back to the butcher's home, lay down, and couldn't be driven away. After its owner brought it back home, it went there again. So its owner had to lock it up and didn't allow it to run around. He really suspected that this pig was the butcher reborn.

Another butcher died. A year and a half later, his wife was going to be remarried. When she put on her beautiful wedding gown and boarded a ship, a pig suddenly ran over and angrily glared at the bride with its eyes wide open. It tore the bride's dress to pieces and then bit her heels. People anxiously protected the bride and threw the pig into the water so that the ship could turn around and sail away. Unexpectedly, the pig made it to the shore and ran after the ship. Since the wind happened to strengthen, pushing the ship farther away, the pig went back depressed. People also suspected that the pig was the butcher reborn, and that he was agitated because his wife was going to be remarried.

There was another butcher who slaughtered a pig. At the time the pig was killed, his wife was in labor and delivered a baby girl. After she was born, she howled like a pig, and died only after three or four days of howling. To the people present, it seemed evident that the baby girl was the reincarnation of the pig that was slaughtered at the time she was born.