78.DEATH BY LIGHTNING

　　Collected Pearls in the Dharma Garden (Fayuan Chulin) tells that during the Tang dynasty, there was a very skillful cook from Changhu, Bohai. His name was Feng Yuan. The King of Khotan, barbarians in the west, came to pay tribute to the imperial court of China. Feng Yuan was ordered to prepare a state banquet for him and his retinue. Everybody ate and ate and ate until they were stuffed. They all said the food was great, but when the banquet was finished, there were almost one hundred goats left over. They had not even been slaughtered yet. The authorities were not quite sure what to do with them. The King of Khotan happened to here about this, and he requested that their lives be spared.

　　"It is my sincere wish that these goats be sent to Buddhist temples to live out their natural life spans."

　　Feng received the order to let them go, but he figured the King would be going back to his barbaric homeland before long, and after all, ninety some goats means a lot of money! So he did not obey this command. Instead, he sold the goats to a butcher. He was really quite happy about this windfall.

　　Eventually, he spent all of that money, and as time passed, he probably forgot all about it. He was really a good cook, so whenever the powerful politicians and rich people in the capital wanted a feast, they looked up Feng. He worked hard for his money, but his income was pretty good.

　　Then, during the summer of 661, Feng was taking a stroll outside the Xuanyan City Gate. All of a sudden, the wind came up to blow. The skies turned black, lighting flashed, thunder rolled, and rain poured down.

　　A particularly loud clap of thunder right by the city wall startled all the people around. When they recovered their wits, they saw a man kneeling in the rain. His hair was disheveled. His eyes were popping. His chin was pressing on his chest, like a convict's before his head is chopped off.

　　Then people looked again, and realized that his head had been almost chopped off! His head was split wide open, and his brains were dripping out of his skull! He looked like an executioner had cleaved his head.

　　"Hey, isn't that Feng Yuan, the famous cook?"

　　"You're right, it is," someone answered. "This must be the result he caused by killing all those goats that were supposed to be let free."

　　You can never escape for long from evil that you have brought down upon yourself.

78.天谴

　　《法苑珠林》里提到，唐代的时候，渤海长胡有一个技艺高超的厨子。他叫做冯远。和阗王，西方的胡人，来中国朝见皇帝。冯远奉命要为和阗王和他的随从准备国宴。每个人都不停地吃，直到 吃的饱饱的。他们说那些菜实在是太好吃了，不过当宴会结束后，还剩了差不多一百只羊，它们还没有被宰杀。管事者不知道拿这些羊怎 么办好。和阗王刚好听到了，他要求放了这些羊。

　　“我真心希望，这些羊能被送到佛教寺院里，在那里颐养天年。”

　　冯接到了把羊放走的命令，但是他考虑到和阗王很快就要回到他的蛮荒之地去，而且九十几只羊意味着一大笔钱！所以他没有执行这个命令，而是把这些羊卖给了屠夫。他为自己得到的这笔横财而高兴。

　　他最后把这笔钱都花光了，随着时间的流逝，他完全忘掉了这回事。冯确实是一个好厨子，每当京城里的达官贵人要举行宴会，都会找他。他为了钱努力工作，而且往往他的报酬不菲。

　　661年的夏天，冯正在玄燕门外散步。忽然，狂风大作。空中乌云密布、电闪雷鸣，下起了倾盆大雨。

　　城墙上传来一声炸雷，周围所有的人都吓呆了。当他们回过神来，看到雨里跪着一个人。他头发散乱，眼睛瞪圆，下巴抵在胸膛上，就像要被砍头的犯人一样。

人们仔细一看，发现他的头几乎被劈下来了！他的头上有一个很大的口子，脑浆正在从头骨里滴出来！他看上去就像是被刽子手砍了头。

　　“嘿，那不就是那个有名的厨子冯远吗？”

　　“是的，就是，”有人回答，“这一定他是杀了那些本应该被放生的羊得到的报应。”

　　一个人自己感招的恶报，是不可能逃得掉的。