"Why is there 'Spider with a Human Face'?"
Venerable Shih Shen-Kai
Poor Translation by An Eternal Now. Source:
http://www.rencheng.com/strange/weishenme.htmIn Mid-December 1989, a few high school students from a village took a page of December 6th Taiwan's "China Times" and came to find me in my monastery. They pointed at an article in the 7th Issue called "Spider with a Human Face" and asked "Old Master! Why on Earth is there "Spider with a Human Face”?
I received their newspaper and read carefully. “Ms.Wong caught a strange spider with a human face on its back. Neighbours who came to visit called it ‘The Spider with a Human Face.’”
On 4th December, Ms.Wong from [Chinese address] sprayed insecticides, and the spider who attempted escape died on the spot. Ms.Wong found Eyes, Nose, and Mouth similar to the human face, and it was very shocking. Neighbours who have heard of the news all came to look at it.
Currently, the carcass of the “Spider with a Human Face” is preserved with Alcohol, and is placed in [Chinese address] Ms Wong’s house.
After I’ve seen the picture, I took out a book, “
The Discourse on the Ten Wholesome Ways of Action ” from the bookshelves. I said, Lord Buddha went to the Naga Palace and told the Naga-king, “Because all beings have different consciousness and thoughts, they too perform different actions and as a consequence there is the turning around in all the different courses of existence. Oh Naga King, do you see the variety of shapes and appearances in this meeting and in the great ocean, are they not different from one another. None of them are not caused by Action Karma, Speech Karma and Mind Karma.” After letting the students read this article, they seem to be unsure. Then, they asked, “Why do the spiders have a human face?”
I replied, “This is because there is a type of human in this world, lazy about work, unwilling to be hardworking, accompanied with non-upright thinking and using cunning methods to create evil plans, using various traps to cause their victims to be tricked, submit themselves to their “nets” (trap), causing their victims to lose their properties, bodies, and even lives. This evil man sits in silence, doing nothing yet getting what he wanted, and thus fulfilling his evil goals. This type of human will certainly fall into the realm of spiders, but because they long the precious human life, when they turn into spiders, their backs carry an image of the human face. Now do you understand the meaning of “Evil Deeds result in Bad Consequences”? This is an example of “Ten Thousand Dharmas are manifested from the Mind.”
The students nodded, meaning that they understood the cause behind “Spider with a Human Face”.
