CHAPTER 32                                                                                                                     VISIT TO THE PRISON OF HEART-WRENCHING                                     Buddha Tse Kong who manifested on May 16th, 1977. Year of the Snake.                                         POEM                                                                                                                                                                 What a pity to ignore your ancestors                                                                                                             To neglect yourself, to pollute your soul                                                                                                   Morality exists since millennia                                                                                                                       Along with culture, and fine art, well designed.                                                                                        Buddha Tse Kong: The Chinese culture and its traditional morality were originally the result of the synthesis of the vital force of heaven and earth. From thence, they always remain new and exist indefinitely through the ages. Nowadays, people are more inclined to materialism. They adore nothing but material welfare. They deny the intrinsic value of their own culture and totally submit to the material civilization of the Occident. Their excessive veneration with regard to foreigners renders them ungrateful to the extent they forget their ancestors and their race. They weaken themselves and bring shame to the next generation. Still worse, with the rapid progress of science and technology, these people pride themselves for having daunted nature and outdone God himself. They never realize that a single tidal wave suffices to eliminate every living creature with their inventions. Even if he is well-equipped with his science and technique, man is simply a small boat drifting on the immensity of an ocean. His pretention to excell God and destroy the great nature with his science and technology will necessarily lead him some day to bear the terrific catastrophes of heaven. The man who considers himself free from the laws of nature often behaves immorally. It is therefore desirable that every person of generous and virtuous character considers carefully before making any commitment. We are to take a tour to hell, Yang Ts’ien. Come quickly on the dais.                                                                    Yang Ts’ien : At your request. I’m ready. Shall we go, Master?                                                               TK : Here we are! Let’s go down.                                                                                                                    The King: My congratulations to Buddha Tse Kong and Mr. Yang Ts’ien who pay me another visit. What a long and tiring trip!                                                                                                                  TK: Never mind, Sir. Here we come again to burden you with our desire to inspect the cells of the prison.                                                                                                                                                          The King: Last time, I promised to let you inspect the “Heart-Wreching” Prison. Now, please follow me.                                                                                                                                                           YT: We thank you deeply, Sir. Ahead of us, I see the 36 cells of the Heart-Wrenching Prison. Already, I hear resounding cries and groans. Of course, dreadful effluence of blood is to be seen.                                                                                                                                                                    The King: The sinful souls whose hearts are hardened by vice will have to redeem their crimes with their hearts.                                                                                                                                               YT : The mandarin-governor of the prison is coming. I have to pay him my homage.                      The Mandarin: My respects to His Majesty, Buddha Tse Kong and Mr. Yang Ts’ien. I received the order to welcome Mr. Yang Ts’ien, of the Temple of the Sages, and Buddha Tse Kong from Nirvana, who come to visit my prison in person. I wish to be forgiven for my deficiencies, if any. YT: You are very obliging, Excellency. We have come here to gather information with a view to writing a book. Your assistance is necessary.                                                                                              The King : Officer, open the gate of the prison.                                                                                          The Officer : Your order is executed, Sir.                                                                                                       YT: What a frighful sight! These mournful cries oppress my heart. In the prison, small demons are splitting the souls’ chests with cutlasses, and extracting their hearts just like a butcher disembowelling the pigs. The souls are fastened to stakes, their chests gaping. They utter heart-rending screams and fall unconscious. What crime did they commit, I wonder.                                The Mandarin: At first, I am going to revive a soul with resuscitative water to restore him to life. YT: Miraculous! A single bowl of water is flushed on the sinner, and here he is, with his chest closed up and his senses recovered.                                                                                                            The Mandarin: I shall have some sinful souls come to tell you their misdeeds while on earth.     The soul: In my lifetime, I used to read abundantly. After finishing my university studies, I was imbued with contemporary ideas and had deep passion for modern culture. While I was attending university, a protestant professor advised me to convert to protestantism. After meeting him, I had not only a chance to perfect my English but also had many occasions to travel to foreign countries. Anticipating a bright future, I accepted his proposal. Since then, I went to church to listen to pastors’ sermons and also to improve my English. Most of the believers were young men and comrades, and we had the opportunity to meet and exchange experiences. For a while, I was an active member of a youth group. One time, after receiving my baptismal sacrament, I suddenly thought of my native village where people still dealt in the worship of genii, saints, and the veneration of Buddha. I found all such things “out of fashion” and unworthy of modern times. I regarded as supertitious the gesture of prostrating in front of statues. I returned to my village, and decided to convince my family to change. First, I advised my parents to give up their adoration of statues. My parents, who had had life long belief and kept strong faith in the religion of their forefathers, refused to hear me. Their attitude irritated me so much that I destroyed all the objects that I found on the altar. My parents, wrathful, snatched a chess-board and threw it at me. I was so indignant that I left the house for good. After my graduation from university, I followed the pastor many places to preach the Gospel, and after that, I received the investiture of the Church which appointed me to be a missionary to a remote place. Later on, when I was killed in a car accident, I did not find myself rising to paradise as I had expected. Instead, I was seized by wicked demons and escorted to hell, to the Heart-Wrenching Prison for punishment. I implore you, Sir, to grant me your forgiveness.           The King: The religions, by themselves, are devoid of distinction. They all require absolute faith. Your religion never taught you to vilify your parents’ belief. Neither did the protestant pastor inculcate in you such a spirit of disparagement. It was you, because of your bias to Occidental ways and manners, who forgot your origin, you destroyed the talismans and ritual tablets of the cult of your ancestors. How could you, with such a faulty faith and bad conduct, hope to teach men the commandment of “remembering its source while drinking the water of a stream”? Your preacher might have taught you not to worship idols and prostrate before statues. But you were not yet up to the level of comprehending the pure truth and failed to realize that the cross, the Bible, and even the pastor were but idols in other forms, and you worshipped them anyway. But if you don’t want to worship idols, then you should not preserve any other type of exoteric rites. You should sincerely eliminate all desires and stay impartial. By demolishing the philtres and name tablets of your ancestors, you denied your source. From whom were you born? Whose name did you bear? Naturally it’s your forefathers’ name. Your acts were adverse to the teachings of God, and this is the reason why paradise rejected you, and it is here, in hell, you have come. As you have just made a frank confession, I deem it proper to substract two months from your sentence. After completion of your detention here, you will be reincarnated for six successive existences on earth.                                                                                   TK: Religious faith teaches man the way to regenerate. By no means should he accuse or criticize the faith of other people, pretending his is true and unique. That’s the law of God. By pretending that one’s religion is authentic whereas the others’ are false, one sows discord. Once the feelings of mercy and fraternity are lost, people deviate from the straight path. If it is possible that such lopsided people manage to obtain success in the Way, the deities themselves will be in disharmony, at odds, in dispute, and paradise will become a battlefield instead of a kingdom of felicity. It’s rather late. We shall come back next time. Yang Ts’ien, be ready for the return.                                                                                                                                                                  The King : Officers and troopers! Stand in line for the salute.                                                                 YT: Our time being limited, we cannot prolong our visit. We are deeply grateful to His Majesty, his mandarins and generals for their assistance.                                                                                         TK : Come quickly on the dais.                                                                                                                      YT : I’m settled, Master. Let’s be on our way.                                                                                              TK : We’re arrived. Alight, Yang Ts’ien. Your soul will regain your body.