"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.htm
In 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
Wongs house.
After Ive 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.
