Victor Pelevin - The Sacred Book of the Werewolf

‘What are you ashamed of?’

‘Of all the things that I have done . . . I am afraid.’

‘Of what?’

‘I am afraid that the spirits of retribution will send me to hell,’ I said in a very low voice.

It was the honest truth - one of the fleeting visions that had just flashed before my inner eye was this: a black wheel was turning inside an icy stone cell, winding my tail on to itself, tearing it out of my body, but the tail would not tear away, it kept on growing and growing, like the silk thread emerging from a spider’s belly, and every second of this nightmare brought me intolerable torment. But the worst thing of all was the realization that it would go on like that for all eternity . . . No fox could imagine a more terrible hell.

‘Do foxes really believe in retribution?’ the Yellow Master asked.

‘We do not have to believe or not believe. Retribution comes every time our tails are tugged sharply.’

‘Ah, so that’s it,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘So I should have tugged on her tail . . .’

‘Whose tail?’

‘A few years ago a highly cultured fox from the capital came here to pray for forgiveness of her sins. Unlike you, she had no fear of hell at all - on the contrary, she asserted that absolutely everybody would find their way there. She reasoned like this: even people are sometimes kind, and how greatly the mercy of heaven transcends earthly mercy! It is clear that the Supreme Ruler will forgive absolutely everybody and send them immediately to heaven. People themselves will turn heaven into hell - exactly as they have done to the earth . . .’

I am usually curious, but at that moment I was in such a terrible state that I did not even ask who that fox from the capital was. But her argument sounded convincing to me. Swallowing my tears, I whispered:

‘Then does that mean there is no hope at all?’

The Yellow Master shrugged.

‘The realization that everything is created by the mind demolishes even the most terrible hell,’ he said.

‘I understand this idea already,’ I replied. ‘I have read the sacred books and my grasp of them is really quite good. But it seems to me that I have a wicked heart. And a wicked heart, as that fox from the capital said so correctly, will always create hell around itself. No matter where it might be.’

‘If you had a wicked heart, you would not have followed the sound of my flute. Your heart is not wicked. Like all foxes’ hearts, it is cunning.’

‘And can a cunning heart be helped?’

‘It is believed that if its owner lives a righteous life, a cunning heart can be cured in three kalpas.’

‘And what is a kalpa?’

‘It is the period of time that passes between the appearance of the universe and its destruction.’

‘But no fox will ever live for so long!’ I said.

‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘A cunning heart is difficult to cure by forcing it to follow the rules of morality. Precisely because it is cunning, it will always seek a way to circumvent all these rules and make fools of everyone. But in three kalpas it can come to understand that it is only fooling itself.’

‘But can it not be done any faster?’

‘It can,’ he replied. ‘If the desire is strong and the will is determined. ’

‘How?’

‘The Buddha gave many different teachings. They include teachings for people, teachings for the spirits, and even teachings for the gods who do not wish to be cast down into the lower worlds. There is also a teaching for magical foxes treading the path above the earth, but will you place any credence in it if you are told of it by a man?’

I assumed a highly respectful attitude and said: ‘Believe me, I hold human beings in great esteem! If it sometimes happens that I sap their life-force, it is only because that is the way nature has made me. I could not have obtained sustenance for myself otherwise. ’

‘Very well,’ said the Yellow Master. ‘By a happy coincidence, I am familiar with the secret teaching for immortal foxes, and am prepared to transmit it to you. Indeed, I am obliged to do so. I shall soon leave this world, and it would be a pity if this marvellous knowledge were to disappear with me. But it is unlikely I shall meet another fox in time.’

‘But what of your visitor from the capital? Why did you not transmit the teaching to her?’

‘E Hu-Li is not suitable,’ he said.

So that was the fox from the capital! She had come here in secret to atone for her sins in prayer. But in conversation she would not even admit that sins existed.

‘Why is my sister E Hu-Li not suitable?’ I asked. ‘You told me yourself that she came to repent of her misdeeds.’

‘She is too sly. She repents when she is plotting a dark deed that is utterly wicked. She seeks to lighten the burden of her soul, so that it may accommodate more evil.’

‘I am also capable of such things,’ I replied honestly.

‘I know,’ said the Yellow Master. ‘But at the same time, you will remember that you are intending to commit a crime, and so your deception will come to nothing. But E Hu-Li, having planned her next act of villainy, can repent so sincerely of the previous one, that she will indeed lighten the burden of her soul. She is too cunning ever to enter into the Rainbow Stream .’

He pronounced the last two words with emphasis.

‘Where?’ I asked.

‘The Rainbow Stream,’ he repeated.

‘And what is that?’

‘You say that you have read the sacred books. Then you should know that life is a promenade through a garden of illusory forms that seem real to the mind which does not see their true nature. A mind that loses its way may find itself in the world of the gods, the world of the demons, the world of human beings, the worlds of animals, the world of hungry spirits or hell. Having passed through each these worlds, the Victorious Ones left their inhabitants a teaching on how finally to cure themselves of death and rebirth . . .’

‘I beg your pardon,’ I interrupted, wishing to demonstrate my learning - ‘but it says in the sutras that a human birth is the most precious of all, since only a human being can attain liberation. Is that not so?’

The Yellow Master smiled.

‘I would not reveal this secret to humans but, since you are a fox, you should know that the same assertion is made in all the worlds. In hell they say that only an inhabitant of hell can attain liberation, since in all the other places the beings spend their lives in the pursuit of pleasures, of which there are almost none in hell. In the world of the gods, on the contrary, they say that none but the gods can attain liberation, because the leap to freedom is shortest of all for them, and their fear of falling into the lower worlds is the strongest. The inhabitants of every world are told that it is the most propitious for salvation.’

‘But what about animals? They are not told that, are they?’

‘I am speaking of those worlds in which the inhabitants posses the concept of salvation. But where there is no such concept, it follows of itself that there is no need to save anyone.’

I see, I thought. As smart as a fox.

‘And the salvation of which you speak - is it the same for all the worlds, or different in each one?’

‘For human beings liberation is to enter nirvana. For those who live in hell liberation is to merge with the lilac smoke. For an asura-demon, it is to take possession of the sword of emptiness. For the gods, it is to dissolve into the diamond effulgence. When we speak of form, salvation is different in every world. But in its inner essence, it is the same everywhere, because the nature of the mind that dreams all these worlds never changes.’

‘And how do matters stand with foxes?’

‘Formally speaking, were-creatures do not fit into any of the six categories of which I have spoken of. You are a special case. It is believed that sometimes a mind born into the world of demons takes fright at its cruelty and goes to live on its outer perimeter, where the demonic reality borders on the world of people and animals. Such a being does not belong to any one of these worlds, since it migrates between all three - the worlds of humans, animals and demons. It is to this category that magical foxes belong.’