“In her human life, Goddess Meng Po was a Buddhist cultivator who upheld lifelong chastity and maintained pure conduct. Her secular name was Meng Po, and she was inherently kind-hearted. She devoted herself to aiding impoverished people around her. She witnessed the immense suffering of mortal beings, tormented by attachments to love, family conflicts, and especially the hardships endured by countless women. In ancient times, women were expected to remain uneducated, confined to bearing and raising children and supporting their husbands. Many women lived in helpless misery and wept alone. Meng Po saw all of this and aided suffering women karmically connected to her. This inspired her vow to help all beings cast aside their pain, forget the past, and begin anew. She persuaded countless people, exhorting them to refrain from killing, adopt vegetarian diets, recite sutras and chant the Buddha’s name.
“Meng Po once wished that there could exist a harmless soup enabling people to forget all suffering. When her mortal life ended, by the blessings and virtues accumulated from saving troubled sentient beings, she ascended to the heaven realm. The Heavenly Emperor appointed her a deity, granting her a palace in the heavens where she enjoys all manner of heavenly bliss.
“As time passed, the Heavenly Emperor observed that the mind and nature of the living beings in the human world began to degenerate. Some beings retained memories of past lives after reincarnation, disrupting human ethics and social order. Such disturbances occurred repeatedly. Since Meng Po had previously made the virtuous vow to help beings forget suffering, the Emperor resolved to fulfill her virtuous vow. He ordered the construction of the Platform of Oblivion within the netherworld and appointed Goddess Meng Po to oversee it. The Platform of Oblivion is where Meng Po’s soup is developed and prepared for the souls awaiting rebirth, and where ghost officers and yakshas serve under her command. Ayù, taking the special passage will shorten our journey greatly. The Platform of Oblivion lies behind the Tenth Hall of the Netherworld.”
I said gratefully: “Thank you for your trouble, Magistrate!”
This special passage was truly remarkable. No wails of torment from hell could be heard; it appeared to possess excellent sound insulation. A building came into view, furnished with tables and benches, yet no one was present.
The Magistrate said: “This is a council chamber. Everyone is out attending to duties, and no meetings have been held for several days. If a meeting were in session, I could not bring you via this shortcut. All this furniture is used for our assemblies. Before the task to compile The Inexorable Nether Laws was assigned to you, we held meetings right here. I received the official Nether Edict ordering me to receive you, Ayù, guide your tour of the netherworld, and reveal profound heavenly secrets. Upon your return to the mortal realm, you will record what you witness to exhort people of the mortal world to practice goodness and accumulate virtues.”
Ah! So that was how it was. More passageways stretched ahead, and we hurried through them.
The characters “Platform of Oblivion” came into sight. The platform occupied a vast area, resembling an enormous herbal tea shop of the mortal world. Three varieties of large barrels stood here.
The Magistrate explained that the transparent barrels hold sweeter soup for those with the greatest blessing rewards; white barrels contain soup for beings of ordinary blessing rewards; black barrels hold soup for those with the poorest blessing rewards. The ghost officers distributing the soup wear matching colored garments: those serving from transparent barrels wear translucent robes, those at white barrels wear white robes, and those attending the black barrels wear black robes.
Numerous ghost officers busily poured Meng Po’s soup into cups. The cups were round with a single supporting foot, seemingly identical in color, size and shape. On closer inspection, however, subtle differences emerged. Though all cups were transparent and uniform in size, the distinction lay in the raised patterns on their bases. The feet of one set of transparent cups were smooth and unadorned, feeling comfortable when souls grasped them to drink. Another set bore faint raised ornamentation that could be felt in the hand. The bases of the last kind featured triangular protrusions, which felt sharp and uncomfortable to the touch.