Karma Story of Buddhist Ethics

Author(s): Paul Carus
Publisher: Chicago Open Court Publishing Company

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KARMA.
of Samsara until they reach the final deliverance from all evil in Nirvâna.
"When Buddha, the Lord, heard the prayer of the demon suffering in Hell, he said: 'Kandata, did you ever perform an act of kindness? It will now return to you and help you to rise again. But you cannot be rescued unless the intense sufferings which you endure as consequences of your evil deeds have dispelled all conceit of selfhood and have purified your soul of vanity, lust, and envy.'
Kandata remained silent, for he had been a cruel man, but the Tathagata in his omniscience saw all the deeds done by the poor wretch, and he perceived that once in his life when walking through the woods he had seen a spider crawling on the ground, and he thought to himself, 'I will not step upon the spider, for he is a harmless creature and hurts nobody.'
"Buddha looked with compassion upon the tortures of Kandata, and sent down a spider on a cobweb and the spider said: 'Take hold of the web and climb up.'
"Having attached the web at the bottom of