Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

13Landing PlaceA J A H N S U C I T T OAccording to the Buddhist scriptures, when you pass away from theland of the living, you arise in the darkness before King Yama, the lordof the dead. There you are asked to recall your life, and an assessmentbecomes clear. Yama’s officers haul you off for a sojourn in one of themany hell realms, escort you to one of the abodes of bliss, or usheryou straight back into the human arena. I found this difficult to believeuntil entering the yard of the Rajgir police station on the night of therobbery.I might as well be dead; after all, I had offered my head to a man withan axe. I felt light and airy, floating in a state like that mentioned by peoplewho have died on an operating table and seen their body far belowbeing worked on by anxious surgeons. Here, in the Rajgir police station,the surgeons were however far from anxious. A few officerswrapped in blankets were slumped in chairs under a tarpaulin roof.Around a gas lantern were a few vacant faces, the eyes gently scanningsheets of paper, an occasional sucking in of cheeks and fidgeting of thebody. Reactions and responses hung suspended in the gloom. I was lingeringin the assumption that, after some unfathomable cognitive2 4 3