Transcript The Buddhist Hell - Creighton University

The Buddhist Hell
With discussions on:
-The Wheel of Life
-Buddhist Gods
-Buddhist Ghosts
-Intricacies of the Buddhist Hell
-Role of the Buddhist Hell
Presented by Quentin Kelly, John English, and Chucky Ashraf
Buddhist concept of Life
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Everything in the world is a phenomenon and is
constantly changing.
Time is understood as a series of individual
moments.
Death is simply the movement from the last
moment in one life to the first moment in the next
life.
The law of Karma is a law of nature whereby each
action is necessarily followed by reward or
punishment.
Karma
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Life consists of interwoven activities that
produce causes and effects.
Death does not terminate this cycle. Our
deeds continue to accumulate following
death and influence our status in the next
life.
Until enlightenment occurs, we are “locked”
in an endless cycle of death and rebirth ,
Samsara, within the “wheel of life.”
The Wheel of Life
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A representation of the six destinations, or
realms, that one may enter at the onset of
each life.
The realms exist as a six-layered hierarchy:
Gods, Humans, Animals, Titans, Hungry
Ghosts, Denizens of Hell.
Where we are placed at the onset of each
new life is determined by our accumulation
of past positive and negative acts/deeds.
http://www.thevisualrecord.com/dbphotopages/photopage.php?photo_id=511
http://www.exoticindiaart.com/product/TC58/
http://www.uwec.edu/greider/Buddha/Buddhism.Course/Images/Wheel.of.Life.Big.jpg
www.dharma-media.org/media/general/dwnld/thanka/deity_wrathful/wheel_of_life.jpg
http://www.buddhanet.net/wheel2.htm
The Buddhist Concept of Hell
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As seen in the wheel of life, Hell is just one
of the six primary realms in the cycle of
Samsara.
Hell is not the location for eternal
damnation.
Just like the Buddhist world view, there are
many levels and sublevels in Hell.
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Hell is the coldest and hottest of places,
consisting of eight fiery levels and eight icy
levels.
When a being is born in Hell, they
experience pain.
Pain is the way in which justice is carried
out as a result of negative karma (acts of illwill in previous lives).
The different levels of Hell
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The Buddhist idea of Hell has evolved over
time. Different theories have evolved, but
all maintain the similar essential elements
we have discussed.
Some have attempted to describe the eight
different levels of hell; the names of the
sublevels of hell and the punishments that
occur in each.
The First level of Hell
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Known as the “Hell of retributive justice.”
The destination of persons who have taken
any form of life or eaten meat.
Punishments include being beaten with iron
claws; Smothered in mud and feces while
repeatedly stung by millions of insects
simultaneously being forced to eat boiling
shit.
The Second Level of Hell
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Known as “The Hell of the black rope.”
Destination for murderers and thieves.
Punishments include being lashed with
whips of fire and hacked with axes.
A dog with burning teeth exists in this
region of hell, which primarily feeds on the
flesh of those being punished at this level.
The Third Level of Hell
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The destination of rapists and spouse
beaters.
The punishment for pedophiles is to watch
the children they have raped undergo Hell’s
punishments.
The Fourth Level of Hell
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Known as the “Hell of screaming.”
Destination of merchants who cheat their
customers.
Punishments include being inflicted with
404 diseases as insects crawl into the body
to devour it from the inside.
The Fifth Level of Hell
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Known as the “Great Hell of Screaming.”
Destination for those who have lied about
their ill-intentioned actions.
Like level 4 of Hell, but ten orders of
magnitude worse.
Punishments include the impalement of
burning sticks into the anal cavity.
The Sixth Level of Hell
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Known as the “Hell of Burning.”
Punishments include having one’s body
cooked into human yakitori.
The Seventh Level of Hell
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Known as the “Great Hell of Burning.”
Destination of those who are chronic liars
about many, many ill-intentioned actions.
Punishments include receiving a burning
stick up the buttocks that is twice as hot
and lasts longer than the stick up the
buttocks experienced in level 6.
The Eighth Level of Hell
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Also known as “The Great Hell of Unlimited
Suffering.”
Located so far deep in the earth that it takes
2000 years falling to reach it.
Destination of prisoners: Buddhists who
were burned at altars, people who let others
die of thirst, and children who kill their
parents.
Punishments include being burned, eaten
alive, and being dropped off mountains.
The Avici Hell
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The Hell that has the most suffering.
The Avici Hell contains innumerable layers,
each with different names and different
punishments.
Examples of several different layers:
-the hell of Crying Out, the hell of Pulling
Tongues, the hell of Dung and Urine.
Punishments within the Layers of
the Avici Hell
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Hell in which tongues are stretched out and
plowed through by cattle.
Hell in which excrement and urine are
endless.
Hell in which fiery spears stab repeatedly
Hell in which bodies are stretched by iron
mules.
For the fornicators and such…
Rebirth and Justice in Hell
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The cause of rebirth in hell is the
accumulation of deeds instigated by ill-will
in previous lives.
The degree of unwholesome karma
determines the length of time spent and
amount of pain experienced in Hell.
Beings are reborn into a different realm of
the wheel of life following the
extinguishment of unwholesome karma in
Hell.
The Eye of Justice
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The punisher’s third eye is that which
investigates the deeds of previous lives.
His objective is to help those who
experience the temporary sufferings of Hell
find enlightenment in their next life.
The punisher is actually Buddha in another
form.
The Psychological Influence of Hell
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Buddhism claims there is no order in the
world.
Moreover, there are no gods to model
moral perfection after. Thus, Buddhists do
not strive for ideal moral behavior.
Yet, Hell creates a type of conventional
order which scares humans into “right”
moral behavior (reward/punishment model).
Ghosts
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In certain traditions, each time a person dies,
their spirit spends an unspecified amount of time
as a conscious ghost seeking rebirth.
As a result, Buddhist monks traditionally chant
special prayers to dead spirits, urging them to
stop wandering the places where they died, and
to detach themselves from loved ones - so the
living can enjoy peace, and the dead can begin
the purification process in Hell.
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In other
traditions, a
Ghost’s
purpose is
to escort
living
people, who
are soon
approaching
death, to
Hell.
Ghosts in the Media
Ghost Stories Haunting
Thailand's Tsunami Zones
Richard S. Ehrlich
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Many Thais believe
ghosts are
wandering
tsunami-hit
beaches, spooking
taxi drivers, making
the Andaman Sea
hungry for more
victims, and jinxing
an economic
recovery for
devastated resorts.
Buddhist Gods
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Unlike Western understanding of God.
gods are simply another destination in the
hierarchy of the wheel of life.
gods have a finite lifetime, although they do
live a considerably longer and more
satisfying life.
Interestingly enough it is the realm of
humans, not gods, that is the most
desirable position. Balance of pleasure and
pain.
A very special thanks to:
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www.vexen.co.uk/religion/buddhism.html
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www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/ojoyoshu.htm
www.boingboing.net/2004/04/23/photojourney_through.html
http://www.buddhanet.net/wheel2.htm
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/qanda05.htm
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/snapshot01.htm
http://www.buddhanet.net/funbud10.htm
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Ghost+Festival&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1
http://www.hungryghost.net/descrip.html
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http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/EJ144/ej144f.htm