Four Hells in Buddhist Cosmology

Is it wise to stay in the Saṃsāra (Rebirth Cycle?)

Lord Buddha said that we can't find the origin point of creatures who sway in the rebirth cycle (Saṃsāra Chakra). Creatures are covered by unknowingness & bond to desires. Dependent Organism acts inside creatures to help to rebirth. Four kinds of nutrition roots help to rebirthing: desires for foods we eat from mouth, mind impacts (consciousness + internal sensing organs + external masses), volition states (thinking from the mind) & consciousness itself works as foods. All these foods are - linked with desires of the five senses, making like to rebirthing & creating dislike of rebirthing (such as disgusting about life, suicide). Creatures are wandering inside the rebirth cycle as humans, animals, deities, hungry ghosts, demons, hell beings, etc.

Lord Buddha said that it is good if we can bear only human realms & heaven realms. But we can't control our rebirthing because it decides by the law of karma which is made from the Dependent Organism. If the result is made for rebirth in hell, we can't stop it when we die. Buddha said hell realms, animal realms & hungry ghost realms are like home to creatures. Creatures have a 90% possibility of rebirth in hell than human or heavenly realms. Our mind is more attracted to sins, bad habits & unskillful actions than merits & skillful actions. You can decide it by concerning yourselves such as whether you like to sleep, having sex & eat more than meditation, or observe precepts.

When you read details of hells, animal realms, hungry ghost realms & realms of demons (Asura, demons related to hell), think this way: how many lifetimes have I rebirth in such realms cause of my mistakes in the rebirth cycle? Only Stream Enter & other higher-stage people can escape from all these four hells. Except for that noble person, the person who has steady devotion to Lord Buddha, also will not be born in the next life in hell or other low-level realms, only born in heaven, so it also likes as giving another opportunity to understand this enlightening path and then suggest to achieving it. It is also the law of karma and the rare income of Lord Buddha.

Sutra about Hells

In Majjima Nikaya there has a sutra called Devaduta Sutra, which describes hell in the deep background. Devadutha means angles whose herald hells. Lord Buddha sees those hells & those creatures stay in pain from Devine-Eye which is some kind of supernatural power that Buddha had. In this sutra, Buddha said, "Bhikkhus, I say this not hearing from another recluse or monk, this is what I have myself known and seen and so I say it". This sutra described eight main hells but in Jataka Pali & Apadana Pali, there have been briefly described more 130 sub hells.

Here we describe the main eight hells & how hell beings get pain. Creatures exist in hell in form of the astral body but have the same organs as same as organs in the human body such as muscles, blood vessels, skeletons, etc. So they can get the same pains from burnings & cuttings. There have been king related to hell who tries to escape creatures from hell even though one rebirth in hell is own Karma. His name is King Yama. He asks five questions from hell beings mention about five angles: "early born baby, aged person, sick person, the person who punished by government & finally death body", so his first question is "Kindly Man, being a wise aged one, didn't it occur to you, I have not gone beyond birth, now I will do some good by body, words and mind?".

If the hell being can't give answers beyond these questions by referring to the good deeds that were done by himself in human realms such as meditation, donations, observing precepts, etc. finally the king of hell said - "Good one, owing to negligence you acted in that manner. This evil action was not done by your, mother, father, brother, sister, friends, co-associates, or blood relations. It was not done by recluses, monks, or gods, it was done by you and you will experience its results". Then King Yama becomes silent, he doesn't say punishments, he only tries to escape being from hell because hell being was created punishments from himself via Karma. King Yama can escape creatures from hell, if so only that being did good deeds in the human world.

In our research, we found sometimes even only one little good action may help to escape from hell and then be born into the human world. But the cause of Karma is that person may suffer long-term illnesses due to his bad actions. So here are some experiences of hell & their painful punishments taken from Sutra Pitakaya.

"Then the warders of hell give him the fivefold binding. That is two hot iron spikes are sent through his two palms, and two other hot spikes are sent through his two feet and the fifth hot iron spike is sent through his chest. On account of this he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings. Yet he does not die, until his demerit finishes. Next the warders of hell conduct him and hammer him On account of this he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings. Yet he does not die, until his demerit finishes. Next the warders of hell take him upside down and cut him with a knife On account of this too he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings. Yet he does not die, until his demerit finishes. Next the warders of hell yoke him to a cart and make him go to and fro on a ground that is flaming and ablaze On account of this too he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings. Yet he does not die, until his demerit finishes. Next the warders of hell make him ascend and descend a rock of burning ambers On account of this he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings. Yet he does not die, until his demerit finishes. Next the warders of hell throw him upside down into a boiling, blazing pot of molten. There he is cooked in the molten scum, and he on his own accord dives in comes up and goes across in the molten pot. On account of this too he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings. Yet he does not die, until his demerit finishes. Next the warders of hell throw him to the Great Hell."....."Parallel and together with the Hell of Excretes the Hell where hot ashes rain, he falls into that. There he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings, yet he does not die until his demerit comes to an end. Parallel and together with the Hell where hot ashes rain, is the Simbali forest, more than seven miles tall, it has thorns sixteen inches long, aflame and blazing, he climbs on them and goes to and fro on them. There he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings, yet he does not die until his demerit comes to an end. Parallel and together with the Simbali forest, is a forest of swords. He enters that. The leaves that fall with the wind, cut his feet, hands, feet and hands, ears, nose, ears and nose. There he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings, yet he does not die until his demerit comes to an end. Parallel and together with the forest of swords is a huge salt water river He falls into that. In it he is carried up stream and down stream. There he experiences sharp piercing unpleasant feelings, yet he does not die until his demerit comes to an end." (From Sutra Pitakaya at metta.lk web site)

Animal & Asura Realms

We can understand pains & unhelpfulness of animal realms. Animals can't take foods as they want, they can't talk, they can't take medicines when they got illnesses, sometimes small animals become foods stuff to other animals. Some animals always stay with fear. So there have untellable pains in animal realms.

We can understand the pains & unhelpfulness of animal realms. Animals can't take foods as they want, they can't talk, they can't take medicines when they got illnesses, and sometimes small animals become foodstuff to other animals. Some animals always stay in fear. So there have untellable pains in animal realms.

Asura realms are widely described as a group of deities but they do opposite actions against the “five precepts & ten skillful actions” such as they don't respect monks, they make fear humans, influence the bad climate on earth, etc. These asuras are considered demons but not gods. They often live in astral houses in the ocean. One group is evil ghosts who have a very long life as even one Kappa & have extraordinary power such as making creations, killing someone from the mind, destroying human life, etc.

Another type of asura group is creatures between gods & devils. These are called demons that have all the power & luxury of life as a god but they eat human meat. They don't kill human beings from the effort but use tricky actions via cheating, such as people who are traveling in deserts see nice women & these women say there has a village in the desert so throw water. But there has no water or village, these women are asuras who impersonate to make a tricky trap to kill those people in the desert and then eat their meat. Those foolish people throw water tanks, then die without water in the desert. So like these ways, asura beings are doing opposite actions against “five precepts & ten skillful actions”.

Therefore rebirthing in these realms also helps to gain sins & probably lost their merits then again drop down to hell or animal realms. Some asura are like a hungry ghosts, they have huge bodies such as a mountain, sometimes really attached to mountains, so without meals & water happen to stay for thousands of years. Some asuras have huge sex organs which is huge as heavy stones but their bodies are thin and small, so they can't carry their body. They can't walk. These kinds of asuras are creating cause laziness in a human lifetime and wrong sexual relationships. We all have to do duty to mankind and the universe, if we neglect those soul duties cause of laziness & sexual activities (wasting time only for sex), then we are born in such asura realms.

Hungry Ghost Realms

After hell, hungry ghosts are the most painful creatures in the rebirth cycle. They have very long lifetimes without food, clothes, and water & they stay on excretes, mud, toilets, bathrooms, old dirty buildings, dirty homes, intersection roads, etc. A lot of times, they come into houses which is not maintain a long time & not cleaned proper way. They like dirty smells such as urine. In Sutra Pitakaya, there has a section related to them called Pretha Vaththu Pali. These ghost stories as the same as modern ghost stories. However hungry ghosts are luckier than other hell creatures because some of them can gain merits while people transfer merits when they are doing good deeds. Hungry ghosts are also born as the astral body. But their body can be seen by some human beings. Some hungry ghosts have all the luxury things the same as gods but one essential thing is missing. For example, some ghosts have a nice house with decorations & stay on a lot of foods as heaven. But they don't have clothes. Hence they can't go out of their home. Here are examples of hungry ghosts in Pretha Vaththu Pali.

"Mother of Sariputra arahant monk five lifetimes back was born that hungry ghost who has very naked thin, skeleton, blood vessels showed the body, who sleep in the cemetery. She suffers from taste & hungry. She can't eat normal foodstuff & drink water. Then she make up her mind to eat excretes of humans & animals, drink blood that drop from human & animal wounds, drink blood when youth girls got monthly sick, etc... When Sariputhra arahant monk transferred merit to her from donations to other arahant monks, she became as same as a heavenly goddess."

"One wife of a tailor became a hungry ghost because she neglect her husband's Buddhist fellowship & blame him when he donate alarms to monks. She blames them by telling them to become those donations into excretes & urines, but after that husband dies rebirth as god & wife rebirth as a hungry ghost who can only eat excretes & urines."

The other two stories are about one woman's rebirth as a hungry ghost with a face like a pig while her body is like a human because she didn't observe precepts via the mouth. Another hungry ghost has an upper path of the body that is like a god with nice clothes but the lower path of the body is naked & spoiled cause when he was human he did bad actions from the body, wrong sex.

Sanyuththa Nikaya had a story about a group of hungry ghosts who are the same as Buddhist monks but their robes are burning cause in Kasapa Buddha's time they are Buddhist monks but didn't observe higher precepts.

Bad One of Death (Papima Mara)

In Buddhist Cosmology, there have some kinds of officers in the universe such as the King of Hell, Great Brahma, and Sakkra God. As well as “Bad One of Death” is also such an officer who bonds creatures to the rebirth cycle via figures, sounds, odors, tastes, body feelings & thoughts. In the Pali language, he is called Papima Mara or Vasawarthi Mara (king of lustful bonding).

As same as the god, the person who did merit will rebirth as Mara king & people who did mere merits become his servants. Lord Buddha said Mara has the most power except Buddha. Once time Maha Moggallana Arahant Monk also became a bad one of death in Kasapa Buddha's time, he also troubled that Buddha & arahant monks then as a result of that sins he was born in hell. The wonderful factor is even Mara king has such great controllable power, after his merit powers are finished he is born in hell. A lot of time Asuras are associated with Mara & his servants. Lord Buddha said when someone promises himself to achieve enlightening states such as Stream Entry, the Mara comes close to him & disturbs him. Great persistence, precepts & concentration need to be neglected by Mara & his troublesome servants.

Author’s opinion about Mara: Some mentors say Paranimmita Vasawatti Deities and their main god Wasawatti, is Mara and Mara’s servants. There have some sutras in Sutra Pitakaya that says Paranimmita Vasawatti deities and their main god regularly worship Lord Buddha, Darma, and Sangha and then always stay recalling threefold refuge. Mara or his followers don’t behave that way. So they can’t be Mara. Lord Buddha always said, “World with Deities, Brahma and Mara” which implies Mara is a separate group of creatures in the rebirth cycle. They may reside between the energy level of Paranimmita Vasawatti Loka and Servants of Brahma (Brahma Parisajja devas) Loka.

Conclusion

After reading these stories, we can conclude all four hell realms are very painful. If we decide to wander in the rebirth cycle, we happen to go through hells, animal realms, hungry ghost realms & asura realms. Reasons to be born in these realms are accepting the theory of soul, doubt about noble truths & bond to mere traditional activities as precepts that are removed from the stream entry state. The only way to get rid of hells realms, animal realms, hungry ghost realms & asura realms is to go on eight noble paths & grow steady devotion to the threefold refuge. So our main aim in this life must be enlightened into stream entering as real Buddhist people.