འཕགས་པ་རྡ་རྗའ་སྙང་པའ་གཟངས་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 13

13

“Mañjuśrī,” replied the Blessed One, “how are hells arranged?”

“Blessed One, hells are arranged in space,” said Mañjuśrī.

“Mañjuśrī, how do you think this happens?” asked the Blessed One. “Have the hells arisen from one’s own thoughts? Or have they arisen from their own nature?”

“Blessed One,” replied Mañjuśrī, “it is through their own thoughts that immature ordinary people imagine themselves to be hell beings, animals, or spirits in the world of Yama. And it is on account of projecting something that does not exist that they feel afflictions and experience miseries in the three lower realms. However, Blessed One, since I do not see hells, I also do not see hell beings, and the sufferings of hells do not exist, either. For instance, Blessed One, suppose that some man who has fallen asleep were to imagine in a dream that he is experiencing falling into the hell realms. He vividly imagines that he has been put into a boiling iron cauldron several fathoms deep with intensely burning flames where he experiences sensations of suffering. Perceiving this with fear and anguish, he may wake up in a state of shock and terror, thinking, ‘Aaah! The pain!’ When he shouts such words out loud, his friends, kinsmen, or siblings nearby might ask, ‘What is paining you?’

“The man might then say to them, ‘I was experiencing the pains of hell.’ Then, feeling irritated and angry with those friends, kinsmen, or siblings, he might add, ‘I have been experiencing the pains of hell, so what business do you have to ask me afterward, “What is paining you?” ’ In response, those friends, kinsmen, or siblings would say to him,