轉經行道願往生淨土法事讚 1.66

1.66

The Sūtra on the Hells states: If there are sentient beings who commit such transgressions, at the time of death, wind-knives dismember their bodies. They lie tossed and turning, as if beaten and scourged. Their minds become disordered and chaotic, giving rise to mad and deluded thoughts. They see their own houses, their men and women, young and old, all as impure things, with the foul stench of feces and urine overflowing outward. At that time, the sinful person speaks these words: 'Why is there here no fine walled city or fine mountains and forests for me to roam and play in, but instead I dwell among such impure things?' Having spoken these words, the hell wardens and rākṣasas hold them up with great iron pitchforks. Avīci Hell and the various sword-forests transform into jeweled trees and cool ponds; the blazing flames transform into golden-leaved lotuses; the various iron-beaked insects transform into wild ducks and geese; the anguished cries of hell sound like chanting and singing. Hearing this, the sinful person thinks: 'In such a fine place I shall roam.' Having so thought, he immediately sits upon a fire lotus. The iron-beaked insects bite and eat his body from the hair-pores; hundreds of thousands of iron wheels enter from the crown of his head; iron pitchforks as numerous as the sands of the Ganges gouge out his eyes. The copper dogs of hell transform into ten billion iron dogs, vying to tear his body apart and take his heart to eat. In an instant, his body becomes like an iron flower filling the eighteen compartments; each flower petal is eighty-four thousand, and at the tip of each petal are bodies, hands, and limbs. Within a single compartment, the hell is not large and this body is not small, yet it pervades such a great hell. Such sinful persons fall into this hell and pass through eighty-four thousand great kalpas. When this naraka is extinguished, they enter again into the eighteen compartments of the east, undergoing suffering as before. This Avīci Hell likewise has eighteen compartments to the south, eighteen compartments to the west, and eighteen compartments to the north. Those who slander the vaipulya sūtras, are fully guilty of the five heinous offenses, destroy the saṅgha, defile bhikṣuṇīs, and sever all roots of goodness—such sinful persons endowed with manifold sins fill the Avīci Hell with their bodies, and their four limbs further fill the eighteen compartments. This Avīci Hell burns only sentient beings of such a hell species. When the kalpa is about to end, the eastern gate opens, and outside the eastern gate are seen clear springs, flowing water, flowers, fruits, and forest trees, all appearing together. These sinful persons see this from the lower compartment, and the fire in their eyes briefly ceases. Rising from the lower compartment, writhing and crawling on their bellies, dragging their bodies upward they run to the upper compartment, clutching sword-wheels with their hands, while in the sky it rains hot iron pellets. Running toward the eastern gate, having reached the threshold, the hell wardens and rākṣasas hold iron pitchforks in their hands and stab their eyes; iron dogs bite their hearts, and in agony they swoon and die. Having died, they are revived again, and seeing the southern gate open, it is no different from before; so it is likewise with the western and northern gates. In this way they pass through half a kalpa. Dying in Avīci Hell, they are born in the freezing ice; dying in the cold ice hell, they are born in a place of utter darkness. For eighty million years their eyes see nothing; taking the body of a great serpent, writhing and crawling on its belly, all sense faculties are darkened and blocked without any understanding, while hundreds of thousands of foxes and wolves drag, pull, and devour it. After this life ends, they are born among animals, taking the forms of birds and beasts for fifty million lives. When born again among humans, they are deaf, blind, mute, afflicted with scabies, leprosy, ulcers, poverty, and lowliness, with all misfortunes serving as their adornments. Having undergone such lowly bodies for five hundred lives, they are subsequently born among the hungry ghosts. Such is their transmigration through the three wretched paths, limitless and boundless.