法苑珠林 7.18

7.18

又觀佛三昧海經云。阿鼻地獄者。縱廣正等八千由旬。七重鐵城七層鐵網。有十八隔子周匝七重。皆是刀林。復有七重劍林。四角有四大銅狗。廣長四十由旬。眼如掣電牙如劍樹。齒如刀山舌如鐵刺。一切身毛皆然猛火。其煙惡臭。有十八獄卒。口如夜叉。六十四眼。散迸鐵丸。狗牙上出高四由旬。牙端火流燒前鐵車。輪輞出火鋒刃劍戟燒阿鼻城。赤如融銅。獄卒八頭六十四角。角頭火然火化成鋼。復成刀輪。輪輪相次在火焰間滿阿鼻城。城內有七鐵幢。火涌如沸。鐵融流迸涌出四門。上有十八釜沸銅涌漫滿城中。二隔間有八萬四千鐵蟒大蛇。吐毒火中身滿城內。其咜哮吼如天震雷。雨大鐵丸。五百夜叉。五百億蟲。八萬四千觜頭上火流如雨。而下滿阿鼻城。此蟲若下猛火大熾。照八萬四千由旬獄上。衝大海水沃燋山下。貫大海底形如車輪。若有殺父害母罵辱六親。命終之時銅狗化十八車。狀如寶蓋。一切火焰化為玉女。罪人遙見心喜欲往。風刀解時寒急作聲。寧得好火安在車上。然火自曝即便命終。坐金車上瞻玉女者。皆捉鐵斧斬截其身。屈申臂頃直落阿鼻。從上隔下如旋火輪至於下隔。身體隔內。銅狗大吼。嚙骨唼髓。獄卒羅剎捉大鐵叉叉頭令起。遍體火焰滿阿鼻獄。閻羅王大聲告勅曰。癡人獄種。汝在世時不孝父母邪慢無道。汝今生處名阿鼻獄。如是展轉經歷大苦。說不可盡。地獄一日一夜受罪。如閻浮提六十小劫。如是大劫。具五逆者受罪五劫。復有眾生犯四重禁。虛食信施誹謗邪見。不識因果斷學般若。毀十方佛偷僧祇物。婬妷無道逼掠淨戒尼姊妹親戚造眾惡事。此人罪。報臨命終時。此等罪人經八萬四千大劫。復入東方十八隔中。如前受苦。南西北方亦復如是。身滿阿鼻獄。四支復滿十八隔中。阿鼻地獄有十八小地獄。小地獄中各有十八寒氷地獄。十八黑暗地獄。十八小熱地獄。十八刀輪地獄。十八劍輪地獄。十八火車地獄。十八沸屎地獄。十八鑊湯地獄。十八灰河地獄。五百億劍林地獄。五百億刺林地獄。五百億銅柱地獄。五百億鐵機地獄。五百億鐵網地獄。十八鐵窟地獄。十八鐵丸地獄。十八尖石地獄。十八飲銅地獄。如是阿鼻大地獄中。有此十八地獄。一一獄中。別有十八隔小地獄。始從寒氷乃至飲銅。總有一百四十二隔地獄。各有造業不同。然歷此獄受苦皆遍。

Furthermore, the Sūtra on the Ocean of Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha says: As for the Avīci Hell, its length and breadth are exactly eight thousand yojanas. There are seven tiers of iron walls and seven layers of iron nets. There are eighteen compartments, encircled by seven tiers, all of which are forests of knives. There are also seven tiers of sword forests. At the four corners are four great copper hounds, forty yojanas broad and long, with eyes like flashing lightning, fangs like sword trees, teeth like knife mountains, and tongues like iron thorns. All the hairs on their bodies blaze with fierce fire, and their smoke is foul and stench-ridden. There are eighteen hell wardens with mouths like yakṣas, each having sixty-four eyes which scatter and shoot forth iron pellets. Their dog-like fangs protrude upward four yojanas high, and streams of fire flow from the tips of their fangs, burning iron carts in front. Flames, sharp blades, swords, and halberds shoot out from the wheel rims, burning the city of Avīci red like molten copper. The hell wardens have eight heads and sixty-four horns; fires blaze from the tips of their horns, the fires transforming into steel and further transforming into knife wheels. Wheel after wheel follows in succession among the flames, filling the city of Avīci. Inside the city are seven iron banners where fire surges as if boiling; molten iron flows and splatters, gushing out from the four gates. Above, there are eighteen cauldrons where boiling copper surges and overflows, filling the interior of the city. Between two compartments are eighty-four thousand great iron pythons, spitting venom into the fire, their bodies filling the inside of the city. Their roars and bellowings are like thunder shaking the heavens, raining down great iron pellets. Five hundred yakṣas and fifty billion worms, from the tips of their eighty-four thousand beaks, rain down streams of fire that pour down, filling the city of Avīci. When these worms descend, the fierce fires blaze tremendously, shining above the hell eighty-four thousand yojanas high, surging against the great ocean waters below the Mount of Scorching Inundation, piercing the bottom of the great ocean, shaped like a chariot wheel. If anyone has killed their father, harmed their mother, or reviled and disgraced their six relatives, at the time of their life's end, the copper hounds transform into eighteen carriages shaped like jeweled canopies; all the flames transform into jade maidens. Seeing them from afar, the sinner is pleased at heart and desires to go there. When the wind-knives dismember them and the urgent cold makes them cry out, they think, 'If only I could get good fire and settle upon the carriage!' Flaming fire warms them and they immediately die. Those who sit upon the golden carriages and gaze at the jade maidens find that the maidens all grasp iron axes to hack and sever their bodies. In the time it takes to bend or extend an arm, they plunge straight down into Avīci. From the upper compartments down, like a whirling fire wheel, they reach the lower compartments, their bodies trapped inside the compartments. The copper hounds roar loudly, gnawing on their bones and sucking their marrow. The rakṣasa hell wardens take great iron forks, spearing their heads to make them stand upright, their entire bodies covered in flames filling the Avīci Hell. King Yama proclaims in a loud voice, 'Deluded fool, seed of the hells! When you were in the world you were unfilial to your parents, perverse, arrogant, and without the Way. The place where you are now born is called the Avīci Hell!' Thus successively experiencing great torments, they are beyond complete description. One day and one night of receiving retribution in this hell is equal to sixty antarakalpas in Jambudvīpa. Such are the mahākalpas; those who have committed all five heinous sins undergo retribution for five kalpas. Furthermore, there are sentient beings who violate the four grave prohibitions, vainly consume the offerings of the faithful, slander [the teaching] with wrong views, fail to recognize cause and effect, sever the study of prajñā, defame the Buddhas of the ten directions, steal property of the Saṃgha, engage in unbridled licentiousness, or rape and violate pure-precepted nuns, sisters, and female relatives, committing manifold evils. When these sinners face the end of their lives, such sinners pass through eighty-four thousand mahākalpas, and then re-enter the eighteen compartments of the east, suffering agony as before; the south, west, and north are also like this. Their bodies fill the Avīci Hell, and their four limbs also fill the eighteen compartments. The Avīci Hell contains eighteen minor hells. Within the minor hells, each contains eighteen Cold Ice Hells, eighteen Darkness Hells, eighteen Minor Heat Hells, eighteen Knife Wheel Hells, eighteen Sword Wheel Hells, eighteen Fire Cart Hells, eighteen Boiling Excrement Hells, eighteen Boiling Cauldron Hells, eighteen Ash River Hells, fifty billion Sword Forest Hells, fifty billion Thorn Forest Hells, fifty billion Copper Pillar Hells, fifty billion Iron Machine Hells, fifty billion Iron Net Hells, eighteen Iron Cavern Hells, eighteen Iron Pellet Hells, eighteen Sharp Stone Hells, and eighteen Molten Copper Drinking Hells. Such are the eighteen hells contained within the great Avīci Hell. Within each single hell, there are distinct eighteen-compartment minor hells. Beginning from Cold Ice up to Molten Copper Drinking, in total there are one hundred and forty-two compartment hells. Each corresponds to different karmic actions created; yet, passing through these hells, one undergoes torment throughout them all.