法苑珠林 7.16

7.16

Seventh is the Great Burning Hell (Pratāpana). It is also surrounded by sixteen minor hells (their sizes being as previously described). Why is it called the Great Burning Hell? It means taking the sinners and placing them within an iron city; that city is on fire, glowing red both inside and out, burning the sinners. Their skin and flesh are scorched and rotten, and ten thousand poisons arrive all at once. There are great fire pits with blazing flames; on both sides of these pits are great fiery mountains. Casting those sinners upon them, they impale them on iron forks and stand them upright in the midst of fire, kindling flames to burn them so that their skin and flesh are scorched and rotten. Because the remainder of their sins is not yet exhausted, they are made not to die. Having suffered torment for a long time, they exit Great Burning and proceed up to the Cold Ice [Hell], only then reaching the end of their lives. It is from abandoning karmic deeds of good fruition and committing manifold evil acts that one falls into the Great Burning Hell.