法苑珠林 7.42

7.42

As stated in the Lokotpatti-sūtra: 'South of Jambudvīpa, beyond the two Iron Cordon Mountains, lies the palace of King Yama. His residence is exactly six thousand yojanas in length and breadth, with seven tiers of walls, seven tiers of railings, and seven tiers of bell-nets; outside of these, it is surrounded all around by seven tiers of tāla trees, manifold in color and pleasing to behold, made of the seven treasures. On each of its four sides there are gates, and each gate has parapets, watchtowers, turrets, palaces, gardens, and blossom ponds, fully brimming with various delicious fruits. A fragrant breeze wafts far and wide, and flocks of birds sing in harmony. Because of the retribution of the king’s unwholesome karma, three times during the night and three times during the day, molten red copper naturally wells forth before him. His palace immediately turns to iron, and the virtues of the five desires all disappear and are unseen. Seeing this, the king is filled with terror and unease, and all his hairs stand on end; he immediately goes outside. If he is outside the palace, he runs inside. At that time, the hell wardens seize King Yama, lift him high, and hurl him onto the hot iron ground. The ground is blazing, extremely fierce, brilliant, and scorching. Having cast him down to lie there, they pry open his mouth with iron pincers and pour molten red copper into his mouth. King Yama’s lips and mouth are burned first, then his tongue is burned, then his throat is burned, and then his large intestine, small intestine, and so forth are successively scorched and burned, passing out from below. At that time, the king thinks: "Because all sentient beings in the past performed evil actions with their bodies, evil actions with their speech, and evil actions with their minds, they and all other sentient beings who engaged in the same karma suffer this pain. I pray that from now on, once I cast off this body and obtain another body, may I meet with rebirth only in the human realm; may I attain faith and understanding in the Tathāgata’s Dharma, shave my hair and beard, don the kāṣāya robes, attain right faith and understanding, and go forth from the household life to homelessness; and having gone forth, may I attain direct realization, so that birth and death are exhausted, the pure life is established, what was to be done has been done, and I will never again undergo rebirth in future lives!" Giving rise to such perfumed virtuous thoughts, the palace he resides in immediately reverts to the seven treasures, just like that of the devas; the virtues of the five desires manifest before him in full. Because of the goodness of his three modes of karma, he obtains joy.' Furthermore, the New Vibhāṣā asks: 'Are the hell wardens included among sentient beings, or are they not included among sentient beings?' The answer is: 'Those who bind with iron chains sentient beings newly born in the hells and lead them to King Yama are sentient beings. Those who harm sentient beings in the hells with various instruments of torture are not sentient beings. Below Jambudvīpa there is a great hell; above Jambudvīpa there are also peripheral hells and solitary hells, located in valleys, on mountains, in wildernesses, or in mid-air. In the other three continents, there are only peripheral hells and solitary hells, but no great hells. Why is this? It is only because the people of Jambudvīpa create good intensely and also create evil intensely, which is not the case in the other continents.' Some say: 'Uttarakuru also has no peripheral hells and the like, because it is a place where one only experiences the fruits of pure karma.' Question: 'If there are no great hells elsewhere, where do sentient beings [from there] who commit anantarya karma, sever roots of goodness, and so forth experience their fruition?' Answer: 'They experience it right in the great hells beneath this Jambudvīpa.' Question: 'What is the physical form of sentient beings in hell?' Answer: 'Their form is like that of humans.' Question: 'What is their speech like?' Answer: 'When they are first born, they all speak the noble tongue. Later, when they undergo suffering, although they utter various sounds of experiencing agonizing pain, not a single word can be comprehended; there are only sounds of hacking, piercing, breaking, and tearing.'