諸經要集 18.20

18.20

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。有十八隔周匝七重。皆是刀林。復有七重劍樹四角。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。獄卒八頭六十角。角頭火然。火變成鋼。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。鐵流融迸涌出四門。上有十八釜。沸銅涌漫滿於城中。一一隔門。有八萬四千鐵蟒大蛇。吐毒火中身滿城內。其蛇哮吼如天震雷。雨大鐵丸。五百夜叉。五百億蟲。八萬四千嘴。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。下貫大海底形如車軸。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。寧得好火安車上。然火自暴。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。至於下隔身遍隔內。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。如是一大劫。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。十八沸𡱁地獄。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。然共歷此獄受苦皆遍。又起世經云。佛告諸比丘。阿毘至大地獄中。亦有十六諸小地獄。而為眷屬以自圍遶。各廣五百由旬。所有眾生。有生者出者住者。惡業果故自然出生。諸守獄卒。各以兩手執彼眾生身。撲置熾然熱鐵地上。火焰直上一向猛盛。覆面於地。便持利刀。從脚踝上破出其筋。手捉挽之乃至項筋。皆相連引貫徹心髓。痛苦難論。如是挽已。令駕鐵車馳奔而走。其車甚熱光焰熾然。所行之處純是洞然。熱鐵險道去已復去。隨獄卒意無暫時停。欲向何方稱意即去。隨所去處獄卒挽之。未曾捨離。隨所經歷銷鑠罪人。身諸肉血無復遺餘。往昔人非人時。所作業者一切悉受。以不善報故。從於東方有大火聚。忽爾出生。熾然赤色。極大猛焰一向焰赫。南西北方四維上下。各各如是。諸大火聚之所圍遶。漸漸逼近受諸苦痛。從於東壁出大火焰。直射西壁到已而住。從於西壁出大火光焰。直射北壁。從於北壁出大火光焰。直射南壁。從下射上。自上射下。縱橫相接上下交射。熱光赫奕騰焰相衝。爾時獄卒。以諸罪人擲置六種大火聚內。乃至受於極嚴切苦。命亦未終。彼不善業未畢未盡。於其中間具足而受。此阿毘至大地獄中。諸眾生等。以諸不善業果報故。經無量時長遠道中。受諸苦已。地獄四門還復更開。於門開時諸眾生等。聞聲見開向門而走。作如是念。我等今者必應得脫。彼人如是大馳走時。其身轉復熾。然猛烈。譬如壯夫執乾草炬。逆風而走。彼炬既然轉復熾盛。彼諸眾生走已復走。彼人身分轉更熾然。欲舉足時肉血俱散。欲下足時肉血還生。乃到獄門其門還閉。既不得出。其心悶亂覆面倒地。遍燒身皮。次燒其肉。復燒其骨。乃至徹髓煙焰洞然。其煙蓬㪍。其焰炎赫煙焰相雜熱惱復倍。彼人於中受極嚴苦。惡業未滅一切悉受。此阿毘至大地獄中。於一切時。無有須臾暫受安樂。如彈指頃。如是次第具受此苦。

Furthermore, the Guanfo sanmei jing states: “As for the Avīci Hell, it is eight thousand yojanas in both length and breadth, with seven concentric iron walls and seven tiers of iron nets. There are eighteen compartments, completely surrounded sevenfold, all being forests of swords. Moreover, at the four corners of the seven tiers of sword trees, there are four great bronze dogs, forty yojanas in width and length. Their eyes are like flashing lightning, their fangs like sword trees, their teeth like mountains of knives, and their tongues like iron thorns. All the hairs on their bodies burn with ferocious fire, and its smoke has a foul stench. There are eighteen hell wardens with mouths like yakṣas and sixty-four eyes, scattering and spattering iron pellets. Their dog-like fangs protrude upward four yojanas high, and streams of fire from the tips of their fangs burn the iron carts before them. From the wheels and rims burst forth fire, sharp blades, swords, and halberds, burning the city of Avīci red as molten copper. The wardens have eight heads and sixty horns; fires burn at the tips of the horns, turning into steel, and turning again into wheels of knives. Wheels upon wheels in succession among the blazing flames fill the city of Avīci. Inside the city are seven iron banners; fire wells up as if boiling. Molten iron flows and spatters, welling out of the four gates. Above are eighteen cauldrons, where boiling copper overflows and inundates the city. At the gate of each compartment are eighty-four thousand great iron vipers spitting venom into the fire, their bodies filling the interior of the city. Those snakes roar like celestial thunder and rain down great iron pellets. Five hundred yakṣas and fifty billion worms with eighty-four thousand beaks have streams of fire pouring down from their heads like rain, filling the city of Avīci. When these worms descend, ferocious fires blaze furiously, illuminating the hell of eighty-four thousand yojanas. Above, it surges against the great ocean waters, scorching the mountains; below, it pierces through the bottom of the great ocean, shaped like an axle. If there are those who killed their father, harmed their mother, or reviled their close kin, at the time of their death the bronze dogs transform into eighteen carts shaped like jeweled canopies, and all the flames transform into jade maidens. Seeing them from afar, the sinners feel joy in their hearts and wish to go there. When the wind-knives dismember them and the urgent cold makes them chatter, they think: ‘If only I could get a good fire and rest upon the cart!’ But the blazing fire burns violently of itself, and immediately their lives end. Those who sit upon the golden carts gazing upon the jade maidens are all hacked and severed in body by iron axes held [by the attendants]. In the time it takes to bend or extend an arm, they fall straight into Avīci. Falling from the upper compartments downward like a whirling firebrand, they reach the lower compartments, their bodies filling the compartments entirely. The bronze dogs roar loudly, biting bones and sucking marrow. The rākṣasa hell wardens seize great iron pitchforks, impaling their heads to hoist them up, so that flames engulf their whole bodies, filling the Avīci Hell. King Yama proclaims in a loud voice, issuing the command: ‘Deluded fools, seeds of hell! When you were in the world, you were unfilial to your parents and were perversely arrogant and unprincipled. The place of your rebirth now is called the Avīci Hell!’ Passing through such great sufferings again and again cannot be fully described. Enduring suffering for one day and one night in this hell is equal to sixty minor kalpas in Jambudvīpa; thus [they endure] one great kalpa. Those who have committed all five heinous offenses suffer retribution for five kalpas. Furthermore, there are sentient beings who violate the four major prohibitions, consume offerings of the faithful in vain, slander [the Dharma] with wrong views, fail to recognize cause and effect, sever the study of prajñā, defame the Buddhas of the ten directions, steal the property of the Saṃgha, are licentious and unprincipled, or violate and force pure-precepted nuns, sisters, and female relatives, committing numerous evil deeds. As for the karmic retribution of such people: when their lives come to an end, these sinners, after passing through eighty-four thousand great kalpas, enter the eighteen compartments of the east again to endure suffering as before; south, west, and north are also like this. Their bodies fill the Avīci Hell, and their four limbs also fill it. Within the eighteen compartments of the Avīci Hell, there are eighteen minor hells. Within each minor hell there are eighteen Freezing Ice Hells, eighteen Pitch-Dark Hells, eighteen Minor Heat Hells, eighteen Knife-Wheel Hells, eighteen Sword-Wheel Hells, eighteen Fire-Cart Hells, eighteen Boiling-Faeces Hells, eighteen Cauldron-Broth Hells, eighteen Ash-River Hells, fifty billion Sword-Forest Hells, fifty billion Thorn-Forest Hells, fifty billion Copper-Pillar Hells, fifty billion Iron-Loom Hells, fifty billion Iron-Net Hells, eighteen Iron-Cave Hells, eighteen Iron-Pellet Hells, eighteen Pointed-Stone Hells, and eighteen Molten-Copper-Drinking Hells. Thus within this great Avīci Hell there are these eighteen hells. In each single hell there are separately eighteen minor hell compartments. From Freezing Ice down to Molten-Copper-Drinking, there are altogether one hundred and forty-two hell compartments. For each, the deeds created are different, yet they collectively pass through these hells, enduring suffering everywhere throughout them.” Furthermore, the Qishi jing states: “The Buddha addressed the bhikṣus: ‘Within the great hell of Avīci, there are also sixteen minor hells that serve as its retinue to surround it, each five hundred yojanas wide. All sentient beings who are born there, exit there, or abide there, are spontaneously born due to the retribution of evil karma. The various hell wardens each grasp the body of that sentient being with both hands and slam it down upon the blazing, hot iron ground, where flames shoot straight up, uniformly ferocious. With faces cast down to the ground, they then take sharp knives and cut open their tendons above the ankles. Grasping and pulling with their hands all the way up to the neck tendons, all are connected and drawn out, penetrating through to the heart and marrow, causing agony beyond description. Having thus pulled them out, they harness them to an iron cart to gallop and run. That cart is extremely hot, blazing with radiant flames. The place traversed is entirely glowing hot, a perilous path of hot iron; having gone, they go again. Driven according to the hell wardens' intent without a moment's rest, wherever the wardens wish to go, they go as they please. Wherever they go, the hell wardens drag them along, never parting from them. Wherever they pass through, the flesh and blood of the sinners' bodies are dissolved and melted away without any remainder. All that they did in the past when they were human or non-human is fully undergone in retribution. Because of evil retribution, from the east a great mass of fire suddenly emerges, blazing red, its exceedingly ferocious flames burning uniformly bright. South, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, and below are each like this. Surrounded by great masses of fire, the fire draws gradually nearer, and they endure various agonies. From the eastern wall shoots a great blaze of fire, darting straight to the western wall, where it stays once it arrives. From the western wall shoots a blaze of great fire, darting straight to the northern wall. From the northern wall shoots a blaze of great fire, darting straight to the southern wall. From below it shoots upward; from above it shoots downward; crisscrossing horizontally and vertically, shooting through one another above and below. The intense light of the heat is dazzling, and the leaping flames crash into one another. At that time, the hell wardens cast the sinners into the six kinds of great masses of fire, so that they endure extremely severe and acute agony, yet their lives do not end. Their unwholesome karma not yet being finished and not yet exhausted, in the interim they undergo it in full. In this great Avīci Hell, those sentient beings, owing to the karmic retribution of unwholesome deeds, pass through immeasurable time along this long road, and having undergone various agonies, the four gates of the hell reopen. When the gates open, those sentient beings hear the sound and see them opening, and run toward the gates, thinking: “Now we must surely be able to escape!” As those people gallop frantically like this, their bodies blaze ever more furiously and fiercely. It is just as when a strong man holds a dry grass torch and runs against the wind: once that torch is alight, it blazes ever more fiercely. As those sentient beings run on and on, their bodies blaze ever more fiercely. When they wish to raise a foot, flesh and blood all scatter; when they wish to put down a foot, flesh and blood regenerate. When they reach the hell gate, that gate closes again. Being unable to get out, their minds are bewildered and frantic, and they fall prostrate upon the ground. Their skin is burned entirely, then their flesh is burned, and then their bones are burned, even penetrating through to the marrow, with smoke and flames blazing through. The smoke billows up, the flames blaze brilliantly, and smoke and flames mingling together double the burning distress. In that place, those people endure extremely severe suffering; until their evil karma is eradicated, all must be undergone. In this great Avīci Hell, at all times, there is never the slightest moment of peace and joy even for the space of a finger-snap. In this manner they successively undergo this suffering in full.’”