一切經音義 22.119

22.119

Great chasm of all sufferings (眾苦大壑: *壑* is pronounced *hè* [訶各反]. The *Jianming yuan* says: "In the Eastern Sea there is a great scorched stone, also called the Burning Rock [Wojiao], thirty thousand *li* in circumference. When water pours over it, it is immediately consumed. Beyond this there is a great chasm, also named Weilu, whose depth and shores cannot be fathomed; the waters of the sea constantly pour into it, and no one knows where they go." The meaning of the present sūtra is that in the ocean of birth and death, the three sufferings and eight sufferings are boundless and bottomless, like that great chasm; hence it is used as a metaphor).