佛說觀佛三昧海經 5.19

5.19

The Buddha told Ānanda: "What is called the eighteen sword-wheel hells? As for the sword-wheel hells: there are sword mountains on all four sides; between the mountains, swords are stacked like bricks. In the sky there are eight hundred trillion enormous sword-wheels, descending in succession like raindrops. There are sentient beings who delight in tormenting others and killing sentient beings. At the time of their death, they suffer from a disease of surging breath, with their hearts stifled, agitated, and full, their hearts hard like stone. They then make this wish: 'If only I could get a sharp sword to carve away these ailments, would that not be pleasant!' At that time, a hell warden carries a sword-wheel upon his head, concealing it so it does not appear, and goes to where the sinful person is, speaking humble and modest words: 'I have a sharp sword that can cut away severe illness.' The sinful person is delighted and thinks to himself: 'Only this would bring relief.' His breath expires and he dies, being born upon the sword-wheel; like a drunken elephant running, he falls into the midst of the sword mountains. At that time, the four mountains close together all at once, and the four kinds of sword mountains slice and sever his body. Unable to bear it, he faints and dies. The rākṣasa hell wardens drive and force the sinful person to climb the sword mountains. Before he reaches the mountain peaks, the swords wound his feet right through to his heart; out of fear of the hell wardens, he crawls upward. Once he reaches the mountain peaks, the hell wardens hold all the sword-trees in their hands and strike the sinful person dead. Before he dies, iron dogs gnaw at his heart, inflicting hundreds of forms of painful poison, and iron worms gnaw and eat his flesh until it is completely gone. Soon after, he is summoned back to life, and with his feet bound to iron wheels, he falls from the sky. In a single day and single night, he undergoes sixty billion births and sixty billion deaths. There are many such kinds, eighteen in total. Because of this person's sins, it becomes even more severe, lasting for eighty million years according to the lifespan of the Four Heavenly Kings. When his punishment is completed, he is reborn in the world, falling among animals, where for five hundred lives his body serves to feed many mouths. For another five hundred lives he receives a lowly form, and only after that does he encounter a great kalyāṇamitra and give rise to bodhicitta."