佛說觀佛三昧海經 5.20

5.20

The Buddha told Ānanda: "What is called the sword-wheel hell? As for the sword-wheel hell: it is precisely fifty yojanas in length and breadth, filled with sword-trees, the number of trees being as numerous as rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds. Each sword-tree is forty yojanas tall, having eighty-four thousand sword-wheels as leaves, eighty-four thousand sword-wheels as flowers, eighty-four thousand sword-wheels as fruits, and eighty-four thousand streams of boiling copper as branches. In the world there are foolish sentient beings who delight in killing without satiation. When such a sinful person approaches death, he contracts a great fever, and then thinks: 'My body is now sometimes hot and sometimes cold, my whole body stiff and hard like an iron anvil.' He then makes a wish, saying: 'If I could obtain a vajra sword to cut away this ailment, the joy would be unspeakable.' At that time, a hell warden transforms his body into the form of the person's own parents or close friends, stands before him, and tells him: 'I have a secret method; in accordance with what you wish, I shall bestow it upon you.' When the sinful person hears this, his mind is filled with fond yearning, and he urgently desires to obtain it. His breath expires and he dies, and like a galloping horse, he is born amid the sword-flowers. Immeasurable sword blades pare his bones and tear his flesh, shattering him into pieces as small as beans. Furthermore, iron birds descend from the trees, gouging out his eyes and pecking at his ears; a great rākṣasa holds an iron axe in his hand, breaking his head and spilling his brain, which iron dogs come to lap up. After he dies, he is summoned back to life and driven to climb the trees. Before reaching the treetops, his body is shattered like dust. In the course of a day, his body passes through the various trees; in the course of a night, he again passes through the various trees; in a single day and single night, his body is destroyed like dust, beyond all reckoning. Because of the sin of killing people, he suffers such calamity. After eighty trillion years, he is born among animals, his body constantly bearing heavy burdens and having its skin flayed after death. After five hundred lives, he is reborn among humans, poor, short-lived, sickly, and emaciated. After this has passed, he encounters a kalyāṇamitra and gives rise to bodhicitta."