佛說觀佛三昧海經 5.21

5.21

The Buddha told Ānanda: "What is called the fire-chariot hell? As for the fire-chariot hell: each copper cauldron is precisely forty yojanas in length and breadth, filled with raging fire, having twelve wheels below and ninety-four fire-wheels above. There are sentient beings who, having become disciples of the Buddha, or followers of Brahmā and the ninety-six heterodox ways, whether among the monastic assemblies or the householders, deceive others with wrong livelihoods, behaving crookedly and committing evil. When such a sinful person is about to die, the wind element stirs first, and his body becomes cold as ice. He then thinks: 'When will I be able to obtain a great, raging mass of fire, so that by entering and sitting within it, I may permanently eliminate this cold illness?' Having formed this thought, the rākṣasa hell wardens transform a fire-chariot into the likeness of a golden lotus flower, with a hell warden atop it appearing in the form of a young boy, holding a white whisk, dancing as he approaches. When the sinful person sees this, affection and attachment arise in his mind: 'Such a golden flower with radiant and glorious colors will illuminate me and make me warm, surely banishing the cold; if I could sit atop it, the joy would be unspeakable.' Having spoken these words, his breath expires and he dies. Loaded onto the fire-chariot, his limbs catch fire, and falling into the mass of fire, his body is scorched and disintegrates. The hell wardens summon him back to life, and at their call he revives immediately. The fire-chariot runs over his body eighteen times in total, shattering his body like dust; from the sky, boiling copper rains down, sprinkling over his body, whereupon he immediately revives. Going back and forth like this, rising up to the edge of the boiling broth and falling down into the cauldron, run over by the fire-chariot, in a single day and single night he undergoes ninety billion deaths and ninety billion births. When this person's sin is exhausted, he is born into an impoverished and lowly family, enslaved by others, bound to others without freedom. Only when he has finished repaying his past gains and support is he then liberated. Due to the meritorious virtue of his former wholesome mind when leaving the household life, he encounters a kalyāṇamitra who preaches the Dharma for him; his mind opens in understanding, and he becomes an arhat."