佛說觀佛三昧海經 5.26

5.26

The Buddha said to Ānanda: "What is meant by the hell of fifty billion thorny forests? As for the Thorny-Forest hell, it spans eight thousand yojanas, filled with iron thorns; at the tip of each thorn are twelve swords, and above on the trees are large, red-hot iron tongs. In this world there are foolish sentient beings who engage in harsh speech, divisive speech, frivolous speech, and unrighteous speech; they engage in unrestrained teasing, falsely proclaim right and wrong, speak of the faults of the scriptures, and disparage masters of scholastic debate. When such sinful retribution is about to bring about death, their throat parches and their tongue dries up, and they at once have this thought: 'If only I could obtain a sharp thorn to pierce my neck and draw blood, causing streams of water to flow through all my veins, would that not be pleasant?' As they have this thought, the rākṣasa hell-wardens transform themselves into the person's parents, holding in their hands a moon-pearl with a thorn growing at its tip, which they hold up toward his mouth as if water were about to drip. The sinner is delighted: 'What I wished for has now come to fruition!' Having had this thought, his breath is cut off and his life ends; in the time of a great flash of lightning, he is born amidst the thorny forest. After being born, the rākṣasa hell-wardens take iron tongs in their hands and pull out his tongue; eighty iron oxen with great iron plows plow and tear his tongue apart. Wind blows through the trees of the thorny forest, violently buffeting his body, so that in a single day and night he undergoes six hundred births and six hundred deaths. After this has passed, he gains rebirth among humans with hanging lips and a wrinkled face, his speech stammering and stuttering. Such a sinner has sores breaking out all over his body with pus and blood overflowing, and for five hundred lifetimes he is loathed by people. After this has passed, even if he speaks, people do not believe or accept it. Eventually, he encounters a kalyāṇamitra and generates bodhicitta."