According to the
Buddhist believes, when someone’s karmic
debt is too heavy, upon death he or she won’t
be able to go anywhere else but plunge
straight down to Hell. So ultimately, it is
not Ghost King’s verdict but one’s
own karmic weight that gets one fall into
Hell and stuck there.
Hell is said to be a
world at the bottom of the universe, or more
precisely, at the inner most layer of the
cosmos. And Hell itself is again divided into
many layers (or say, many levels), each
characterised with a particular kind of
terror. Following is one of many versions of
the Hell’s floor plan:
The First
Floor:
Name: Chamber of Tongue Ripping
Function: Those who stir up troubles by
gossiping will find their tongues being
ripped out.
The Second
Floor:
Name: Chamber of Scissors
Function: Those who break the marriage of
others will have their fingers cut off.
The Third
Floor:
Name: Chamber of Iron Trees
Function: Those who cause discords among
family members of other people will find
their body being pierced by hooks and hung
upside down on iron trees.
The Fourth
Floor:
Names: Chamber of Mirror
Functions: Those who escape the earthly
punishment will find their true shape being
displayed in the mirror, and the old karmic
debt will have to be paid with high interest.
The Fifth
Floor:
Name: Chamber of Steamer
Function: Instigators and hypocrites will
find themselves being steamed in a steamer.
The Sixth
Floor:
Name: Forest of Copper Column
Function: Arsonists will get themselves stuck
to a scotching hot copper column.
The Seventh
Floor:
Name: Mountain of Knifes
Function: Those who kill sentient beings with
knife will find themselves climbing a hill of
knifes.
The Eighth
Floor:
Name: Hill of Ice
Function: Cold-blooded schemers and
ungrateful suckers, including those who
ill-treat their partners and elders, will
find themselves naked in this freezing cold
environment.
The Ninth
Floor:
Name: Cauldron of Boiling Oil
Function: Sex offenders such as rapists,
lechers and adulterers will find themselves
being fried in boiling oil.
The above are the
upper nine floors belonging to the East Hell.
Further down is the West Hell with another
nine floors.
The Tenth
Floor:
Name: Chamber of Ox
Function: Those who abuse animals will find
themselves being bullied by animals.
The Eleventh
Floor:
Name: Chamber of Rock
Function: Those who abandon or kill newborns
will find themselves being crushed under a
rock and soaked in filthy water.
The Twelfth
Floor:
Name: Chamber of Pounding
Function: Those who wilfully waste food will
find themselves being pounded like crops.
The
Thirteenth Floor:
Name: Pool of Blood
Function: Those who do not respect others
will find themselves soaked in blood. It is
said that those who died of bleeding are
actually given a preview of their afterlife.
The
Fourteenth Level:
Name: Town of Quitters
Function: Those who commit suicide will find
themselves wandering in this town of misery
where the wind of sorrow and rain of grief
blasting day and night. They are the ones
slipping off the normal incarnation paths and
will live in the gaps of the worlds for a
long, long time.
The Fifteenth
Level:
Name: Chamber of Dismemberment
Function: Those who disturb the deceased by
digging tombs will find their body being torn
into pieces.
The Sixteen
Floor:
Name: Mountain of Flames
Function: Those who steal, briber and rob
will find themselves surrounded by the
lasting inferno.
The
Seventeenth Floor:
Name: Yard of Stone Mill
Function: Those who abuse their power and
oppress the people will find themselves being
ground into powder.
The
Eighteenth Floor:
Name: Chamber of Saw
Function: Those who exploit the loopholes in
the law to cheat and engage in malpractice in
business will find themselves being sawed
into half.
From the Buddhist
point of view, being a sufferer in Hell is
just one of six ways of living, and once a hell
mate paid off its karmic debt, it will become
light enough to rise up and be reincarnated
into other forms of existence.
Hell, though
terrifying, is as solid and as illusive as
this human world. Since it is a universally
shared perception, like the sun the moon and
indeed the universe itself, it won’t burst
into Nothingness because you do not
believe in it, just as the moon won’t
disappear because you do not see it - unless,
of course, it is a moon or a hell in your
dreamland and being susdained by your solo
consciousness.
