Simile for the Suffering in Hell

Monks, there are these three characteristics of an unwise person, signs of an unwise person, attributes of an unwise person.

What three?

Here an unwise person is one who thinks unwholesome thoughts, speaks unwholesome words, and does unwholesome actions.

If an unwise person were not so, how would the wise know him thus: This person is an unwise person, an untrue man? But because an unwise person is one who thinks unwholesome thoughts, speaks unwholesome words, and does unwholesome actions, the wise know him thus: This person is unwise, an untrue man.

An unwise person feels pain and grief here and now in three ways. If an unwise person is seated in an assembly or along a street or in a square and people there are discussing certain pertinent and relevant matters, then, if the unwise person is one who kills living beings, takes what is not given, misconducts himself in sensual pleasures, speaks falsehood, and indulges in liquor, wine, and intoxicants (substances that cause heedlessness), which are the basis of heedlessness, he thinks: These people are discussing certain pertinent and relevant matters; these things are found in me, and I am seen engaging in those things.

This is the first kind of pain and grief that an unwise person feels here and now.

Again, when a robber culprit is caught, an unwise person sees Kings having many kinds of torture inflicted on him:

having him flogged with whips, beaten with canes, beaten with clubs; having his hands cut off, his feet cut off, his hands and feet cut off; his ears cut off, his nose cut off, his ears and nose cut off;

having him subjected to the ‘porridge pot,’ to the ‘polished‑shell shave,’ to the ‘Rahu’s mouth,’ to the ‘fiery wreath,’ to the ‘flaming hand,’ to the ‘blades of grass,’ to the ‘bark dress,’ to the ‘antelope,’ to the ‘meat hooks,’ to the ‘coins,’ to the ‘lye pickling,’ to the ‘pivoting pin,’ to the ‘rolled‑up palliasse’; and having him splashed with boiling oil, and having him thrown to be devoured by dogs, and having him impaled alive on stakes, and having his head cut off with a sword.

Then the unwise person thinks thus: Because of such evil (unwholesome) actions as those, when a robber culprit is caught, Kings have many kinds of tortures inflicted on him: they have him flogged with whips … and have his head cut off with a sword. Those things are found in me, and I am seen engaging in those things.

This is the second kind of pain and grief that an unwise person feels here and now.

Again, when an unwise person is on his chair or on his bed or resting on the ground, then the evil (unwholesome) actions that he did in the past — his bodily, verbal, and mental misconduct — cover him, overspread him, and envelop him. Just as the shadow of a great mountain peak in the evening covers, overspreads, and envelops the earth, so too, when an unwise person is on his chair or on his bed or resting on the ground, then the evil (unwholesome) actions that he did in the past — his bodily, verbal, and mental misconduct — cover him, overspread him, and envelop him.

Then the unwise person thinks: ‘I have not done what is good, I have not done what is wholesome, I have not made myself a shelter from anguish. I have done what is evil (unwholesome), I have done what is cruel, I have done what is wicked. When I pass away, I shall go to the destination of those who have not done what is good … who have done what is wicked’. He sorrows, grieves, and has displeasure, he cries beating his breast and becomes distraught.

This is the third kind of pain and grief that an unwise person feels here and now.

An unwise person who has given himself over to misconduct of body, speech, and mind, on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappears in a state without basic necessities, in an unhappy destination, even in hell.

Were it rightly speaking to be said of anything: ‘That is utterly unwished for, utterly undesired, utterly disagreeable: it is of hell that, rightly speaking, this should be said, so much so that it is hard to find a simile for the suffering in hell.

‘But, Venerable Sir, can a simile be given?’

It can, Monk, The Perfectly Enlightened One said.

Monks, suppose men caught a robber culprit and presented him to the King, saying:

Sir, here is a robber culprit. Order what punishment you will for him. Then the King said: ‘Go and strike this man in the morning with a hundred spears’. And they struck him in the morning with a hundred spears.

Then at noon the King asked: ‘How is that man?’ — ‘Sir, he is still alive’.

Then the King said: ‘Go and strike that man at noon with a hundred spears’. And they struck him at noon with a hundred spears.

Then in the evening the King asked: ‘How is that man?’ — ‘Sir, he is still alive’.

Then the King said: ‘Go and strike that man in the evening with a hundred spears.’ And they struck him in the evening with a hundred spears.

What do you think, Monks? Would that man experience pain and grief because of being struck with the three hundred spears?

‘Venerable Sir, that man would experience pain and grief because of being struck with even one spear, let alone three hundred.’

Then, taking a small stone the size of his hand, The Perfectly Enlightened One addressed the Monks thus:

What do you think, Monks? Which is the greater, this small stone that I have taken, the size of my hand, or Himālaya, the King of mountains?

‘Venerable Sir, the small stone that The Perfectly Enlightened One has taken, the size of his hand, is insignificant beside Himālaya, the King of mountains; it is not even a fraction, there is no comparison.’

So too, Monks, the pain and grief that the man would experience because of being struck with the three hundred spears does not count beside the suffering of hell; it is not even a fraction, there is no comparison.

The Law of The Three Seals

1. Porridge Pot is smashing the skull open, peeling off the scalp, putting a blazing iron inside with tongs in order to burst the brain out like over boiling pot.

2. Polished‑Shell Shave is cutting and pulling out the strips of skin from the marked two points at the upper lips, to the marked two points at the tops of the ears, continuing to the marked two points in the back of the head and twisting all pieces of skin to tie a knot together with hair. Two people would insert a stick inside the knot, stir up, shake and tear off all the skin, the scalp and the hair. Then they will polish the skull with coarse sand to make it shine as white as a polished shell.

3. Rahu’s Mouth is widening up the mouth with hooks and setting up a continuous fire inside. Another method is tearing apart the lips through the tops of the ears with a sharp chisel, keeping the mouth wide open with hooks and letting it fill up with blood.

4. Fiery Wreath is wrapping up the whole body with an oil-soaked cloth and setting it on fire.

5. Flaming Hand is wrapping around the ten fingers with oil-soaked cloths and setting them on fire.

6. Blades of Grass is cutting flesh into several unbroken strips bound with skin from the neck base all the way down to the ankles, then tying the flesh strips with rope, forcing and hitting one to walk over his own’s strips of meat until death.

7. Bark Dress is cutting flesh into strips, from neck base to waist and from waist to ankles, letting the flesh strips hang down just as one is wearing a grassy garment.

8. Antelope is firmly putting the steel rings on both elbows and both knees, inserting the steel stakes inside those rings, infixing the stakes to the ground in order to prevent all body movements and setting a ring of fire around until death.

9. Meat Hook is striking the double-sharp edge hooks into the entire body, pulling out small and large pieces of flesh and tendons out until death.

10. Coins is slicing bits of flesh at the weight of a “tumlung”, letting those pieces fall from the body and continuing to cut until running out of meat.

11. Lye Pickling is slicing, chopping, cutting the whole body and scraping out all the small and large meat and tendons with acid-soaked brush, leaving only the remains of skeleton.

12. Pivoting Pin is making one lie on one’s side, hammering down a steel spear through both ear holes in order to tie one tightly down to the ground, then spinning one around by grabbing both feet like a person whirling.

13. Rolled‑Up Palliasse is crushing down the bone into powder with millstones (without tearing off flesh and tendons), seizing hair, folding up flesh, skin and bone together in one mass, then lifting it up, lowering it down to make a round pile, subsequently placing it down as a foot wiping mat.

14. Splashed with Boiling Oil is stirring up the fiercely boiling oil and pouring it on the body from the head down until death.

15. Thrown to Be Devoured by Dogs is confining the ferocious dogs, starving them to the fullest extent for several days then letting them out to devour the flesh and skin to the remains of skeleton.

(Reference: MN 130)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares details of the pain and agony experienced by one who has unwholesome conduct. He explains what is experienced in this life to illustrate the extensive amount of despair and displeasure in the realm of hell.

While any one of us could have previously been in the realm of hell, we can appreciate that we are now in the human realm with the opportunity to improve our life practice ensuring this will be our last life with no further rebirths in any realm within The Cycle of Rebirth.