The Unwise Person’s Unhappy Destination

Suppose a man threw into the sea a ring with one hole in it, and the east wind carried it to the west, and the west wind carried it to the east, and the north wind carried it to the south, and the south wind carried it to the north.

Suppose there were a blind turtle that came up once at the end of each century.

What do you think, Monks? Would that blind turtle put his neck into that ring with one hole in it?

‘He might, Venerable Sir, sometime or other at the end of a long period.’

Monks, the blind turtle would sooner put his neck into that ring with a single hole in it then an unwise person, once gone to hell, would take to regain the human state, I say. Why is that?

Because there is no practicing of The Teachings there, no practicing of what is righteous, no doing of what is wholesome, no performance of merit. There mutual devouring prevails, and the slaughter of the weak.

If, sometime or other, at the end of a long period, that unwise person comes back to the human state, it is into a low family that he is reborn — into a family of outcasts or hunters or bamboo‑workers or cartwrights or scavengers — one that is poor with little to eat and drink, surviving with difficulty, where he scarcely finds food and clothing; and he is ugly, unsightly, and misshapen, sickly, blind, cripple‑handed, lame, or paralyzed; he gets no food, drink, clothes, vehicles, garlands, scents and ointments, bed, lodging, and light; he misconducts himself in body, speech, and mind, and having done that, on the dissolution of the body, after death, he reappears in a state without basic necessities, in an unhappy destination, in suffering, even in hell.

Monks, suppose a gambler at the very first unlucky throw loses his child and his wife and all his property and furthermore goes into bondage himself, yet an unlucky throw such as that is negligible; it is a far more unlucky throw when an unwise person who misconducts himself in body, speech, and mind, on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappears in a state without basic necessities, in an unhappy destination, in suffering, even in hell. This is the complete perfection of the unwise person’s condition.

(Reference: MN 129)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares how it is more likely for a blind sea turtle to place its neck into a ring floating on the surface of the sea than for a being in hell to regain the human state.

The being in hell would be able to regain the human state at some point in the future but, the length of time in the lower realms is extensive. Being in the lower realms of hell and the animal realm is like being trapped in a prison where it is extremely difficult to experience a human rebirth.

All human beings who are alive today have, at some point in the past, been countless beings in the past. Many of those existences where in the animal realm. It took countless rebirths in the lower realms to get into the human realm, thus, one should appreciate their life in this human realm, and not allow it to go to waste. Instead, through actively developing the mind one can ensure that this life becomes more peaceful and there is no future existences in The Cycle of Rebirth.