Buddhist Hell and reincarnation

By Emily Breder, Buddhism Examiner, October 26, 2009

<< Chinese shadow play figure of Buddhist Hell - the Punishment of Belly Smashing
Set of the Mandschu Prince; Qing Dynasty, Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach (Germany)
Photographer: Dr. Meierhofer

Hell to Buddhists is quite different than other religions, excepting some of Hinduism. First one needs to understand their view on death. A measurable principle of the universe, the law of conservation of energy, shows us how matter and energy are interchangeable but nothing is lost in the conversion. Likewise, impermanence is one of the three Foundations of Buddhist enlightenment. "Everything changes, nothing stays the same..." It is a short step to understanding that Buddhists don't believe the when we die, we're worm food and that's it. There are six "states of existence" which seem to be universally agreed upon, amongst the amazing variety of cultural interpretations.

Your state of existence is determined by how much merit you have acquired. A good allagory for this might be to consider a wind that propels a sailboat in a particular direction and the better you are at sailing, the stronger the wind gets. An unfavorable wind can wreck you on the rocky shoals all around. 'Merit' is a favorable wind. The people you have in the boat with you can affect the way your wind blows by associated karma. The process in this and all realms is to get good at living. In our realm, for instance, the goal is to get good at being human. At some point, one transcends the boat, the ocean, the wind and is out of the whirlwind cycle of existence and suffering (Samsara).

The first is the Heavenly Realm, which is a place with no suffering which is populated with Deva and Devi, higher beings whom have accrued enough merit to be born in a better place. This is not an eternal heaven, however. A day in this place lasts by some accounts more than 10,000 human years, making for a very long life. At some point, the acquired good merit is used up and the being is born in a lower realm. Since there is no trouble here, one does not grow and there are no good deeds to be done. It's a nice place, but not to be desired as it is only a delay to the process of enlightenment.

Next comes the Human Realm. This is considered the best realm to be born into, because there is enough strife for one to create a sizeable amount of good merit for oneself, especially by helping others who are still 'living asleep', but there is not so much suffering that one cannot help but be overwhelmed. If you consider how most people live without noticing the world around them, lost in their thoughts and delving into our culture of distraction, the meaning of 'living asleep' becomes clear. The word 'Buddha' means "one who is awake". A human birth contains multitude of opportunities, and as such is considered rare and precious. It is far mor difficult to acquire merit in the lower realms, as you will see.

The third 'Asura' Realm is that of beings who are obsessed with greed and are in a constant state of struggle and conflict. While this is taken somewhat literally, some believe that this 'state of existence' would be like that of a human who is so immersed in a life of drugs, crime, hate or desire that there is no possibility of recovery in this lifetime. Though higher reasoning is possible in this realm, it is easy to be consumed with desire and hatred in this world. An example might be a serial killer or drug lord who lives off the suffering of others, but some culture think of this as demons who are at odds with the Deva and Devi in the Heavenly realm, of whom they are intensely jealous.

The fourth realm is the Animal Realm. Since these creatures have lower intelligence and a limited awareness and memory, acquistion of merit is particularly difficult for them. Part of the reason why so many Buddhists are vegetarians is that when you consider the number of creatures there are- animals, insects, bacteria, etc.- and multiply that time the number of creatures of each variety that have ever lived or died throughout history, every being has probably been related at some point. The law of average agrees that, when you compare the number of humans alive now to the amount of creatures that ever lived, we are all much closer than we realize. Every stranger could have been your mother, son, cousin, or lover at some point in the animal realm. As difficult as it is to be born, the sheer number of rebirths that one can conceive of just to acquire a single human rebirth awakens an enormous compassion for the little time alotted for an animal or human life, so we spare and help the lower creatures when we can.

The fifth realm, the 'Preta' realm, is the famed home of the 'hungry ghosts'. The beings here are so consumed by desire that they can never be sated. Tibetan pictures depict these beings as having huge caverous bellies that gnaw with hunger and thirst, but their throats are so thin that a single drop of water couldn't trickle down. Their are in a constant state of victimhood and torment. Another version is of a huge banquet table covered with delicious food, but the only way to eat is with chopsticks six feet long. With this second version it can be reflected that the people seated across from each other could feed each other if they would only wake up to each other's needs.

The sixth and last realm is the Naraka realm, which bears a striking resemblance to the monotheistic 'Hell' in that the beings that exist here are suffering the worst fates imaginable. There are considered to be hell-spots here on Earth, in places where life and limb are constantly under threat and by people who are enslaved, tortured, and living in an unimaginably painful state. Like the other realms, however, this is not an 'eternal damnation' but like a prison sentence, which one can transcend once their bad karma is used up and move into another state of existence- as with the sailboat allagory, the storm can't last forever.

The Dalai Lama says that he gets a great deal of comfort from the idea of having limitless lives stretching over the aeons. The amount of suffering and pain one endures during this time is unimaginable, but in a state of mind beyond time and unconscious behavior one can rise above these trails an realize the perfect enlightenment of 'Nirvana'.

 

 

 

 

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