Do you believe in HELL???

[DS Star]

Now, does HELL really exist?

Khenpo Karthar, abbot of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, has said that "From the Buddhist perspective, such a thing as a hell does not exist in absolute reality."  Nevertheless, he continues, alluding to the law of karma,  "As long as we have serious patterns of aggression,  no matter how strongly we might like to believe there is not such a realm or psychological state, we will still experience it because we have the cause for the consequences."   

The English word hell is derived from the name of a northern European goddess of the underworld whose name Hel means The one who covers [things] up. 

There is some reference in the Old Testament to a hideous place called Gehennah [>Hebrew: gehenom] but scholars generally believe that the idea of a hell did not make its way from Asia to Europe until early in the second millennium, as a cultural consequence of the Crusades.  It was not until Milton's Paradise Lost with its description of Satan and Pandemonium, and Dante's poem called The Inferno,  that the idea of a fiery place smelling of noxious brimstone [sulphur] entered the consciousness of the West. 

Ironically, it is the Western word hell that is now generally used, even in eastern traditions, to refer to the destination where, after death, a wrong-doer is punished.  For example, paper money burnt as an offering to the dead is called Hell money even by Chinese Buddhists.

Buddhist scriptures describe in detail about hells. In Vajrayana there HOT HELLS and COLD HELLS.

So, do you believe in the existence of HELL(s)?

[Jessie Fong]

If hell is generally described as a suffering realm, are we not already in hell, given that we are in samsara? If that is so, then hell does exist, does it not?



From : http://www.crystalinks.com/hell.html

Most of the schools of thought, Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana would acknowledge several hells, which are places of great suffering for those who commit evil actions, such as cold hells and hot hells. Like all the different realms within cyclic existence, an existence in hell is temporary for its inhabitants. Those with sufficiently negative karma are reborn there, where they stay until their specific negative karma has been used up, at which point they are reborn in another realm, such as that of humans, of hungry ghosts, of animals, of asuras, of devas, or of Naraka (Hell) all according to the individual's karma.

There are a number of modern Buddhists, especially among Western schools, who believe that hell is but a state of mind. In a sense, a bad day at work could be hell, and a great day at work could be heaven.

[Tenzin K]

The Buddhist Concept of Heaven and Hell  

The wise man makes his own heaven while the foolish man creates his own hell here and hereafter.The Buddhist concept of heaven and hell is entirely different from that in other religions. Buddhists do not accept that these places are eternal. It is unreasonable to condemn a man to eternal hell for his human weakness but quite reasonable to give him every chance to develop himself. From the Buddhist point of view, those who go to hell can work themselves upward by making use of the merit that they had acquired previously. There are no locks on the gates of hell. Hell is a temporary place and there is no reason for those beings to suffer there forever.The Buddha's Teaching shows us that there are heavens and hells not only beyond this world, but in this very world itself. Thus the Buddhist conception of heaven and hell is very reasonable. For instance, the Buddha once said, 'When the average ignorant person makes an assertion to the effect that there is a Hell (patala) under the ocean he is making a statement which is false and without basis. The word 'Hell' is a term for painful sensations. 'The idea of one particular ready-made place or a place created by god as heaven and hell is not acceptable to the Buddhist concept.The fire of hell in this world is hotter than that of the hell in the world-beyond. There is no fire equal to anger, lust or greed and ignorance. According to the Buddha, we are burning from eleven kinds of physical pain and mental agony: lust, hatred, illusion sickness, decay, death, worry, lamentation, pain(physical and mental), melancholy and grief. People can burn the entire world with some of these fires of mental discord. From a Buddhist point of view, the easiest way to define hell and heaven is that where ever there is more suffering, either in this world or any other plane, that place is a hell to those who suffer. And where there is more pleasure or happiness, either in this world or any other worldly existence, that place is a heaven to those who enjoy their worldly life in that particular place.
However, as the human realm is a mixture of both pain and happiness, human beings experience both pain and happiness and will be able to realize the real nature of life. But in many other planes of existence inhabitants have less chance for this realization. In certain places there is more suffering than pleasure while in some other places there is more pleasure than suffering.

Buddhists believe that after death rebirth can take place in any one of a number of possible existences. This future existence is conditioned by the last thought-moment a person experiences at the point of death. This last thought which determines the next existence results from the past actions of a man either in this life or before that. Hence, if the predominant thought reflects meritorious action, then he will find his future existence in a happy state. But that state is temporary and when it is exhausted a new life must begin all over again, determined by another dominating 'kammic' energy. This repetitious process goes on endlessly unless one arrives at 'Right View' and makes a firm resolve to follow the Noble Path which produces the ultimate happiness of Nibbana.

Heaven is a temporary place where those who have done good deeds experience more sensual pleasures for a longer period. Hell is another temporary place where those evil doers experience more physical and mental suffering. It is not justifiable to believe that such places are permanent. There is no god behind the scene of heaven and hell. Each and every person experiences according to his good and bad kamma. Buddhist never try to introduce Buddhism by frightening people through hell-fire or enticing people by pointing to paradise. Their main idea is character building and mental training. Buddhists can practise their religion without aiming at heaven or without developing fear of hell.

[dslucky]

Why not? If we believe in Heaven, shouldnt there also be a hell or hells?

This is the common practice of us human beings. We are too ignorant to acknowledge the existence of negativity. Everything has to work in our way and if it doesn't then it don't 'exist'. I think this is very bad for us because as we do so, we are only accumulating more and more negative karma which will eventually drag us to the place we do not believe in, HELL!

I choose to believe in it so that I fear it to not want to go there!

[RedLantern]

There is no individual soul that exists after death-either we reach Nirvana or we are reincarnated in another life form.What we are reincarnated as depends on our karma and actions in our previous life.
Buddhist believe in reincarnation,which means we will keep going through through this life over and over again until reach Enlightenment (a state of mind when we are completely peaceful and in harmony with the world around you) We will be incarnated suiting how we treated others before.When we reach Enlightenment
we will go to Nirvana,
So there is a hell realm where sinful beings are been born and suffer, and the heaven realm where meritable beings are born.

[Dolce Vita]

If the definition of Hell is sufferings, I do believe there is Hell. But it is not God who decides if we are going to hell, but our karmas. In fact, we can also find Hells in where we are living in, the human realm.

Some people suffer from famine, some countries are constantly in war, these are manifestations of Hell in human realm. If in human realm it is such a suffering, I cannot imagine in the real Hell how had it can be.

Knowing our destination is determined by our own actions now, I better be a good person, I don't want to end up in Hell!!

[DSFriend]

What I think is that it is important to know if hell exists or not...or any of the 6 realms. So we know for sure that the human realm exists, the animal realm exists, but many of us cannot see the other realms, but all of us experiences pain and happiness just the same. Some experiences prolonged pain and very short lived happiness. To me, that is enough to look for an answer out of these miseries. If believing in hell and knowing the extreme sufferings makes me a better person, then believing it is a good thing... at least it will make a person to be a better person.

[apprenticehealer]

Most of us have been bought up believing in the existence of Heaven and Hell. In most of the mainstream religions, the same belief exists.

I believe that Heaven and Hell exist in our own state of mind .
One can be in the most 'perfect' environment and situation, but if one's mind is in turmoil and has no peace, is depressed and in utter despair, the person is 'in hell'.
If another person who has absolutely nothing in his name or has no possessions at all, living in the most squalid of conditions but has peace and happiness within him and is content with life, he can say he's 'in heaven'.

But mostly, it depends on one's karma. Whether we have the karma to live our lives in happiness (heaven) or live our lives miserably (hell). We are the ones who can only change our karma and our mindset.

[Big Uncle]

I would like to go on the comparison of the concept of the Buddhist hell and the Christian hell. The Buddhist concept of hell is very different from Judeo-Christian beliefs for the sole fact that hell like any other realms is subject to karma and impermanence. Unlike the Judeo-Christian belief that hell is eternal, the Buddhist hell is impermanent and we can emerge from it and take rebirth in higher realms once our karma is finished.

In the Buddhist hell, we receive the same sort of sufferings based upon the sufferings we had inflicted upon others in previous lives. In the Christian hell, we go there based upon transgressions against the will of god and a host of other negative actions so god is punishing us for our transgressions. I do belief that such a realm do exist because the Buddha and many great beings tell us so. However, in Buddhism, the Buddha specifically taught of how one can create the causes to descend into hell and that is through anger. Every moment of anger creates a cause towards taking rebirth there. That's as far as I know of hells for now.

[dondrup]

Hell realm is one of the six realms of existence in samsara according to Buddhism.  Hell realm exists and it is a state of the mind.  When sentient beings create the right cause, they will take rebirth as hell beings in the hell realm when they die.  Even before they die, humans experience life of a hell being.  Humans who are constantly in the state of anger are experiencing the hell realm all the time!  There are humans who live in extreme weather conditions like in the desert, or the Artic and Antartica.  These living conditions are similar to the hot and cold hells! 

[Q]

We must understand that the Buddhist concept of hell and heaven is totally different from other religions. Buddhist do not accept these places as eternal, it is just a temporary place.

Buddha also taught that hell do not have to be beyond of this world. The Buddha once said: When the average ignorant person makes an assertion to the effect that there is a Hell (patala) under the ocean he is making a statement which is false and without basis. The word 'Hell' is a term for painful sensations. 'The idea of one particular ready-made place or a place created by god as heaven and hell is not acceptable to the Buddhist concept.

The fire of hell in this world is hotter than that of the hell in the world-beyond. There is no fire equal to anger, lust or greed and ignorance. According to the Buddha, we are burning from eleven kinds of physical pain and mental agony: lust, hatred, illusion sickness, decay, death, worry, lamentation, pain(physical and mental), melancholy and grief. People can burn the entire world with some of these fires of mental discord. From a Buddhist point of view, the easiest way to define hell and heaven is that where ever there is more suffering, either in this world or any other plane, that place is a hell to those who suffer. And where there is more pleasure or happiness, either in this world or any other worldly existence, that place is a heaven to those who enjoy their worldly life in that particular place.

However, as the human realm is a mixture of both pain and happiness, human beings experience both pain and happiness and will be able to realize the real nature of life. But in many other planes of existence inhabitants have less chance for this realization. In certain places there is more suffering than pleasure while in some other places there is more pleasure than suffering.

Buddhists believe that after death rebirth can take place in any one of a number of possible existences. This future existence is conditioned by the last thought-moment a person experiences at the point of death. This last thought which determines the next existence results from the past actions of a man either in this life or before that. Hence, if the predominant thought reflects meritorious action, then he will find his future existence in a happy state. But that state is temporary and when it is exhausted a new life must begin all over again, determined by another dominating 'kammic' energy. This repetitious process goes on endlessly unless one arrives at 'Right View' and makes a firm resolve to follow the Noble Path which produces the ultimate happiness.

[psylotripitaka]

I would like to direct everyone to the section of Joyful Path of Good Fortune entitled 'Gaining Conviction that Hell Exists'. We can also find such commentary in other Lamrim texts such as the Lamrim Chenmo and Je Pabonkhapa's commentaries on Lamrim.

There is this one line in Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche's text that I've always found very clever. He says:

"We should ask anyone who believes in the non-existence of hell to present a perfect method for realizing it's non-existence. It would be wonderful if they could do this. Unfortunately no such method exists - but there are many correct reasons that establish the existence of hell."

Hell is both an external place and a state of consciousness. To say something exists 'externally' does not necessarily imply external from mind. The environment around us appears to be external from our mind but it is inside our mind. This is even proved by scientists! Nonetheless, we can say something is 'external' in order to speak conventionally - 'the outside of the body is external to the inside which is internal' and so forth. The hells are external places that are appearing inside the mind of hell beings but appearing to their mind to be outside their mind just as our world appears to be outside our mind.

Yes, hell exists. Buddha explained it extensively and even told anecdotes about going there, and he is not the only one to have done so. If we gained deep conviction in the existence of the hells and how they are achieved, we would be very different people indeed, much more careful about our actions for sure!

[diablo1974]

I believe in hell, but if its a physical hell in the chinese folklore i do not know. I heard from some senior buddhist friends that heaven and hell are created base on our disposition and attachments. In the moment of death, if we are still clinging on to anger and attachment and these are causes to be reborn in the lower realms of existence. We are most likely to be reborn in the lower realms. That's one explanation on how we cause ourselves to be reborn in the lower realms.

[buddhalovely]

The Buddhist texts states that there are thirty one planes or states of existence in the universe, including that of humans. Beings are born into a particular plane depending of their accumulated kamma.

Below the human plane are four planes (Asura,Peta,Thiracchana and Niraya) which are described as unhappy states of existence. Beings are born into these states as a result of their unwholesome kamma. Excessive greed and attachment to worldly belongings may cause re-birth in the Peta plane and be drawn to the place of attachment.

Above the human plane are the Deva and Brahma planes. As the level of plane becomes higher, more subtle is the state of existence and longer is the life span.

The Devas have physical forms which are composed of more subtle material than that in the human plane. They possess physical senses as in humans and enjoy a life of great pleasure. They may also possess supernormal powers.

The Brahma planes are described as form and formless states. In the formless states, the beings are devoid of any material bodies. They transcends all physical sensations and exist in a state of equanimity.
Beings in these higher planes are described as celestial beings and their life span is said to last billions of years relative to earthly life.
It may well be that so called 'gods' are such beings.

Even though the life-spans in these higher planes of existence last millions of years relative to earth, they eventually come to an end, since the existence in all these planes are conditioned: that is, the laws of cause and effect operate, and all conditioned things are impermanent.

[Big Uncle]

I would like to direct everyone to the section of Joyful Path of Good Fortune entitled 'Gaining Conviction that Hell Exists'. We can also find such commentary in other Lamrim texts such as the Lamrim Chenmo and Je Pabonkhapa's commentaries on Lamrim.

There is this one line in Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche's text that I've always found very clever. He says:

"We should ask anyone who believes in the non-existence of hell to present a perfect method for realizing it's non-existence. It would be wonderful if they could do this. Unfortunately no such method exists - but there are many correct reasons that establish the existence of hell."

Hell is both an external place and a state of consciousness. To say something exists 'externally' does not necessarily imply external from mind. The environment around us appears to be external from our mind but it is inside our mind. This is even proved by scientists! Nonetheless, we can say something is 'external' in order to speak conventionally - 'the outside of the body is external to the inside which is internal' and so forth. The hells are external places that are appearing inside the mind of hell beings but appearing to their mind to be outside their mind just as our world appears to be outside our mind.

Yes, hell exists. Buddha explained it extensively and even told anecdotes about going there, and he is not the only one to have done so. If we gained deep conviction in the existence of the hells and how they are achieved, we would be very different people indeed, much more careful about our actions for sure!

You hit on a very good point there psylotripitaka. I like what you said about proving the non-existence of hell. I would like to add that just because we cannot perceive Hell, doesn't mean it does not exist. This is just like the fact that just because we cannot see atoms doesn't mean that it does not exist. I like that line of logical thought very much. This is put together with what you said about the existence of hell in our minds.

I personal think mental suffering for most people is far greater than physical suffering. With the right perspective, physical suffering can be transformed into joyous perseverance. I have heard of monks who endured torture in the Chinese gulags that transformed their physical suffering into spiritual practice. Every day, this monk said he visualized all the sufferings that he had to endure is him enduring all the negative karma of Gaden, Sera and Drepung. He experienced horrendous torture but emerged looking bright, alert and even cheerful. This is no a small achievement as many who emerge out of such torture mentally scarred but this monk showed no traces. It is amazing! It is amazing how applying the teachings can actually transform our personal hells into a spiritual path.